Last updated: August 2026

Part 1 - Terms that apply to everyone

1. Who I am, and what these terms cover

I'm Joanna Whale, and I run Great Expectations Education. I work on my own - there's no team and no agency, and no one else delivers my services.

These terms cover everything I offer: specialist tuition, consultations, my messaging subscriptions, the resources in my shop, book grading, and any workshops or group classes I run. Part 1 sets out what applies whoever you are and whatever you've come for. Part 2 covers each service in turn, and Part 3 deals with fees, cancellations and a few practical points. Where a service has its own rule, that rule sits with the service.

By booking a service, buying a resource, or completing the acceptance form, you're agreeing to these terms.

2. A few words I use

●      'I', 'me' and 'my' mean Joanna Whale, trading as Great Expectations Education.

●      'You' and 'your' mean the person arranging and paying - usually a parent or carer, and sometimes an adult learner booking for themselves.

●      'The learner' means the person I'm working with - usually a child or young person, sometimes an adult.

Where something applies specifically because a learner is a child, I've said 'your child' or 'a child' rather than 'the learner', so it's clear when a rule is there for a child's protection. If you're an adult learner working with me for yourself, those child-protection provisions don't apply to you.

3. How we'll keep in touch

Mostly by email, and by text or WhatsApp once we're working together. I check messages during working hours, which vary from week to week, and I'll usually reply within a few working days - sooner where I can, longer in busy spells or holidays, and I'll tell you if something's going to take a while. Please keep your contact details up to date and let me know if they change.

These channels are for our work together. I don't offer an emergency service, so if something can't wait, please contact the people who can help with it.

4. Confidentiality and safeguarding

What you and your child share with me stays confidential, and I won't pass on information about your child without your agreement - with one exception that matters. If I'm ever worried that a child is at risk of harm, I may need to share what I know with the people who can help, whether that's another professional or the relevant authorities. Where it's safe and appropriate, I'll tell you first. This is the ordinary safeguarding duty that anyone working with children carries, and it's the one thing our agreement can't set aside. I'm also DBS-checked and work to recognised safeguarding good practice - you can read more about my background and checks on my About page.

5. Your information, and how I use AI

I handle your personal information carefully, and only for the work we're doing together. My Privacy Policy sets out exactly what I collect, how I store it, how long I keep it, and your rights over it.

Two things about how I work are worth saying plainly. I sometimes use AI tools to help with admin, and to help turn my own notes - or, where I've recorded a consultation, the recording - into a clear follow-up for you. I may record a consultation so that I can write it up accurately; where I do, the recording is held securely, used only to produce your follow-up, never shared, and deleted as soon as that follow-up is written. Where any information about a child is involved, I do this in a space kept separate from my other work, using a tool set so it doesn't keep your information or use it to train itself. AI helps me organise and tidy - the thinking, the judgement and the advice are always mine. (Where AI tools are used in making the resources in my shop, that's covered separately in the Forge section.)

6. If something isn't right

If you're ever unhappy with anything, please tell me first. Most things turn out to be a misunderstanding I can put right quickly, and I'd always rather hear about it. If we can't sort it out between us, I'll always be honest with you about that, and about anything I could have done differently.

7. What I can and can't promise

I'll always do my best for a learner, but I can't guarantee particular results - no tutor honestly can, and progress depends on a great deal beyond our sessions. Nothing I offer is a diagnostic assessment, medical care, or therapy or counselling. Any resources or advice I give are for your own use in supporting a learner, and I'm not responsible for outcomes that depend on decisions or circumstances outside my control.

Some of what I publish is free guidance - book gradings, resource lists, articles, and posts on social media. It's general information, shared in good faith to be useful, and it isn't personal advice for a particular child or something I'm responsible for the outcome of. Please treat it as a starting point for your own decisions.

8. Changes to these terms

I may update these terms from time to time. If I change something that affects fees or cancellations, I'll let you know by email and give you reasonable notice before it takes effect.

For tuition and the messaging subscriptions, the terms relevant to your service are provided with each half-term invoice. Because payment recurs, this means you always have the current terms in front of you before you next pay, and paying an invoice (or continuing into the next half-term) means accepting the terms that came with it. If I've made a significant change, I'll say so plainly in the invoice email, not just leave it in the attached terms.

