Terms and Conditions

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General Information and Terms and Conditions under which students are accepted for tuition at Sheffield Dyslexia Centre (SDC) (updated Summer 2022)

These terms and conditions are designed to explain the tuition procedure and to minimise the potential for any misunderstanding.

Please contact us if further clarification is required.

Please note we are a small not-for-profit organisation, with no external funding.

SDC Services:

SDC is committed to providing specialist teaching, support and assessment by highly qualified and experienced staff. Information about qualifications, professional memberships and experience are available on the website.
Specialist literacy and/or mathematics teaching and other support will usually be provided on a one hour per week , 1:1 basis. The price is £42 per hour.
Tuition for primary school children is normally delivered within the school day. This is recorded as “educated off-site” on school registers.
Tuition is normally delivered within our Centre, but tuition via Skype is also available where appropriate and dependent on circumstances.

Tuition delivered via Skype is dependent on a suitable environment being provided for the student and a parent/carer may be required to be present for some or all of the lesson. The purchase of some additional resources may be required.
Short courses (e.g. Study Skills for Years 9 plus and English GCSE support) are provided in a small group setting as a one-off non-school day course or weekly after school sessions delivered over one half term.
A range of assessments is available, including diagnostic assessments for children and adults (suitable for University Student DSA purposes) and testing for exam access arrangements (in collaboration with school/college). All assessment reports include recommendations for support.
A diagnostic assessment is not a prerequisite for our specialist teaching.
An initial planning session will normally be required in order to obtain a base-line . This allows for individualised target setting and to ascertain whether SDC teaching is appropriate for the student at that time. This session will usually be charged at 3 x lesson rate. (2 x lesson rate, if a recent diagnostic assessment report is available.)
At the commencement of tuition, a teaching agreement containing targets will be provided to parents/carers/adult students, where appropriate.
Regular SDC lessons are delivered in full weeks, in term-time only. SDC follows Sheffield Schools’ term dates a copy of which is available here.
No refunds or lesson rearrangements are available if your child attends a school with different holiday dates.
Assessment and some tuition is sometimes available during the longer school holidays.
Progress will be monitored carefully and, where appropriate, a report containing results from standardised testing, assessment of achievement of teaching targets and setting of future targets will be provided- in most cases at the end of the school year or on cessation of tuition. Any concerns can be raised with the teacher in person or by email and the teacher will give regular, verbal feedback on the progress of the student.

Tuition Fees & Invoicing

SDC is a small not-for-profit organisation, receives no external funding and cannot afford debt.
Please contact us as soon as possible, if you forsee any difficulties in honouring your invoice.
Delayed and/or staggered payment arrangements are available, but must be agreed before the invoice due date to avoid late charges.
All communication regarding invoicing should be addressed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. not your specialist teacher.
Regular 1:1 tuition, unless agreed otherwise, is offered in full weeks per half-term, coinciding with Sheffield Schools’ term dates (to be found on our website). Please check the dates stated on your invoice to avoid any confusion
Invoices for tuition, containing details of lesson times and dates, will be issued aproximately two weeks before the start of each new half-term. Please note that (unless stated otherwise) payment is due on the first day of the new teaching period- not on the occasion of your first teaching session.
Fees for regular tuition, short courses, one-off sessions (including extra lessons within school holidays) and assessments are payable as invoiced, due before attendance and no refunds can be given for student absences.
Once an invoice is issued, the full amount, as detailed, is due by the date stated.
Any refunds will be applied to the following invoice.
Exception: If it is known to be the last half term of tuition, and sufficient notice is provided, it may be possible to accommodate a refund in the last regular invoice.
Direct bank transfer is the preferred method of payment and bank details are provided on the invoices.
To cover the additional costs incurred, £5.00 will be added to the following invoice for any payment received in cash or by cheque.
The teaching agreement exists as a contract between SDC and the parents/carers/adult students, even if the costs are to be met by a third party. As such, the parents/carers/ adult students remain responsible for the invoice being paid on time.
Prompt payment is very much appreciated. Payments are considered to be late (unless previously agreed) if they do not reach the SDC bank account by the end of the working day, on the due date. Payments received after this create an extra administrative burden.
A charge of £10 will be made for each part, or whole week, following the due date, in which full payment has not been received. This charge will be added to the following invoice and is allotted to the Bursary Fund.

Bursary Fund

A small Bursary Fund exists to help those who would otherwise be unable to access our services. Donations are very gratefully received and can be made to the bank details on your invoice, clearly marked “SDC Bursary Fund”.
We have an easyfunding account to raise money for our Bursary Fund. Many on-line retailers will give a donation for every purchase you make at no cost to you. Please consider signing up for this.
If you would like to help in this way, we would be very grateful. Please follow the link and sign up.
https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/sheffielddyslexiacentre/?invite=U2QCCY&referral-campaign=c2s
Please contact us, via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (not via your specialist teacher) if you woud like to be considered for some assistance through the Bursary Fund.

