Safeguarding Policy | GuideMyGrades

1 Scope and principles

This policy applies to all GuideMyGrades tutors, founders and anyone else acting on our behalf. It covers every interaction with a student, including live lessons, feedback, email, messaging and any other contact.

We are guided by the principles set out in Keeping Children Safe in Education and Working Together to Safeguard Children. In particular:

• Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. It is not only the job of the person who happens to hold the title.
• The child’s welfare comes first, ahead of our reputation, ahead of a parent’s preference, and ahead of any relationship with a school.
• If in doubt, we act. It is not a tutor’s job to decide whether a concern is serious enough to be real. It is their job to report it.
• We never assume someone else is dealing with it.
• A child’s wishes matter, but we will not promise a child secrecy we cannot keep.

We recognise that our students are taught online, often at home, and that we may be one of the few adults outside their family who sees their work and hears from them regularly. That places a real responsibility on us to notice when something is wrong.

2 Designated Safeguarding Leads

Our two founders, Mr A Hudha and Mr E Hudha, are trained Designated Safeguarding Leads. Mr A Hudha is our Lead DSL and the first point of contact. Mr E Hudha is also a Designated Safeguarding Lead and can act whenever needed.

A DSL receives concerns, decides what action is needed, makes any referral to children’s services or the police, keeps the records, and makes sure every tutor knows what to do. Mark any email for the attention of the Designated Safeguarding Lead and it will reach the safeguarding team.

Because our tutors work across the UK and UAE, at least one DSL is contactable during and shortly after every scheduled teaching session.

3 Safer recruitment

Every person who teaches for GuideMyGrades must, before their first lesson:

• Hold a current Enhanced DBS check, which we see and record.
• Hold Qualified Teacher Status and be an experienced classroom teacher.
• Provide professional references, which we take up directly.
• Have their identity and qualifications verified against original documents.
• Complete safeguarding training and confirm they have read and accepted this policy.
• Teach an interview lesson observed by a founder.

We do not engage unqualified tutors. A DBS check is not an alternative to references and verification. It is one part of a wider safeguarding process.

4 Code of conduct for tutors

These rules are absolute. Breaching them is a disciplinary matter and may end a tutor’s involvement with GuideMyGrades immediately.

That last rule matters for a practical reason as well as an ethical one: it keeps a clear line between a teacher’s paid school role and our service, and it avoids any suggestion that school assessment could be influenced by a private arrangement.

5 Online safety in lessons

• Student cameras and microphones are always off. Students take part in writing through the monitored chat, and no student is excluded, penalised or singled out because their camera and microphone are off.
• Every live lesson is recorded in Google Meet. The recording captures the tutor and shared teaching content only. Student cameras, microphones and the lesson chat are excluded from the published recording, so no child’s face or voice is recorded.
• A parent or guardian consents before payment. Recording consent is a separate required acknowledgement at checkout, before the place is secured. This is separate from optional marketing consent.
• Recordings are shared only with enrolled families. They are stored in GuideMyGrades’ Google Drive and shared view-only, with downloading switched off, with the families enrolled in that class. They are never shared by public link, and they are deleted after 31 August 2027.
• Every recording is checked before publication. A recording containing a student image, student voice or lesson chat is withheld immediately and handled through the safeguarding and data-protection process.
• Meeting links are emailed to the student’s own email address, with a copy in the booking confirmation sent to the parent or guardian. They are never posted publicly, and families are asked not to share them.
• Only invited students join directly. Anyone else must ask to join, and the tutor decides whether to admit them.
• Lessons start and end on time, and the tutor is the last to leave the room.
• A tutor is always present. Students are never left alone together in a session.
• Chat is monitored during the lesson, and inappropriate use is addressed immediately.
• If a lesson is disrupted by anything inappropriate, the tutor ends the session immediately and reports it to a DSL.

We ask parents to make sure their child takes part from an appropriate space in the home, and to be nearby, particularly for younger students.

6 Recognising a concern

We should be straightforward about this. Our lessons are online, student cameras and microphones are always off, and in a short group session students communicate mainly through writing. We will not see or hear what a class teacher sees and hears, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

That is exactly why our threshold for reporting is low. A tutor does not need to be sure that something is wrong. If something gives them pause, they pass it on, and the DSL decides what to do with it.

What we can actually notice

In practice, these are the things that reach us:

• Written work and chat messages. We read every student’s exam practice each week. Sometimes what a student writes has nothing to do with the question.
• What a student writes. Students communicate in the monitored chat and through submitted work, and sometimes a message gives cause for concern.
• A direct disclosure. A student writes something to a tutor in the monitored lesson chat or by approved email.
• Attendance. A student who was reliable stops turning up, or logs in but never engages.
• A change in tone. A student who was chatty goes quiet for weeks, or becomes withdrawn or distressed.
• What a parent tells us when they contact us about something else.