9. The law that applies

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and any dispute would be dealt with by the courts of England and Wales. If a disagreement ever came up, I'd always want us to try to sort it out between us first.

Part 2 - The services

10. Specialist tuition (The Chimney-Corner)

Tuition is one-to-one and online, over Zoom. A session is 40 minutes of teaching, with 5 minutes at the end for feedback on how the lesson went. Where you're present yourself, I give this feedback to you directly at the end of the session. Where another responsible adult is supervising, such as a grandparent or nanny, I use those 5 minutes to send you a written note or photo of what we covered and anything worth practising, so that the feedback reaches you.

We begin with a short settling-in period - the first two lessons are pay-as-you-go, so we can both make sure it's a good fit before you commit to more. Either of us can stop within that period, no notice needed. After it, I invoice for the rest of the half-term, and half-termly from then on, through FreeAgent (my accounting software).

When you book a regular slot, that time is held for your child each week. Because the slot is reserved, a booked half-term is committed once I've invoiced it - how cancellations, missed lessons and stopping work is set out in clause 19.

Homework is available as an optional extra, charged per session on top of the lesson fee. It's a set task or practice sheet I send by email after the lesson and mark when it comes back - around 20 to 30 minutes' worth. Longer pieces that need detailed marking, such as a GCSE essay, are charged at my hourly rate instead. Current prices are on my website.

Written reports, forms, and talking to a learner's school or other professionals aren't part of the lesson fee, but I'm happy to do them by arrangement at my hourly rate.

11. Consultations (Before the Fire)

These are one-off online sessions, each 55 minutes, booked and paid for at the time of booking through my booking system, by card. If we've worked together before you can book directly; if we haven't, please get in touch first so I can check it's the right fit.

There are three:

●      Raking the Fire - a specialist consultation to think through your situation and what might help.

●      Afore a Good Fire - a paperwork review, where I read a child's reports or documents in advance and then talk them through with you. Because the reading is done beforehand, this one needs at least five days' notice.

●      Blow the Fire - a shorter follow-up to an earlier consultation.

In a consultation I'm advising you, the parent. The child we discuss isn't necessarily a learner I teach - but I handle everything you tell me about your family with the same care set out in clause 4, and the safeguarding duty there applies to anything I'm told that suggests a child is at risk.

What each costs, and the notice needed to change or cancel, is shown when you book. How refunds work for these upfront-paid sessions is in clause 19.

12. By Your Side (working-alongside sessions)

By Your Side is different from the consultations. It's a working-alongside session - body doubling - for a task you've been putting off, such as a form to complete or paperwork to deal with. We work on it together in real time: you carry out the task, and I keep you company and keep things moving. There's no pre-reading and no written summary, so it can be booked at shorter notice, and it's for families I already work with.

It isn't advice. If a SEND question comes up I'll answer it, but if a session turns into needing advice rather than getting the task done, I'll say so - at that point it becomes a consultation. Because there's no preparation involved, refunds work like an ordinary booked slot (clause 19).

13. Messaging subscriptions (Plus and Light)

The messaging subscriptions give you a steady specialist channel between sessions, on a recurring basis, in two tiers:

●      Light - up to two substantive responses a week.

●      Plus - up to five substantive responses a week.

Each response is up to 15 minutes of focused work: I read your question and any context you've shared, weigh the relevant evidence and guidance, and reply with my reasoning and suggested next steps. Both tiers include one 30-minute Zoom check-in each term, which you book yourself, and you choose one channel at sign-up - email or WhatsApp, not both.

The subscriptions run in term-time only and pause during school holidays, so a half-term invoice covers term weeks only, and your first invoice is pro-rated if you start partway through a half-term. Fees are per week, invoiced half-termly; the current rates are on my website.

If we haven't worked together before, we start with a Raking the Fire consultation, so the messaging that follows is properly informed; if you've had a consultation or tuition with me before, get in touch and I'll set it up directly.

The subscriptions are for the questions that come up week to week - not in-depth document review (book Afore a Good Fire), drafted correspondence (which the messaging tiers don't cover), or detailed research or analysis (book Raking the Fire).

You can cancel at any time - let me know before your next half-term invoice and the subscription won't renew. A half-term already invoiced runs to the end of that half-term. There's no minimum term and I don't tie you in.

