A safer place to learn.

A child is anyone under 18. Their safety, dignity and wellbeing take priority over commercial or teaching considerations. Safeguarding includes prevention, professional conduct, early recognition of concerns, prompt reporting and appropriate support.

We seek to provide an inclusive learning environment for children of all backgrounds and abilities, including learners with additional support needs. No child should experience bullying, humiliation, harassment, grooming, discrimination or inappropriate personal attention.

This public page explains the standards Saoi is adopting for online tuition. It is not a representation that every operational check or proposed technical safeguard has already been completed; the requirements below must be implemented and verified before tutors are assigned to children.

Before any tutor is permitted to teach a child through Saoi, the recruitment process must verify identity and relevant qualifications/experience, assess teaching suitability, examine employment history and gaps, obtain and check suitable professional references, and require a signed safeguarding and professional-conduct agreement. Safeguarding questions and relevant scenario-based assessment form part of selection.

For tutors whose work falls within the National Vetting Bureau's relevant-work rules, Saoi must obtain the required Garda vetting disclosure through an eligible registered organisation before that person begins relevant work. Individual tutors cannot simply arrange Garda vetting privately. Tutors outside Ireland require appropriate checks for their jurisdiction and a documented assessment of their eligibility to work with children; overseas checks do not automatically replace Irish statutory requirements.

A vetting disclosure is one safeguard, not a guarantee of safety. Suitability decisions, training, supervised induction, ongoing monitoring, renewed checks where appropriate and prompt action on concerns are also necessary. Saoi should not publicly claim that all tutors are Garda vetted until that has actually been completed and verified for every applicable tutor.

Saoi must appoint a named safeguarding lead and a trained deputy or independent escalation contact, with clear cover arrangements and authority to act. The safeguarding lead is responsible for receiving concerns, recording decisions, liaising with appropriate agencies and ensuring the policy is reviewed.

Tutors and administrators must receive child protection and online safety training before being allocated lessons with children, with refresher training and a record of completion. All adults involved must understand their personal duty to report concerns promptly, including concerns involving colleagues.

The business must complete an online-tuition-specific assessment of risk of harm, maintain a Child Safeguarding Statement where required by the Children First Act 2015, and make the approved statement available to parents and staff. This public information page is not a substitute for a formally approved Child Safeguarding Statement.

Children should enter lessons through controlled, authenticated class invitations or accounts linked to the appropriate family record. The tutor must verify that the expected learner has joined; unexpected participants, link sharing and entry by unauthorised persons must be addressed immediately.

Tutors should teach from a suitable, professional setting without inappropriate people, imagery or material in view. Students should, where practical, join from a communal or otherwise appropriate space. Parents or guardians of younger learners should know when lessons occur and how to reach Saoi; they should be able to remain nearby without having to participate in the teaching.

One-to-one tuition requires particular care. Sessions must be scheduled through Saoi and be visible in the company's management records, with attendance, start/end times and tutor identity logged. Any unplanned one-to-one contact or unauthorised participant must be escalated. A student should be able to leave or report an interaction that feels unsafe.

Tutors must use approved company communication channels for lesson-related contact. Personal phone numbers, private messaging apps, personal email, social-media contact, unscheduled video calls, gifts, requests for secrecy, personal relationships, and in-person meetings outside an approved arrangement with minors are prohibited.

Communications must be relevant to learning, respectful and age-appropriate. Tutors must never request personal photographs, location information or unrelated private details, and must not use humiliating, sexualised, discriminatory or threatening language. Bullying, harassment and inappropriate sharing of images are prohibited.

Tutors must not photograph, screen-record, download or share learners' work or images to personal devices or accounts. Any learning materials and shared screens must be age-appropriate, checked in advance and free from inappropriate links or third-party content.

Saoi's classroom may support recording functionality, but the existence of that capability does not establish that every session is currently recorded. Parents and learners must be told clearly whether a specific session is being recorded, why, the lawful basis relied on, who can access it, where it is stored, when it is deleted, and how to exercise their data-protection rights.

Before any routine or mandatory recording policy is introduced, Saoi must document necessity and proportionality, consider a Data Protection Impact Assessment, restrict access to authorised safeguarding/quality personnel, protect stored recordings, prohibit tutors' personal copies and set a justified retention schedule with controlled exceptions for concerns or legal holds.

Recording must never be represented as continuous live monitoring or as a guarantee that inappropriate behaviour cannot occur. Cameras and microphones should be used proportionately; students should be supported if video use creates a welfare or accessibility concern. Any change to recording arrangements must be communicated before a lesson.

If a child raises a concern, the adult must listen calmly, take it seriously, avoid leading questions or conducting an investigation, explain that the information cannot be kept secret if protection is needed, and promptly contact the designated safeguarding lead.

The concern must be recorded factually and securely, including the child's own words where possible, dates, times, involved persons, immediate steps and referral decisions. Access must be limited to those with a safeguarding need to know. Staff must not privately question witnesses, contact an alleged perpetrator or promise an outcome.

Where there is an immediate risk of serious harm in Ireland, contact emergency services (112 or 999). Other reasonable child-protection concerns should be reported to Tusla through the appropriate channels. Where a child resides outside Ireland, the lead must also identify and contact the appropriate child protection authority in that jurisdiction. Staff should not delay contacting emergency services while seeking internal permission.

Where a concern relates to a tutor or staff member, contact with children may need to be restricted promptly while external advice is sought and a fair, documented process followed. Where the safeguarding lead is implicated, the concern must be escalated outside their reporting line.

Parents or guardians should receive the tutor's identity, the agreed lesson schedule, booking and contact details, the company's reporting process, and clear information about recording and personal data. Parents should not need a staff or administration login to read this policy.

Children should be told in age-appropriate language that they can say when they feel uncomfortable, leave an unsafe online interaction, tell a trusted adult, and report a concern without being blamed. Tutors are expected to respond respectfully and never demand secrecy.

Parents and learners should not independently record, photograph or publish another participant's image, voice or personal information without appropriate permission. Family information should be shared only through authorised company channels.

Student records and safeguarding reports require role-based access, confidential storage, appropriate retention, auditability and a response process for suspected breaches. Recording files, chat histories and shared resources need controls appropriate to the risk posed by children's personal information.

This framework should be reviewed at least annually and sooner following a serious incident, material platform change or change in legislation. Training, recruitment, technical controls, reporting arrangements and actual classroom practices must be checked against the written policy.

Saoi operates from Ireland and must consider Children First, the National Vetting Bureau legislation and data-protection obligations, as well as the protection and reporting requirements of jurisdictions where students or tutors are based.