Our reviews policy

Reviews are by invitation only. We send a private, single-use link to a parent, guardian or adult student we hold a record for. Anyone can ask us for a link, but a review cannot be left from an open form, so we always know who we are checking.

A review is always attached to one named tutor and describes one of three things:

• tutoring arranged through Tutivate;
• tutoring the tutor did privately before joining Tutivate;
• a review originally left on an external platform.

Every published review states which of these it is.

Tutivate has checked that the review relates to a genuine tutoring experience with the named tutor and that permission to publish it has been provided.

It does not mean:

• Verification does not mean Tutivate has independently confirmed every academic outcome described.
• Verification does not guarantee that another student will have the same experience.
• Verification does not mean the tutoring was necessarily arranged through Tutivate.
• Verification does not mean another platform endorses Tutivate.
• A review is one person's opinion, not an objective fact.
• A review is not a guarantee of the quality or safety of future tuition.

We accept these verification methods and record which one was used:

• Tutivate lesson or service record
• Direct confirmation from the parent
• Direct confirmation from a student aged 18 or over
• Parent approval of a child's review
• Previous private-tuition record plus reviewer confirmation
• Original external source plus reviewer confirmation
• Other documented method approved by an administrator

• I confirm that this review reflects a genuine tutoring experience with the named tutor.
• I confirm that the rating and wording are my own and that they are a fair reflection of my experience.
• I give Tutivate permission to publish this review, its star rating and my reviewer description on its website.

As they write, reviewers also see a plain privacy reminder: "Please avoid including a child's full name, contact details or other information that could identify them. Tutivate reviews every submission before publication." It is guidance rather than a checkbox, and every review is checked against it before publication.

We record the exact wording agreed to and the date, so a reviewer can always be told what they consented to. Permission can be withdrawn at any time by contacting us, and the review is then removed from the website.

A student under 18 may write a review, but only when a parent or guardian has read it and approved it first. The student confirms this on the form before submitting, and we record the exact statement shown and the date. A child's review is never attributed to a name.

• Published attribution for a child is limited to a short, non-identifying description generated from their answers, such as "GCSE Chemistry student".
• We ask reviewers not to include a school name, a year group, a tutor's contact details or anything else that could identify a child, and we redact such detail if we find it.
• We do not describe a child's review as independently parent-verified. The recorded confirmation is the reviewer's own statement that a parent or guardian approved the review, and an administrator still checks the review before publication.

The guardian statement we record is: "My parent or guardian has read this review and approved it for submission and possible publication by Tutivate."

A tutor may submit a review from previous private tutoring or an external platform, but a tutor cannot publish anything. We contact the original reviewer to confirm the wording, the rating and permission to republish. If we cannot reach them, or they do not confirm, the review is not published. External reviews are labelled with their original source.

We do not change the meaning of a review, we do not correct its tone, and we do not filter out criticism. A genuine negative review is publishable. The only edits we make are limited corrections - spelling, punctuation, clarity, formatting, or privacy redactions such as removing a name, a school or a contact detail. The reviewer's original wording is always kept unchanged, and every correction is recorded with the reason, the administrator and the date.

A review may be withheld or removed only for one of these recorded reasons:

• Tutoring relationship cannot be verified
• Fabricated or duplicate review
• Missing publication permission
• Undisclosed or inappropriate incentive
• Personal information
• Child-identifying information
• Contact information
• Abusive, discriminatory or unlawful content
• Irrelevant content
• Review of the wrong tutor
• Materially altered review
• External republication not permitted
• Credible safeguarding concern requiring private handling
• Other professionally approved policy reason

A safeguarding concern raised in a review is never published and never discussed publicly. It is handled privately through our safeguarding process.

Tutivate does not pay for reviews and does not offer discounts, gifts or any other benefit in exchange for a positive review. An administrator checks the incentive position before any review is published, and if a review is flagged as possibly incentivised it is not published until we have resolved the position.

If you believe a review is inaccurate, breaches someone's privacy, or should be removed, contact us and we will investigate. Reviewers may withdraw permission at any time.