14. The resource shop (The Forge)

The resources in my shop (The Forge) are digital downloads, paid for in full at checkout. After you buy, your download is available for 24 hours (a limit set by my shop platform), so please download and save your file promptly. When you buy, you'll confirm at checkout that you're happy to download straight away, and that doing so ends the 14-day right to cancel you'd otherwise have. Because they're digital and delivered immediately, resources are non-refundable once downloaded, unless the file is faulty or isn't as described - in which case let me know within 14 days and I'll put it right or refund it.

What a resource is, and isn't. Each resource is an educational support material. It isn't a diagnostic, assessment, or therapeutic tool, and it doesn't replace specialist assessment or intervention. Outcomes vary by learner, and a resource isn't a complete teaching programme or a substitute for formal instruction. It's a teaching tool for you to use, not a guarantee of progress.

How resources are made. These resources are created by Joanna Whale - specialist dyslexia teacher, with a linguistics background and a specialism in language history. I used to write them from scratch, working from hard-copy etymology dictionaries across several languages, and the process I use now is built directly from that work - it's my method, my design and my standards throughout. I set the teaching approach, the evidence discipline, and the authoritative sources each resource is built from, and I decide the content, scope and framing of every one. Deciding what goes into a resource - and what's left out - is a teaching decision as much as a linguistic one: I balance pedagogical priorities against linguistic integrity, so a resource helps a learner rather than overwhelming them. Within that, the research, drafting and illustration are done with AI tools working to my direction. Every resource is then held against my own academic and professional judgment of whether it's linguistically credible and fit to use - and anything that doesn't meet that standard doesn't go out. Responsibility for the final content rests entirely with me.

Licence and use. A resource is licensed for personal use within a single household for home education, or by a single tutor working with their own students. Printing and laminating for repeated use within that scope is fine. Resources may not be redistributed, shared with other families, uploaded to shared drives or learning platforms, sold, or adapted or rebuilt into other materials without my permission. Schools, SENCos and tutoring agencies are welcome to get in touch to discuss licensing. The resources, and the names used throughout them, remain my intellectual property.

15. Book grading (The Bramble-Bush)

Book grading is a free resource on my website - you don't book or buy anything. I grade books using the Cumbria Reading Intervention (Hatcher) levelling system, a finer scale than the book bands most schools use, so you can match a book to where a child actually reads rather than to their age. The reviews cover books that I, my own children, or my students have read, and I add to them as I go, so the collection is a work in progress and isn't exhaustive.

The levels are my professional judgement, offered in good faith as a guide (and covered by the free-guidance note in clause 7). A level tells you roughly how demanding a book is to read - it isn't a diagnosis of a child, a guarantee that a particular book will suit them, or a substitute for knowing your own child, and how any child gets on with a given book can vary. If you'd like help working out where a child sits, a Raking the Fire consultation is the place for that.

16. Workshops and training

From time to time I may run workshops or training sessions. Where I do, a place is booked and paid for in advance, and the joining details and any cancellation window are set out with the workshop itself (see clause 19 for the general position).

17. Group classes

If I run group classes, they're booked by the half-term or as a set course. Because a group depends on everyone turning up, sessions missed by one child aren't refundable, and I may reschedule or, if numbers are too low, offer one-to-one sessions at an adjusted rate instead.

Part 3 - Fees, cancellations and practical points

18. Fees and payment

The fee for anything I offer is the one shown when you book or buy, or as published on my website. Tuition is invoiced through FreeAgent after the settling-in period; consultations and shop purchases are paid upfront at the time of booking or checkout. Please pay invoices by the date shown on them.

If an invoice isn't paid, I may pause further sessions until it's settled, and I may add a small fixed reminder fee to a late invoice. I don't charge interest on late payments.

19. Cancellations, notice and endings

If you need to change or cancel, the rule depends on which service you've booked - your service is set out below, and the key terms also come with your invoice or booking confirmation. As a general rule, the sooner you tell me, the more easily I can move things without a charge.

Tuition. Tuition is paid a half-term at a time, in advance, and a half-term is committed once I've invoiced it. Within that, I'm as flexible as I can be:

●      If you need to move or miss a lesson, tell me as early as you can and I'll offer alternative slots - up to two genuine alternatives.

●      If you let me know before I send the half-term invoice, or in the few days just after it, I'll simply leave those dates out or rearrange them.

