You are inviting an adult you have never met to spend half an hour alone with your child, on video, in your home. That deserves more scrutiny than most families give it - not because online teaching is dangerous, but because the checks that exist in a school do not exist here by default.

A school has a designated safeguarding lead, a governing body, an inspection regime and a legal duty of care. An online tutoring arrangement has none of those unless the academy chooses to build them. Most reputable ones do. The difficulty for a parent is that there is no badge that reliably distinguishes the ones that have from the ones that say they have.

Here is a checklist you can work through in one evening.

Before the first lesson

Establish where the teacher is


Ask directly. There is nothing wrong with a teacher overseas - most qualified Quran teachers are. But you cannot assess anything else until you know.

Ask what checks were carried out, and when

Specifics, with dates. "All our teachers are fully vetted" means nothing. If an academy claims UK DBS checks for teachers who live abroad, ask how that is possible - a DBS check searches UK police records only.

For an overseas teacher, what you want to hear is: identity documents verified, references taken up and actually contacted, and a criminal record certificate from the country of residence. None of those is equivalent to an Enhanced DBS, and an honest academy will say so.

Ask for the teacher's qualification and where it came from

An Ijazah names the teacher who granted it and the chain behind it, which makes it checkable in a way that "highly qualified" is not. Ask for the institution by name.

Check the rules are in place

  • Camera on for the whole lesson, always. No exceptions, no negotiation. Rule out any academy that permits otherwise
  • You can join any lesson without notice. The answer should be an immediate yes
  • No direct contact between teacher and child. No phone numbers, no messaging apps, no social media, no email
  • All scheduling goes through the academy, never privately with the teacher
  • A named person to contact with concerns, not a form

Set the lesson up properly at home

This part is entirely within your control and does more than any policy document.

  • Lessons happen in a shared space. The kitchen table or living room, not a bedroom, and not behind a closed door.
  • The screen faces into the room. Anyone walking past can see it. This is not surveillance of your child; it is ordinary visibility.
  • You are in earshot. You do not need to watch every lesson. You do need to be able to hear one.
  • The account is yours. The academy's platform login, the email address it goes to, and any recordings should sit with a parent, not with the child.
  • Check the child's device. If lessons happen on a tablet the child also uses socially, make sure the teaching app cannot be used to message outside lesson times.

During the trial lesson

Sit in on it. You are assessing more than teaching quality:

  • Does the teacher speak to your child respectfully, or talk down to them?
  • Is your child comfortable, or performing anxiously?
  • Does the teacher acknowledge you being there without appearing to mind?
  • Does anything at all make you uneasy? Trust that. You do not need to justify it to anyone

Warning signs

  • Any suggestion your child would do better without you present
  • A request to move the conversation to WhatsApp or another private channel
  • Reluctance to answer where the teacher is based
  • Compliments about your child that feel excessive or personal rather than about their work
  • Pressure to pay for a long block up front after a single lesson
  • Claims that cannot be true - overseas teachers with UK DBS checks, or dozens of glowing reviews on a site with no reviews page

Why the private channel matters so much


Almost every serious safeguarding failure in online tutoring, across all subjects, follows the same shape: a legitimate professional relationship moves onto a private channel where nobody else can see it. It rarely starts with anything alarming. It starts with a homework reminder sent directly, or a link shared outside the platform because it was easier.

This is why "all contact goes through the academy" is not bureaucracy. It is the single control that makes the others enforceable. Hold the line on it even when breaking it would be convenient.

Keep checking after the first month

Most parents are attentive for two lessons and then stop looking. The useful checks are the ongoing ones:

  • Drop in unannounced, occasionally. Not to catch anyone out, but so that it stays normal for you to appear.
  • Notice changes in your child's mood around lesson time. Reluctance can mean boredom, tiredness, or a lesson pitched too hard. It can also mean something else. Ask rather than assume either way.
  • Ask your child what they like about the teacher. An answer about the teaching is a good sign. An answer about how special the teacher makes them feel is worth a second conversation.
  • Watch for changed arrangements. A lesson moved to a time when you are out, or a teacher substituted without notice, should always be queried.

Talk to your child

Tell them, in ordinary language, that no adult should ever ask them to keep a secret from you, ask to talk to them privately, or ask them to turn a camera off. Tell them they can stop a lesson at any moment for any reason and will never be in trouble for it.

That conversation does more for your child's safety than any certificate on a website.

How to phrase it by age

Under seven: keep it simple and unfrightening. "If anyone ever asks you to keep a secret from Mummy or Daddy, come and tell me straight away. You will never be in trouble."

Seven to eleven: add the specifics. Cameras stay on, nobody messages you privately, and you can end a lesson any time without explaining why.

Twelve and over: be direct about why the rules exist. Older children follow rules they understand and quietly ignore rules they find arbitrary.

Repeat the conversation occasionally rather than treating it as a single briefing. The point is not the information; it is that your child knows the subject is open.

If something worries you

Raise it with the academy the same day and expect a same-day answer. Write down what happened while it is fresh, including dates and exact wording.

You do not need certainty to act, and you do not need the academy's agreement. If the concern is serious or the response is inadequate, contact your local authority children's services, the NSPCC helpline, or the police if a child is at immediate risk. Stop the lessons while it is being looked at. No legitimate academy will object to that.

Common questions

Am I being paranoid?

No. Every measure above is ordinary practice in any setting that works with children, and a good academy will already be doing most of them without being asked.

Is a female teacher safer?

It is a reasonable preference for many families and often the right choice for other reasons. It is not a substitute for any of the controls on this page.

My child wants to do lessons alone in their room. Is that alright?


For a teenager doing a memorisation session, with the door open and you at home, that is a reasonable place to end up. For a younger child, keep it in a shared space.

What if I like the teacher but not the academy?

Do not arrange lessons privately with a teacher outside the academy. It removes every safeguard at once, including your ability to complain to anyone.

What a well run academy looks like from the outside

You cannot inspect an academy's internal processes, but several things are visible from where you are standing, and they correlate well with everything you cannot see:

  • The safeguarding page is specific. It names rules, not values. "We take safeguarding seriously" is a sentiment; "cameras remain on for the duration of every lesson" is a rule.
  • Someone answers safeguarding questions faster than sales questions. In a well run organisation these questions go to a person who deals with them daily.
  • Policies are written down and will be sent to you. Ask for the safeguarding policy by email. An academy that has one will attach it in minutes.
  • There is a named designated contact. A person, with a role and an email address.
  • Nothing about the pricing is designed to lock you in. Long minimum terms and non-refundable upfront blocks are a commercial choice, but they also remove your easiest response to a concern, which is to stop.

The three questions that do most of the work

If you take nothing else from this page, ask these three before the first lesson, and treat any hesitation as the answer:

  1. Can I join any lesson, at any time, without telling you first?
  2. Can a teacher contact my child other than through you?
  3. Who is the person I call if I am worried, and how quickly will they answer?

Yes, no, and a name. Anything else deserves a follow up question, and an academy that cannot manage all three in one short email is not one to hand your child to for two years.

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