What we are looking out for

Tutors are trained to be alert to the four recognised categories of abuse, which are physical, emotional and sexual abuse, and neglect. They are also alert to wider concerns including exploitation, bullying, online harm and domestic abuse.

We do not expect a tutor to identify which category something falls into. That is the DSL’s job. A tutor’s job is to notice and to say something.

Being realistic about our role

We see each student for a limited period each teaching week, usually between 60 and 80 minutes depending on the programme, without a camera or microphone and alongside other students. We are not the main safeguarding network around any child, and we would never suggest that we are. A student’s school sees them regularly and holds the primary responsibility during the school day.

But we are one more adult who reads their work and written contributions regularly, and occasionally that means we notice something nobody else has. That possibility is worth taking seriously, which is why this policy exists.

7 What we do if there is a concern

Most concerns are small, and most go no further than a written note and a conversation with a parent. The point of having a process is not to escalate everything. It is so that nothing gets forgotten, and so that a tutor never has to decide alone whether something matters.

Talking to parents

We will normally talk to you about a concern involving your child, and usually that is the whole of it. The exception is where telling a parent could put the child at greater risk, or where the concern relates to someone in the household. In those situations we take advice from children’s services before making contact. This is standard practice and it is not a judgement about any individual family.

Students in different places

Our students attend many different schools, and some live outside the UK. The DSL identifies the right authority for that child, whether that is a UK local authority or the relevant service in the UAE, and follows the local reporting route. Both are listed in section 13.

8 If a child discloses something

If a student tells a tutor something that raises a safeguarding concern, the tutor will:

• Listen carefully and calmly, without interrupting
• Take it seriously and not express shock or judgement
• Reassure the student that they were right to speak up
• Not promise confidentiality, instead explaining honestly that they must pass it on to keep them safe
• Not investigate, not press for detail, and not ask leading questions
• Record what was said in the student’s own words, as soon as possible afterwards
• Report to a DSL the same day

Explaining honestly that information may need to be shared is not a betrayal of a child’s trust. Promising secrecy and then breaking that promise would be.

9 Allegations against a tutor

Any allegation that a tutor has behaved in a way that harmed a child, committed an offence against a child, or behaved in a way that suggests they may be unsuitable to work with children, is treated with the utmost seriousness.

• The allegation is reported immediately to a DSL who is not the subject of it.
• We contact the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) in the relevant local authority within one working day, and follow their guidance.
• The tutor is removed from contact with students while the matter is considered. This is a neutral protective step, not a finding.
• Where appropriate we refer to the police and to the Disclosure and Barring Service, and inform the tutor’s school and the Teaching Regulation Agency.
• We do not carry out our own investigation in place of the statutory process.

If an allegation concerns a founder, it is handled by another founder and referred to the LADO on the same timescale. Anyone can raise a concern about any of us, including directly to the LADO or the police, without telling us first.

Low-level concerns

We also record concerns that fall below the allegation threshold, behaviour that is inconsistent with our code of conduct, even if no child has been harmed. Recording these allows us to spot patterns rather than dismiss incidents one at a time.

10 Records and confidentiality

Safeguarding records are kept securely, separately from ordinary student records, and are accessible only to the DSLs.

Information is shared on a strict need-to-know basis. Safeguarding is one of the situations where we may share personal information without consent. Data protection law does not prevent appropriate information sharing to protect a child, and we will not use it as a reason to delay necessary action.

Safeguarding records are retained in line with statutory guidance, normally at least until the student reaches 25, even where no further action was taken. How we handle personal data generally is set out in our Privacy Notice.

11 Working with parents

We ask parents to help us keep lessons safe by:

• Making sure your child joins from an appropriate space at home
• Being nearby and contactable during sessions, particularly for younger students
• Keeping the meeting link within your family and not sharing it
• Making sure your child keeps their camera and microphone off throughout the lesson
• Telling us about anything that affects your child’s wellbeing or how we should support them
• Raising anything that concerns you, however small it seems

You are welcome to observe your child’s lesson. You do not need to ask permission or give notice. This openness supports safe practice and helps parents understand how their child is being taught.

12 Training and review

• All tutors complete safeguarding training before teaching and refresh it at least annually.
• DSLs undertake designated lead training and update it every two years.
• This policy is reviewed annually, and immediately after any safeguarding incident or relevant change in guidance.
• Every tutor confirms in writing that they have read and understood the current version.

Reviewed and adopted by the founders of GuideMyGrades. Last revised: 8 October 2026.

13 Useful contacts

Our tutors and students are split between the UK and the UAE, so both sets of contacts are listed. Use whichever applies to where the child actually is.

Numbers were checked against UAE government and UK published sources when this policy was written. If you find one out of date, please tell us.