Keeping Children Safe in Online Lessons
This page sets out how lessons with children actually work here: who teaches them, whether you can be present, whether anything is recorded, and what to do if something bothers you. It is short on purpose. A safeguarding page that takes fifteen minutes to read is not doing its job.
You can sit in on any lesson
Parents are welcome in the room for any lesson, at any time, without arranging it in advance and without telling us first. There is no part of a lesson that a parent is asked to step out for.
This is worth stating plainly because it is the one real advantage online teaching has over a class you drop your child at. In a physical weekend school you hand your child over at the door and collect them ninety minutes later. Here the lesson happens in your house, on a screen you can see, in a language you can hear even if you cannot read it. Nothing about that is a formality. If you are not sure how a tutor speaks to your child, sit down beside them for twenty minutes and you will know.
For younger children we would go further and suggest you do sit in, at least for the first few weeks. It helps the tutor pitch the lesson, it helps your child settle, and it means you know the tutor’s name and manner rather than a voice from another room.
Who teaches your child
Tutors are selected carefully, and are expected to conduct themselves appropriately with every student. They are qualified teachers, many of them trained at Al-Azhar, and you can read about the faculty on our about page.
You will know which tutor your child is working with before the first paid lesson, because the free trial is with the tutor we are proposing rather than with a demonstrator. If you would rather your child worked with a different tutor, for any reason at all, you do not need to give one.
Recording
Lessons are not recorded. The only exception is when a recording has been agreed in advance, which occasionally happens when a family wants a memorization session to play back during the week.
If you would like a lesson recorded, ask before it starts. If you would rather nothing were ever recorded, that is already the default and you do not need to do anything.
What we ask of parents
If something concerns you
Tell us. You have every right to raise a complaint about anything, from a tutor being late to the way something was said to your child, and you do not need to soften it or wait until you are certain.
- Message us on WhatsApp at +966 56 651 8545, which is the fastest route and the one most families use.
- Email [email protected] if you would rather have it in writing.
- Use the form on our contact page.
You can also ask for a different tutor, pause lessons, or stop altogether, and none of those requires a reason. Unused lessons are refundable.
The part we cannot do for you
An honest page has to say where the limits are. Our responsibility covers the tutors, the lessons and how we respond when you raise something. It does not extend to the device your child uses, the rest of the internet on it, or contact of any kind that happens outside a scheduled lesson.
So if a message reaches your child from someone claiming to be a tutor outside lesson times, treat it as suspicious and tell us. And keep the ordinary household rules you would keep anyway. Online lessons are one hour of a child’s week, and the rest of it is still yours to look after.
Questions parents ask
Do I need to ask permission to watch a lesson?
No. Sit down whenever you like. Tutors expect it, particularly with younger children.
Can I ask for a female tutor for my daughter?
Yes, and it is your right to ask. We respect that and we will try to arrange a female tutor. Say so when you first get in touch, so the match is made before the trial rather than after it. If it is not right once lessons have started, ask for a different tutor.
Is my child ever alone with a tutor in a way I cannot see?
The lesson is a video call on a device in your home, at a time you agreed, and you are free to be in the room for all of it. There is no separate channel, no lesson you are excluded from, and nothing scheduled that you were not told about.
Are lessons recorded?
Not unless you and the tutor agree to it beforehand. The default is no recording.
What if my child does not want to continue?
That is worth taking seriously rather than pushing through, and it is usually about the pairing or the timing rather than the subject. Our article on what to do when a child does not want to learn Quran goes through the usual causes, and changing the tutor is often the whole fix.
How do I know the lessons are actually working?
Our guide on checking your child’s Quran progress sets out a five minute check you can run without knowing any Arabic, and how lessons work explains what progress should look like month by month.