English courses terms and conditions

Information on our policies concerning refunds, cancellations and data protection. Please download the files at the bottom of this page for the full refund policies for both young learners and adults.

Terms and conditions for children courses

Registration and course conditions

Registration is on a first come-first served basis. Your place on the recommended course is guaranteed only after full payment of the course fee and subject to available places. Places are limited.

The maximum number of students in a group is:

For courses at our centres:

  • 16 for children of 8 y.o.* up to twelfth grade
  • 16 for children of 6 and 7 y.o.*
  • 12 for children of 4 and 5 y.o.*
  • 10 for children of 3 y.o.*

For online courses:

  • 12 for all online courses for children and teenagers, regardless of level/age

* The student will have turned this age by the beginning of the academic year

We reserve the right to change the number of students in a class in accordance with local or regional regulations and subject to special circumstances.

Some of our Upper Secondary students may be between 18 and 19 years old.

We reserve the rights to change the times and days of your course in case of force majeure and the right to switch from face to face teaching to virtual teaching according to local regulations and restrictions imposed by local or regional circumstances.

We reserve the right to change the course offer (duration, days and times, teacher) when switching to the virtual offer, but will do everything possible to ensure that your child’s course will continue online with the same number of hours, the same teacher and at the same time.

If students miss classes, they will not receive additional classes. Students are not eligible for a refund for missed classes.

British Council students can benefit from a 10% discount on a Cambridge English exam (except for YLE and IELTS exams) whilst studying with us and up to 12 months from the end of their course.

Child protection policy

Child protection policy / Obligations of parents or legal guardians

We believe we have a responsibility towards the children who are attending our courses, including the duty to protect them from all types of abuse. We aim to achieve this through compliance with the child protection laws of the United Kingdom and from each of the countries we operate in, and by adhering to the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

According to our child protection policy, we require all students up to the age of 11 (i.e. age 3 to 10 inclusive) to be collected from our premises at the end of each lesson by an adult. In agreeing to our terms and conditions, you give your permission that students aged 11 years and older can leave the lesson unaccompanied.

We are not responsible for children left unattended on the British Council premises, outside of lesson times.

Intimate care

Due to the nature of our courses, we expect all the early years students to be toilet- independent.

If your child needs support with their intimate care, please make sure you stay on the premises during the lessons, so that you can provide support if necessary. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

The terms and conditions apply for all British Council Young Learner courses, delivered face to face on the physical premises, or virtual teaching through all British Council agreed systems.

Information about British Council services and events

 From time to time, we will contact you with important information about theTeaching Centre’s services and events (course related information, registration times, etc). If your contact details change, please inform customer services. 

Sanctioned banks

The British Council cannot accept payments made from banks (or other financial institutions) sanctioned by the UK or any other relevant jurisdiction. Where the British Council discovers evidence of payment from a sanctioned bank and/or sanctioned financial institution we will freeze all funds related to that payment and will be unable to deliver the service for which the payment was intended. Please therefore ensure that you do not make payments from an account in a sanctioned bank and/or sanctioned financial institution.

The British Council cannot make payments to banks (or other financial institutions) sanctioned by the UK or any other relevant jurisdiction. If you request a refund to be sent to an account at a sanctioned bank and/or sanctioned financial institution, you will be asked to nominate an alternative method of payment that does not breach sanctions. Failure to provide an alternative method of payment will result in non-payment of the relevant funds.

Data protection notice

We apply the UK Data Protection Act - incorporating the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) - to all of our global operations unless the local equivalent law is stronger.

The information that you provide to us when registering for a course will be used for the following purposes:

  • The maintenance of academic and educational records of our students
  • The maintenance of accurate financial records
  • The arrangement of any special needs that our students may have
  • The provision of academic records for our students' sponsors, where applicable
  • Communications related to all the above areas
  • Communications regarding events organised by the Teaching Centre for its students (e.g. Picnics, Winter Fayres or any events organised with British Council partners)
  • Managing student communication channels (e.g. registration on the Primary Plus platform - only applicable to parents of Primary Plus students)
  • The legal basis upon which we will process your registration information is agreement with our Terms and Conditions (necessary for the performance of a contract). We will retain your registration information for 7 years.

Carry out teaching activities which may include: 

  • sharing personal data (student image and voice) during the real time broadcasting of online classes through the British Council learning hub;
  • using student audio or video recordings as academic support;
  • sharing student work (documents, images or recordings) in class for collaborative activities within the British Council Teaching network;
  • data will only be retained for the length of the course.
  • use of the learning hub; 

For quality and training purposes, the phone interview will be recorded. Booking a phone interview serves as your express consent.

By registering for a course you agree to the British Council collecting and processing this information for the purposes specified above, which may involve the transfer of your data to another British Council office.

If you wish to communicate with us about this privacy notice, or any issue relating to information governance or data protection, please contact us at InfoGovernance@britishcouncil.org.

Lost objects

The British Council is not responsible for any personal objects left unattended. Therefore, we recommend that you keep your goods under your supervision at all times.

We also advise parents against encouraging their children into bringing expensive objects to class (tablets, laptops, and others).

Code of conduct

For the codes of conduct for our premises and for those of our partner premises, please access the following links: 

Our students are expected to show respect to their teachers, their classmates, and all other British Council staff. Violent behaviour of any kind will not be tolerated and may lead to the child’s registration being cancelled. 

Last updated on 20 June 2024.

See also