These terms are an agreement between you and IlluminatED, which runs IlluminatED and the IlluminatEDSocial forum ("we", "us"). By creating an account or using the site, you agree to them. Please also read our privacy policy.
Who can use IlluminatED
- You must be 13 or over. If you're under 13, please don't sign up. We'll delete accounts we find belong to under-13s.
- If you're under 18, a parent or guardian must agree before you get paid tutoring. We'll contact them before a tutor can take on your request.
- Everything except a few public pages (like this one) needs a free account.
Accounts and security
- One account per person. Don't share it or use someone else's.
- Use a strong password you don't use anywhere else, and keep it and your email account secure. Tell us straight away if you think someone else has got into your account.
- Choose a username that doesn't include your real name, school or anything offensive. We may change or remove usernames that break our rules.
- You can delete your account at any time in settings.
When you post on IlluminatEDSocial or message a tutor, you agree to follow our community guidelines. In short: be kind, stay on topic, don't share personal information (yours or anyone else's), and report anything that worries you. You're responsible for what you post. You keep ownership of it, but you let us show it on the site for as long as it's there.
Our content
- Our study notes, quizzes and flashcards are written by us and checked against the exam boards' published specifications. They are not official exam board material, and we aren't connected to or endorsed by any exam board, Ofqual or the Department for Education.
- We work hard to keep things accurate, but mistakes can happen and specifications change. Always check against your own specification and follow your teacher's advice. If you spot a mistake, use our contact form.
- You can use our content for your own study. Please don't copy it to sell or republish.
- Quiz scores are for practice. They aren't predicted grades.
Tutoring
- Tutors are independent. They aren't our employees. We check them before they join, including an enhanced DBS check for anyone working with under-18s, and we can review their messages.
- Speed tiers. When you ask for help you choose how fast you need it. Each tier has a time within which we aim to match you with a tutor, shown with the price before you send your request: Flexible (within 72 hours), Priority (within 24 hours) and Urgent (within 4 hours). Faster tiers cost more.
- Refunds. Sending a request doesn't charge you. If you've paid and no tutor is matched within your tier's time, you'll get a full refund, or you can choose to keep waiting. If something goes wrong with a session, use our contact form and we'll put it right. This doesn't affect your legal rights as a consumer.
- No contact outside the platform. All messages between learners and tutors must stay on IlluminatED. Don't swap email addresses, phone numbers or social media, and don't arrange to meet or pay outside the site. Tutors who try to will be removed.
- Your own work. Tutors won't write or mark assessed coursework for you. Exam board rules say it must be your own.
Ask Tiggy (AI study helper)
- Tiggy is an AI, not a person or a teacher. Its answers are generated by a computer model and can be wrong, out of date or incomplete. Check anything important with your teacher, your exam board's specification or our topic pages. Don't rely on Tiggy for medical, legal or financial advice, or in an emergency.
- Your own work. Tiggy won't write coursework, NEA or other assessed work for you to hand in. Under the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) rules, work you submit must be your own, and passing off AI-written work as yours is malpractice that can cost you marks or the qualification. Tiggy can help you plan, understand the task and improve your own drafts.
- Daily limits. The free plan includes a set number of messages a day, and Premium includes more. Limits reset at midnight UK time. A message that's sent counts even if the answer fails part way through. We may change the limits, the AI model or switch Ask Tiggy off for maintenance.
- Keep it safe. Don't share personal details with Tiggy, and don't try to make it produce harmful, sexual or unsafe content. If a message suggests someone may be at risk, Tiggy will show where to get help and we record a safeguarding note (not the message itself) for our moderators.
Premium subscription
- What you get. Premium adds extra Ask Tiggy features, as listed on the Premium page when you subscribe. Features marked "coming soon" aren't part of what you're paying for until they launch. Everything that's free on IlluminatED stays free.
- Price and payment. Premium is a monthly subscription at the price shown on the Premium page, including any VAT. Stripe takes payment by card when you subscribe and then every month on the same date, until you cancel. We'll tell you at least 30 days before any price change, and you can cancel before it applies.
- Under 18s. If you're under 18, a parent or guardian should pay or agree to you paying before you subscribe. You'll be asked to confirm this.
- Cancel any time. Use "Manage subscription" on the Premium page. Your subscription stops renewing and you keep Premium until the end of the month you've already paid for. We don't refund part months, except where the law requires it or where we've let you down.
- Your 14-day cooling-off right. Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, you normally have 14 days after buying to change your mind. Premium is digital content and services that start straight away, so when you subscribe we ask you to agree that Premium starts immediately and to acknowledge that you lose your right to cancel and get a refund for that month once it has started. You can still cancel at any time to stop future payments. If Premium doesn't work as described, you keep your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, including a repair, replacement or refund.
- If a payment fails, Stripe will try again for a short time. If it still can't take payment, your account goes back to the free plan.
- Ending Premium ourselves. If you seriously or repeatedly break these terms, we may end your subscription. If we stop offering Premium, we'll give you notice and refund any time you've paid for but not had.
- Deleting your account doesn't cancel a Stripe subscription by itself. Cancel in Manage subscription first, or use our contact form and we'll do it for you.
Acceptable use
You must not:
- bully, harass, threaten or pretend to be someone else
- post anything illegal, sexual, hateful or violent, or anything that encourages self-harm
- share anyone's personal information or contact details
- post adverts, spam or links to cheating services
- try to break, overload, scrape or get around the security of the site
- use the site to sell or promote anything without our permission
Suspension and removal
If you break these terms or the community guidelines, we may hide or delete your posts, stop you posting, suspend your account or close it. We'll usually tell you why, unless doing so could put someone at risk. If you think we've made a mistake, use our contact form.
Our liability
We provide IlluminatED as it is, and we can't promise it will always be available or free of mistakes. As far as the law allows, we aren't responsible for exam results, for decisions you make based on our content, or for losses we couldn't reasonably have expected. Nothing in these terms limits our liability where the law doesn't allow it, for example for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud, and nothing affects your legal rights as a consumer.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales can deal with any dispute. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring a claim in your local courts.
Changes to these terms, and contact
We may update these terms as the site changes. We'll change the date at the top, and for important changes we'll let you know on the site or by email before they take effect. If you keep using IlluminatED after that, the new terms apply.
If you have questions about these terms, use our contact form.
