Terms and conditions for a language school

A language school takes money up front, teaches in blocks and then gets asked for refunds. Your terms need to deal with enrolment fees, missed lessons, withdrawal partway through a course, employers who pay for someone else's tuition, and parents enrolling teenagers. I draft a full set of customer terms around how your school actually runs, for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Language schools, academies and tuition providers in England and Wales teaching English or other languages, in person, online or both, whether you run group courses, one-to-one tuition, exam preparation or corporate training. Most schools sell to consumers, adult students and parents, and also to employers and agencies. The law treats those two groups very differently, so the terms have to handle both.

What matters in a language school's terms

Enrolment fees and the price the student actually sees

A course price is rarely the whole cost. Registration fees, course books, exam entry, certificate fees and placement tests get added later, and under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 a price shown to consumers must include all mandatory charges, with drip pricing now something the Competition and Markets Authority can enforce directly. Your terms should set out what the course fee buys: contact hours, the class size you are promising, materials, and what is charged separately and when. The Provision of Services Regulations 2009 also require you to make your terms and trading details available.

Prepaid fees, withdrawal and refunds

Most schools take a term or a block in advance, and most disputes are about what happens when the student stops coming: a move to another city, a change of mind in week three, a course that turned out to be the wrong level. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats keeping a consumer's prepayment on cancellation, with no matching obligation on you, as a term that may be unfair and so not binding. A policy that separates withdrawal before the start, withdrawal partway through and simple non-attendance, and reflects costs you have genuinely committed to, is far more likely to hold.

Enrolling online or by email: the fourteen-day right

Where a student enrols through your website, by email or over the phone, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give them fourteen days to cancel from the date of the contract, whether or not lessons have started. If teaching begins inside that period only at the student's express request and the student then cancels, they pay a proportionate amount for what they received; without that request they pay nothing at all. Missing cancellation information extends the period by up to a year. Your enrolment form and your terms have to work together on this.

Missed lessons, credit expiry and rescheduling

One-to-one tuition lives or dies on the no-show rule. The terms should state a notice period for rescheduling, what happens to a lesson cancelled inside it, and whether a missed group class can be made up at all. Expiring credits are what students argue hardest about: an expiry tied to a defined course period and set out prominently is defensible, while open-ended forfeiture against a consumer risks falling foul of the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Say what happens when you are the one cancelling, whether that is a substitute teacher, a rescheduled class or a credit.

Corporate courses and sponsors who pay

Business English and corporate training work differently. The employer or agency pays, the learner attends, and when the learner drops out the payer wants the money back. The terms need to name the contracting party, deal with purchase order numbers and invoicing, and say whether fees remain payable when a delegate is withdrawn or substituted. For business customers you can claim interest and fixed compensation on late payment under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, and a sensible liability cap with consequential loss excluded will get you through a procurement review at a larger client.

Under-eighteens, teacher changes and what you do not promise

A parent enrolling a teenager is your customer even though the child is the student, so the terms should name the parent as the person liable for fees and for behaviour, attendance and collection arrangements. State plainly what you do not guarantee: an exam grade, a level reached by a given date, or a named teacher for the whole course. Reserve the right to combine classes that do not reach a minimum number, to substitute teachers and to move delivery online, but a variation right that is wholly one-sided is the sort of term the Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats as unfair.

What it costs

Customer or supplier terms and conditions, £995. One set of terms, customer-facing or supplier-facing, drafted around your business. Five working days.

Review of your existing terms, £495. You already have terms and want to know how much of a problem they are. Returned marked up with my amendments and an explanation of the changes. Three working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the terms and conditions drafting page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A full set of terms drafted around your business, not a template with your name inserted
• A covering note in plain English explaining every commercial choice I made and why, so you can defend the terms in a negotiation without ringing me
• Liability, payment, termination and IP provisions set at a level that will survive a procurement review
• Consumer-facing wording drafted to be enforceable where you sell to consumers
• Guidance on how to incorporate the terms properly, which is where most businesses actually fail
• One round of amendments after you have read them

What is not included

• Negotiating your terms with individual customers
• Sector-specific regulatory compliance beyond the contract terms themselves
• Website privacy notice and cookie compliance, which I quote separately
• Terms governed by the law of another country

Questions I am often asked

Can I keep the deposit if a student withdraws before the course starts?

You can keep a proportionate amount reflecting the place you held and the costs you committed to, provided the terms say so clearly before enrolment. A deposit forfeited in full whatever the timing is the kind of default charge a consumer can challenge. A tiered position, set by how close to the start date the student withdraws, is much safer.

What should the terms say if a student cannot take up their place from overseas?

That is a commercial decision better made in advance than under pressure at the counter. Many schools refund course fees less an administration charge on proof, and retain accommodation or booking costs already incurred. Whatever you choose, write it into the terms and apply it consistently, because a policy invented case by case is the one that becomes a complaint or a chargeback.

Do I need separate terms for online lessons?

One set can cover both if it is drafted to. Online enrolment brings the distance cancellation rules into play, and the terms need to address connection failures, whether lessons may be recorded, platform access, and what happens when the student's equipment rather than yours is the problem. Course materials and recordings also need a clause confirming they remain yours.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Employment contracts and handbooks, £595
• Consultancy and contractor agreements, £595
• Terms and conditions for a yoga or pilates studio
• Terms and conditions for a personal trainer

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: September 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.