Missed sessions:

We appreciate that our lessons will occasionally coincide with school trips, family holidays or other events. As a courtesy to your teacher, please give as much notice of absence as possible. However, please note that tuition is booked as a regular slot in the timetable, not a number of individual sessions. Our overheads exist whether or not the lesson is attended. No refunds are payable for student absences and lesson times cannot be rearranged.
(Under exceptional circumstances, an alternative lesson may be offered, if timetables allow.)
Lessons are not normally offered, nor invoiced, for the week of SATs for Year 6 children.
If your lesson has to be cancelled or rearranged by the teacher for any reason, you will be contacted by email as soon as possible. Please ensure that we have up-to-date contact details.
If a lesson is cancelled by your teacher due to their unavailability and cannot be made up at a mutually suitable time, a full refund will be allocated on the following invoice. If this occurs in your last teaching period, ie no further invoices are to be issued, please supply your bank details for the refund. Otherwise, we will assume that you wish this to be donated to our Bursary Fund.
“Acts of God” (including extreme weather): Although all reasonable attempts will be made to provide tuition as normal, if the decision has to be made to temporarily close the centre for events beyond our control, tuition via Skype will be provided. However, if the student cannot attend on-line at their normal lesson time, no refunds will be given.

Cessation of tuition:

In most cases, the teacher will advise the parents/carers/adult student on the appropriate time for tuition to cease and the leaving date will be mutually agreed -usually at the end of a half term period. Please confirm in writing to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..uk to avoid any misunderstanding.
If the decision to terminate lessons is made unilaterally by the parents/carers/adult student, notification is required in writing by letter or email. Any remaining lessons in the half term period will not be refunded. Furthermore, if such notice is given after an invoice has been issued, 2 weeks’ lesson fees to cover a reasonable notice period will be charged.
SDC reserves the right to terminate the lessons of students who are not, in the opinion of the teacher and for whatever reason, a suitable recipient of this tuition.
This will usually only occur after consultation with parents/carers and the student.
A full refund will be given for any remaining lessons.
If termination of tuition is due to the behaviour (considered by SDC to be unacceptable) of the student, or that of their parents/carers, no refund will be given.
Persistent late payment will result in termination of tuition. All outstanding invoices remain payable and will be pursued through the Small Claims Court, if necessary.

Data Handling:

All reports and other written communication, including invoices and receipts, will be sent by standard email.
It is the parents’/carers’ responsibility to ensure we have received a completed Contact Form (available on the website or in the Centre) sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..uk for the beginning of each academic year. This should include an appropriate, up-to-date email address.
If any details change, please ensure we receive an updated Contact Form as soon as possible.
All data held by SDC will be stored securely and used only for the purposes as stated in our Privacy Policy. (A copy is available in our waiting room and on the website.)

Health & Safety:

Please do not attend if you or your child is unwell. If your child (or any accompanying child) is absent from school due to illness, it is not appropriate for them to come into our Centre. With notice, if the child feels well enough and at the teacher’s discretion, the lesson may be delivered via Skype.
If on arrival, or during the lesson, your teacher judges the student to be too unwell to attend, in the best interests of the teacher, other clients and the student themselves, you will be asked to leave. (No refund will be given.)
The parents/carers/student should inform the teacher in writing of any serious health issues prior to the start of lessons. Any significant change in health during the course of tuition must also be communicated in writing.
Fluctuating Covid levels may result in the wearing of face masks being required by all adults (but not your children). This will be determined by the specialist teachers on a daily/ weekly basis. Please ensure you are suitably prepared.

Communication with Parents/ Carers and Schools

Liaison between the child’s school and their SDC teacher is encouraged. However, a charge will be made for any reports (other than routine SDC review reports), letters and lengthy emails/telephone calls to schools, and/or other relevant individuals and organisations and extra learning material provided for use in school. All these services will be charged pro rata at lesson rate -added to your next invoice. In the unusual event of a teacher attending meetings out of the centre, a minimum of 2 hours plus travel costs will be charged.
Training is available for schools. Please ask for further details.
If a parent /carer wishes to discuss a relevant matter with the teacher, this must occur during their lesson time. If additional time is required, and is possible within timetabling constraints, this will attract an additional charge.

Supervision & the Waiting Room

Parents/carers are not normally required to be present during the duration of the lesson but, particularly at the start of tuition, they will be invited in towards the end of the session to observe routines and methods taught, so support can be provided at home with the small amount of homework that is set.
However, tuition on Saturday, or at times when no other adults are in the building, is on the condition that an adult remains on the premises for the duration of the lesson.
Parents/carers are very welcome to use our waiting room. Under normal conditions , hot and cold drinks and a selection of books and toys are provided. Please note that these have been temporarily removed due to Covid and we are discouraging the attendance of younger siblings for the time-being.
SDC cannot be responsible for unattended children before or after lessons. Many other organisations share our building- it is important that your child is handed over to their teacher within our centre and that they are collected. If you are on the premises, please ensure that you accompany your child on visits to the toilet.

Required paperwork:

In the interests of all our students and staff, tuition cannot commence until this document and the Emergency Contact Details form have been signed and returned, preferably via email. However, this may be on the occasion of the first lesson and paper copies are available in the office.
SDC reserves the right to update these terms and conditions as necessary.

2022-2023

I have read, understood and agree to, the terms under which students are accepted for tuition at SDC

(as updated - Summer 2022) :

Name of Student: ____________________________________Date:_________________

Full name of parent/carer /adult student _______________________________________

Signature of parent/carer/adult student ________________________________________

E-mail Address: ____________________________________________________________