Terms of Service & Tutoring Policies

1. Tutoring Services

Tutoring by George provides educational tutoring, academic support and mentorship, primarily in mathematics and the sciences, delivered online or in person in Ontario.

Tutoring is supplemental educational assistance. It is not a substitute for instruction, assessment or advice from the student's school, teacher, educational institution, psychologist, physician, counsellor, therapist or any other licensed professional. Where a student needs professional assessment or care, please consult the appropriate qualified professional.

2. No Guarantee of Results

George will make reasonable efforts to provide high-quality, well-prepared tutoring. However, no particular educational outcome can be guaranteed, including:

• grades or marks
• examination or test results
• admission to any school, course or program
• completion of assignments or coursework
• academic improvement of any degree
• scholarships, awards or funding
• graduation or promotion
• any other specific educational result

Results depend on many factors outside the tutor's control, including attendance, effort, preparation, prior knowledge, classroom instruction, assessment practices and independent practice between sessions.

3. Academic Integrity

Tutoring is intended to teach the student and build their own understanding and skills.

George will not knowingly:

• impersonate a student in any setting, online or in person
• write or complete tests, quizzes or examinations on a student's behalf
• participate in cheating, plagiarism or contract cheating
• circumvent a school's or institution's academic-integrity rules

Help with homework, labs and assignments must remain consistent with legitimate tutoring and with the policies of the student's school or institution. George may decline any request that appears inconsistent with those policies.

4. Respectful Conduct and a Safe Environment

Students, parents/guardians and the tutor are expected to treat each other with respect and courtesy.

The following are not permitted during or in connection with tutoring: harassment, threats, intimidation, discriminatory or abusive language, violence, sexual misconduct, intoxication that prevents safe participation, intentional damage to property, and other unsafe or seriously disruptive behaviour.

George may pause, end or leave a session immediately where he reasonably believes that continuing would be unsafe or inappropriate. Where a session is ended for these reasons, any refund is at George's discretion, subject to applicable law.

Following serious misconduct, George may decline to provide further sessions and may cancel future bookings, refunding amounts paid for sessions that will not take place.

5. Minor Students and Parent/Guardian Responsibility

Many students are under the age of majority in Ontario. The person making the booking (the "booking party") confirms that they are the student's parent or legal guardian, or are authorized by the parent or legal guardian to arrange tutoring for that student, and that the contact details provided reach a responsible adult.

Parents/guardians remain responsible for the student's general care, conduct, transportation and arrangements before and after the scheduled session.

Tutoring is not childcare, babysitting, custodial care, respite care or continuous supervision. George's responsibility is limited to conducting the scheduled tutoring session itself.

For sessions at a student's home, a parent/guardian (or another responsible adult approved by them) should be present at the property, or reachable and nearby, for the duration of the session, and should ensure safe, reasonable access to the agreed working area. George may decline to begin or continue a home session where these expectations are not met.

6. Child Protection

George cannot promise students absolute confidentiality.

Information shared during tutoring may be disclosed where disclosure is required or permitted by applicable law, including where there is an immediate safety concern or where child-protection reporting obligations apply.

Under Ontario law, a person who has reasonable grounds to suspect that a child may be in need of protection must report that suspicion directly to a children's aid society. Nothing in this agreement limits, delays or contracts out of that obligation, and nothing here should be read as an agreement to keep such information confidential.

7. Punctuality

Students should be ready to begin at the scheduled start time, with the necessary materials at hand.

Unless George agrees otherwise in a particular case:

• a student's late arrival does not automatically extend the scheduled end time
• the session may still end at its originally scheduled end time
• lateness does not automatically create a refund or a credit

If George is responsible for significant lateness, he will offer an appropriate adjustment — an extension, a partial credit or another reasonable remedy — at his discretion and in good faith.

8. Cancellation and Rescheduling (Customer)

All timing below is measured against the scheduled session start time in America/Toronto (Eastern Time), which is the time shown on your booking confirmation. This is a business policy and is always subject to any statutory rights that cannot be waived.

More than 24 hours before the scheduled start time:

• you may cancel your booking, and the amount actually paid for that session is refunded to the original payment method through Stripe
• you may instead reschedule to another available time, subject to availability
• refunds are issued to the original payment method only, and the time Stripe and your bank take to post the refund is outside George's control

24 hours or less before the scheduled start time: self-service cancellation and rescheduling are not available, and the booking is ordinarily non-refundable. You may write to hello.tutoringbygeorge@gmail.com to explain exceptional circumstances (for example illness or a family emergency); any exception is considered individually at George's discretion, except where applicable law requires otherwise.

No-show: a customer who does not attend the session and did not cancel is ordinarily not entitled to a refund or credit.

Nothing in this section removes or overrides consumer rights that apply under Ontario or Canadian law.

9. Cancellation by Tutoring by George

If George must cancel a scheduled session — for example due to illness, an emergency or unsafe travel conditions — he will give as much notice as reasonably possible and will offer an alternative time.

If no acceptable rescheduled appointment can be arranged, the amount paid for that session is refunded to the original payment method.

10. In-Person Sessions and Locations

In-person sessions take place at the student's home, at a public library, at a café, or at another public location agreed in advance. The meeting location you select during booking is used to calculate the travel fee, which is shown to you before payment and added to your total.

You are responsible for providing an accurate, safe, lawful and accessible meeting location, and for any venue rules, admission requirements, bookings or purchases that the venue expects.

