Tutor Terms

Welcome. These are the terms on which you can use Fonetic English (FE) in your teaching. We have kept them short on purpose. For the full detail of our professional standards see the Tutor Code of Conduct, which is linked below and which sits alongside these Terms.

What we offer you

Free access to the Fonetic English system to use with your students. Your first 30 days are free with no conditions. After that, free access continues while you have at least one active FE subscriber attributed to you through your referral code or link.
Comprehensive tutor onboarding materials — including the Fonetic English Tutor Guide for teaching native English speakers and a separate Tutor Guide for teaching non-native English speakers (ESL). These cover FE’s pedagogical approach, the FE tools, first-session structure, ongoing teaching patterns, and how to identify and close learning gaps.
Recognition as an "FE-enabled" tutor, which you can use in how you describe your practice.
The right to direct your students to subscribe to FE through a referral code or link we provide you.
The opportunity to apply to become a Foundation Partner (see the Foundation Partner page on our website), under a separate arrangement carrying additional benefits.

Two firm commitments to safety

Two commitments lie at the heart of your relationship with FE. They are absolute. They cannot be varied by any agreement with a parent, a student, or anyone else. Breach of either is grounds for immediate termination of your access to FE.

Commitment 1 — No harm

You will not cause harm to any person you are tutoring, or to any other person you come into contact with through the tutoring relationship.

Without limiting the scope of this clause, this includes physical, emotional, psychological, sexual, or financial harm; and it covers siblings and friends of the person being tutored, parents and other family members, household members, and any other person who may be present at or connected to the tutoring relationship.

Commitment 2 — No initiation of contact with a minor outside lessons

If you are tutoring a minor, you will not initiate contact outside scheduled lessons with the minor student you are tutoring, or with anyone else closely connected to that student. Without limiting the scope of this clause, this includes siblings, friends, and other family members of the student.

You may initiate contact with the parent (or another adult the parent has nominated) about scheduling, materials, billing, lesson follow-up, progress, concerns, and other tutoring matters. Routine tutor-to-parent communication of this kind is part of professional tutoring and is not restricted by this commitment.

Without limiting the scope of this clause, the no-initiation rule applies regardless of channel — text, message, email, social media, phone, in person, or through any third party.

What we ask of you

Follow our Tutor Code of Conduct (at [URL]). The Code sets out the professional standards we expect of every tutor. Without limiting the scope of the Code, these include credential requirements, the operational rules that flow from the two commitments above, lesson conduct standards, professional boundaries, and reporting obligations.
Use FE in your teaching in good faith, and direct your students to subscribe through the referral code or link we give you.
Help us improve FE by sharing feedback, responding to surveys, and trying new services and features as we introduce them.
Do not charge your students for FE access. FE subscriptions are sold by us only. You charge your students for tutoring; that is a matter between you and them, and we are not part of it.
Do not create, solicit, or facilitate fake subscriptions to satisfy the 30-day rule. Genuine students, genuine subscriptions.
Represent yourself accurately. You can describe yourself as "FE-enabled." You cannot describe yourself as employed, supervised, or individually endorsed by Fonetic English.
If you will teach anyone under 18 using FE, you must hold a current child-safety background check (a Working With Children Check in Australia, a DBS check in the UK, or the equivalent in your country). You must be willing to show your check to a parent on request, and you must notify us if your check lapses or is revoked.

What we commit to

To provide FE to you at no charge, on the terms above.
To provide you with the Tutor Guides and other onboarding materials you need to use FE effectively.
To give you reasonable notice of material changes to these Terms or the Code — at least 14 days.
If we introduce a licence fee for tutors in future, we will give you at least 90 days’ notice and you can end your relationship with us before the fee takes effect.
To treat tutors consistently. Our rules apply to everyone on the same basis; we do not negotiate individual exceptions.
To keep a small founding group of Foundation Partners, and to consider Foundation Partner applications on their merits. Application is open; acceptance is selective.

Ending or changing the relationship

You can stop at any time with 30 days’ notice.
We can suspend or end your access immediately on grounds including, without limitation, breach of either of the firm commitments above, material breach of the Tutor Code of Conduct, loss of your child-safety background check while teaching minors, or your becoming the subject of a credible safeguarding concern.
We may suspend your access pending investigation of any claim or concern raised about you, whether by a parent, a student, a third party, or us. Suspension under this provision is a precautionary step, not a finding of breach. We will conduct any investigation in a timely way and will inform you of the outcome.
We can suspend your access if we reasonably suspect abuse of the referral system, fake subscriptions, or other bad-faith conduct.
We can end the relationship with 30 days’ notice for any other reason.

The legal small print

These Tutor Terms, together with the Tutor Code of Conduct, are the agreement between you and Fonetic English Pty Ltd (ABN 69 676 819 104, of 2a Mona Rd, Darling Point NSW 2027, Australia). They are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. You are an independent self-employed tutor; nothing here makes you an employee, agent, or partner of Fonetic English. We may update these Terms with reasonable notice; your continued use of FE after an update means you accept it.

Questions: tutors@foneticenglish.com
Safeguarding concerns: safeguarding@foneticenglish.com
Foundation Partner applications: see the Foundation Partner page on our website.

Your acceptance

You accept these Terms by ticking the dedicated acknowledgement at registration, alongside the separate acknowledgements for the Conditions of Use, the Privacy Policy, and the Tutor Code of Conduct. Your acceptance is recorded against the version of this document shown to you at registration.