●      If neither of the two alternatives works, or it's too late to rearrange, the fee for that session stands, since the slot was held.

●      If a lesson is missed because of me, I'll roll it over or make up the time.

Separately, a session ended because no adult was present is treated as a session held (clause 22) and payable.

To stop tuition, let me know at least three full weeks before the last day of the current half-term, and I won't invoice the next half-term. I use Buckinghamshire term dates, which are shown on your invoices too. If you let me know later than that, the next half-term is payable, as the slot has been held for your child. Either of us can bring things to a close if the lessons are no longer helping.

Messaging subscriptions. These work the same way as tuition: let me know before your next half-term invoice and the subscription won't renew; a half-term already invoiced runs to its end, with no mid-term refund.

Consultations (paid upfront). Each consultation has a notice window, shown when you book: Afore a Good Fire needs five days; Raking the Fire and Blow the Fire need two days. If you cancel before that window, you'll get a full refund. If you cancel inside it, the fee isn't refundable, because the time was held for you. For Afore a Good Fire there's one extra point: once I've started reading your documents, the fee isn't refundable even with notice, because at that point the work is essentially done. Wherever I reasonably can, I'll offer to move you to another slot rather than refund, and I'll always look at a genuine emergency fairly. Refunds are made through the same card system you paid with.

By Your Side. Because there's no preparation, By Your Side works like an ordinary held slot: cancel before its notice window (one day) for a full refund; inside it, the fee stands. As with everything, I'll rearrange where I reasonably can, and treat a genuine emergency fairly.

Shop downloads. Digital resources are non-refundable once downloaded, unless the file is faulty or isn't as described - in which case let me know within 14 days and I'll put it right or refund it (as in clause 14).

Workshops and group classes. The cancellation window for a workshop is set out with the workshop. Group-class sessions missed by a child aren't refundable, as in clause 17.

20. SEND advice - what it is, and what it isn't

In the course of tuition or a consultation, I may share thoughts about the SEND system, a child's needs, or what tends to help. That's general information and my professional view - it isn't formal advocacy, and it isn't legal advice. I don't represent families at the SEND Tribunal or act as your advocate. If you need that kind of formal help, IPSEA (ipsea.org.uk) and SOS!SEN (sossen.org.uk) offer specialist SEND advice, and a solicitor can help where legal advice is needed.

21. Waiting lists

I keep a waiting list for tuition. When you join it, you tell me about your child's education setting, which helps me match a child to a slot as one comes up. Being on the list means I'll be in touch when a suitable slot appears - it isn't a guaranteed place, and I can't always say in advance how long a wait will be. I hold your details for this as set out in my Privacy Policy.

22. Online sessions - cameras, recording, and technology

My online sessions work best, and are safest, with a few shared expectations.

Cameras. Having the camera on helps me teach, and it's what I'd usually suggest for a child's session. If your child would rather have it off, that's fine - just tell me in advance, so that we've agreed it beforehand.

A responsible adult nearby. For a child's session, a parent or carer needs to ensure that a responsible adult is at home and within earshot throughout - in the room is better still, and you or they are always welcome to join in. This is what keeps the session safe, and it's why relaxing the camera is fine once we've agreed it. If a lesson starts and your child is in the house on their own, or I find partway through that no responsible adult is there, I'll end the session and tell you why. The fee for that session stands, as the slot was held. I'd rather never need this - it's here so we both know where we stand, and so your child is never somewhere I can't safely reach an adult.

Recording. I don't record lessons as a matter of course. If there were ever a reason to, I'd agree it with you first, and tell you why, where it would be stored, who could see it, and when it would be deleted. (Recording a consultation to write it up is covered in clause 5.) Please don't record, film, or screenshot our sessions without agreeing it with me first. The lessons, the materials, and the way I teach are my own work. If a recording would genuinely help the learner, for example to replay a lesson, just ask and we'll sort something out.

If the technology fails. Please have the device charged or plugged in and the connection as stable as you can - a charged laptop prevents the most common cause of a lost session. If the problem is at your end - your internet, device, or battery, or a learner not coming to the screen - the session time is lost and the fee stands. If it's my equipment that fails, I'll make up the time. And if it's a genuine outage that's no one's equipment - the platform going down, or a power cut at my end - that isn't my fault, but I'll still make the time up.