George may decline to begin, or may end, a session where a location presents a reasonable safety, privacy or suitability concern — for example an unsafe property, an environment in which productive tutoring is not possible, or a venue that will not permit the session.

George is not responsible for the acts or omissions of an independent third-party venue, including closures, capacity limits, noise or changes to its policies.

11. Transportation

Unless separately and explicitly agreed in writing, Tutoring by George does not provide transportation for students and does not transport students in any vehicle.

Parents/guardians are responsible for the student's transportation and for pickup and drop-off arrangements, including arriving at and leaving a public meeting location.

12. Online Sessions

Online sessions rely on third-party technology such as Google Meet, along with your device, software and internet connection.

Temporary outages, device problems, connectivity failures or third-party service interruptions can affect a session. Uninterrupted or error-free service cannot be guaranteed.

If a technical problem materially disrupts a session, please tell George during the session or as soon as possible afterwards. Where the disruption is on George's side, he will extend the session, reschedule the lost time, or provide a partial credit or refund proportionate to the time lost, at his reasonable discretion.

13. Materials and Personal Property

You remain responsible for your own personal property, devices, school materials, textbooks and belongings before, during and after a session.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Tutoring by George is not responsible for loss of or damage to personal property, except where the loss or damage is caused by his negligence or where liability cannot lawfully be excluded.

Practice materials George prepares remain his work; you may use them freely for the student's own learning, but not resell or redistribute them commercially.

14. Health, Accessibility and Special Requirements

Please tell George, before the session where possible, about any accommodation, learning need, allergy, accessibility requirement or other circumstance that is reasonably necessary for the session to run safely and effectively.

Only information that is reasonably necessary for that purpose is requested; detailed medical or diagnostic documentation is not required and should not be sent.

Tutoring by George does not provide medical, psychiatric, psychological, behavioural-therapy, counselling or crisis-management services.

15. Emergencies

Tutoring by George is not an emergency service and cannot be relied on for urgent assistance.

If there is an immediate risk to health or safety during a session, George may contact emergency services and, where possible, the parent/guardian contact provided with the booking. In an emergency, always call 911 directly.

16. Privacy Notice

Tutoring by George collects only the information reasonably needed to schedule, deliver, bill for and keep records of tutoring, namely:

• names of the student and the parent/guardian or booking party
• email addresses and phone numbers
• student educational information such as grade, subject, topic and session focus
• booking history, session notes and scheduling records
• materials you upload for a session
• the meeting address and travel distance for in-person appointments
• transaction and payment metadata, such as amount, currency, payment status and Stripe identifiers
• records of your acceptance of these terms, including the version accepted and the date and time of acceptance

Payment-card data is handled entirely by Stripe. Tutoring by George does not receive or store full card numbers.

Information is shared with service providers only as needed to deliver the service: Stripe (payments and refunds), Google Calendar and Google Meet (scheduling and online sessions), Google Maps/Places (address selection and travel-distance calculation), and the hosting and database services that run this website. These providers process information under their own terms and policies.

Information is kept only as long as reasonably necessary for tutoring, accounting, tax and legal purposes, and is protected with reasonable security measures, including access controls and encrypted transmission. Uploaded materials are stored privately and are not publicly accessible.

Student and family information is never sold, and is not used for marketing without separate consent.

To ask about privacy, request access to your information, or ask for a correction or deletion, write to hello.tutoringbygeorge@gmail.com.

17. Photos and Recordings

Tutoring sessions are not photographed, video-recorded or audio-recorded as a matter of course, and are not recorded for marketing purposes.

Any use of a student's image, voice, work, testimonial or a session recording requires separate, specific and clearly presented consent at the time. That consent is not part of this agreement and is not a condition of booking tutoring.

Please do not record a session without George's agreement, and George will not record a session without the parent/guardian's agreement.

18. Liability and Ordinary Risks

Tutoring, like most everyday activities, carries ordinary risks. In-person sessions involve travel to and presence at a home, library, café or other public location, and the ordinary risks of being in those places. Online sessions involve the ordinary risks of using consumer technology and the internet. By booking, you acknowledge these ordinary, everyday risks.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Tutoring by George is not liable for indirect, incidental or consequential losses, or for academic outcomes, and his total liability arising out of or connected with a session is limited to the amount you paid for that session.

Nothing in this agreement excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or under mandatory consumer-protection legislation. This agreement does not purport to waive any right of a minor that a parent or guardian cannot lawfully waive on that minor's behalf.

If any provision of this agreement is found to be unenforceable, that provision applies to the greatest extent permitted by law, or is severed, and the remaining provisions continue in full force.

19. Third-Party Services

This service uses Stripe, Google Calendar, Google Meet, Google Maps and other third-party platforms. Those platforms are operated independently, are governed by their own terms and privacy policies, and may occasionally change, be unavailable or experience interruptions.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Tutoring by George is not responsible for the acts, omissions or outages of those third parties, but will work with you in good faith to reschedule or otherwise remedy a session affected by them.

20. Governing Law

This agreement is governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the laws of Canada applicable in Ontario, and the courts of Ontario have jurisdiction over disputes arising from it.

This is subject to any mandatory consumer-protection rights and jurisdictional requirements that apply to you and cannot be varied by agreement.

21. Contact

Tutoring by George — Milton, Ontario, Canada.

Questions, cancellation requests, privacy requests and everything else: hello.tutoringbygeorge@gmail.com.

George aims to respond to messages within two business days.