1. About this policy
Bradfield Tuition is operated by Maria Bradfield and Oliver Bradfield, trading as Bradfield Tuition.
We provide online one-to-one tuition and small-group tutorials to students in the UK, UAE and other countries. Lessons take place through Google Meet, with further communication and learning support provided through WhatsApp, email and the Bradfield Tuition app.
This policy applies to all Bradfield Tuition students. Its child-protection procedures apply specifically to students under 18. If an adult student may be at risk because of care or support needs, we will also respond appropriately and seek specialist advice where necessary.
Maria and Oli currently provide all tuition themselves. We do not currently employ any additional tutors, contractors or volunteers.
2. Our safeguarding commitment
We are committed to providing a safe, respectful and supportive learning environment.
We will:
- Put students’ welfare first.
- Listen to concerns and take them seriously.
- Maintain appropriate professional boundaries.
- Act promptly where a student may need help or protection.
- Recognise that safeguarding concerns can arise online as well as offline.
- Share relevant information where necessary to keep someone safe.
- Never promise complete confidentiality when a student or another person may be at risk.
Maria is responsible for overseeing safeguarding concerns. Oli acts in her absence or where a concern relates to Maria.
Both Maria and Oli:
- Hold Enhanced DBS certificates.
- Subscribe to the DBS Update Service.
- Complete safeguarding training annually.
- Have completed the Department for Education’s Safeguarding in Out-of-School Settings training.
- Keep relevant safeguarding guidance under review.
Before any additional person is permitted to work with students, Bradfield Tuition will complete appropriate suitability checks and ensure that they understand and follow our safeguarding requirements.
3. Raising a concern
Students, parents and carers can raise a concern by:
- Speaking directly to Maria or Oli.
- Contacting us through WhatsApp.
- Sending a message through the Bradfield Tuition app.
- Emailing bradfieldtuition@gmail.com.
A person does not need proof before raising a concern.
Concerns could arise from something a student says, something observed during a lesson, a message, submitted work, behaviour between students or information identified through the Bradfield Tuition app.
Where a concern relates to Maria, it should be raised with Oli. Where it relates to Oli, it should be raised with Maria.
Where a concern relates to both Maria and Oli, or someone does not feel comfortable contacting us, they should contact the relevant external safeguarding authority directly.
If someone is in immediate danger, contact the emergency services where they are physically located. Do not wait for Bradfield Tuition to respond.
4. How we respond
If a student shares something concerning, Maria or Oli will:
- Listen calmly and take the student seriously.
- Reassure them that they were right to speak.
- Avoid asking leading questions or attempting to investigate.
- Explain that the information may need to be shared to keep someone safe.
- Establish whether anyone is in immediate danger.
- Make an accurate written record.
- Seek safeguarding advice or make a referral where appropriate.
Parents or carers will normally be informed unless doing so could increase the risk to someone, interfere with an investigation or conflict with advice from safeguarding authorities.
For students under 18, we collect their full name, age, school, usual city and country of residence, and a parent or carer’s emergency telephone number. Parents should tell us if a student will regularly attend lessons from another country.
Where necessary, we may contact the police, emergency services, the child’s local children’s social-care service or the equivalent authority in the country where the student is located.
5. Communication and professional boundaries
Communication with students must be professional and relevant to tuition, administration or student welfare.
Older students under 18 may communicate directly with Maria or Oli through WhatsApp or email where their parent or carer knows and agrees that direct communication will take place.
Communication must:
- Use known Bradfield Tuition contact details.
- Remain appropriate in tone and content.
- Never use disappearing-message features.
- Never be secretive or deliberately concealed from a parent or carer.
Parents may request access to relevant communications involving their child. Tutor–student messages sent through the Bradfield Tuition app are visible through the parent account.
Maria and Oli maintain professional boundaries with students at all times. They do not connect with under-18 students through personal social-media accounts, and images or recordings of students are used only in accordance with this policy.
6. Online lessons
Bradfield Tuition uses Google Meet for lessons.
- Meeting links are sent privately to the relevant student or group.
- Students must not share lesson links with other people.
- The Google Meet setting ‘Host must join before anyone else’ is used.
- The tutor remains present throughout every lesson.
- Students are not left together in an unsupervised meeting or breakout room.
- Parents know the scheduled lesson times for students under 18.
- Maria and Oli teach from a private and professional environment.
- Unidentified or unexpected participants will not be allowed to remain in a lesson.
Students in small-group tutorials are normally expected to have their cameras on because active discussion and explanation are central to the teaching. A student may keep their camera off where there is a privacy, wellbeing, technical or safeguarding reason.
7. Group-lesson recordings
One-to-one lessons are not recorded.
Group lessons may be recorded so that enrolled students can catch up on missed lessons or revisit the content for revision.
Written agreement is obtained from a parent or carer before an under-18 student joins a recorded group. Recordings may include students’ names, voices, faces, contributions and shared work.
Recordings are:
- Stored securely in Bradfield Tuition’s Google Drive.
- Available only to students and parents enrolled in that group.
- Used only for catch-up and revision.
- Retained for two months and then deleted.
- Protected using restricted access and available Google Drive controls.
- Never used for marketing, training or another purpose without separate permission.
Students and parents must not share, publish, redistribute or screen-record group-lesson recordings or access links.
8. The Bradfield app and AI Tutor
The Bradfield app includes student and parent accounts, tutor messaging, learning information, file uploads and AI Tutor conversations.
AI Tutor conversations are stored and may be reviewed by Maria or Oli. Certain concerning language may generate an app notification for human review.
Automated alerts are an additional safeguard, but they may not identify every genuine concern and may sometimes flag something that is not concerning. No safeguarding decision is made by the AI alone.
The AI Tutor is for academic learning and revision. It is not an emergency service, counselling service or substitute for speaking to a trusted adult.
Students can contact Maria or Oli through the app’s messaging page. Anyone who feels unsafe or believes someone is in immediate danger should tell a trusted adult and contact the appropriate emergency services.
9. Concerns involving Maria or Oli
Any concern that Maria or Oli may have harmed a student, behaved inappropriately towards a child or may be unsuitable to work with children will be taken seriously.
Bradfield Tuition will seek appropriate external advice rather than attempting to investigate a serious allegation privately. Depending on the circumstances, this may involve the police, children’s social care, the relevant Local Authority Designated Officer or the equivalent safeguarding authority where the student is located.
10. Records, confidentiality and review
Safeguarding concerns, decisions and actions will be recorded accurately and stored securely.
Information will be shared only where there is a legitimate safeguarding need. This may include sharing information with parents, schools, social-care services, police, emergency services or another appropriate safeguarding authority.
Consent will be sought where appropriate, but necessary information may be shared without consent where someone may be at risk.
This policy will be reviewed:
- At least annually.
- Following a significant safeguarding concern.
- Before any additional tutors or contractors begin working with students.
- When there is a material change to our online teaching, recording, communication, app or AI systems.
- When relevant safeguarding guidance changes.