Terms and Conditions for Poetry Kit Courses

These terms explain what students can expect from Poetry Kit and what we ask of students taking part in our online courses. Please read them alongside the description of the course you intend to take.

1. Course content and teaching

We aim to provide the teaching, assignments and feedback described for each course. A course has an established structure, but the tutor may adapt exercises, reading and other content to meet students’ needs while working towards the course aims.

We aim to provide the named tutor. In exceptional circumstances, we may need to appoint another tutor. Where this happens, relevant course work may be passed to the replacement tutor to maintain continuity. Copyright in a student’s original writing remains with that student.

2. Course dates, deadlines and final completion

Poetry Kit courses are fixed-duration programmes. Enrolment does not provide unlimited or open-ended tuition, feedback or access to a tutor. Each course has an expected teaching duration and a final completion deadline. The applicable maximum period will be stated in the course description or confirmed in writing when enrolment is accepted. If no maximum has been published, we will confirm one with the student before the course begins.

The final completion period runs from the date the first assignment is issued, unless the enrolment confirmation states otherwise. Students are expected to work through assignments within the course timetable. The expected duration is a guide to normal progress; the final completion deadline is the last date for submitting outstanding work and receiving the feedback included in the course.

We may allow reasonable adjustments for tutor holidays, public holidays, agreed reading weeks or temporary difficulties. Any extension or pause must be agreed in writing and must specify a revised final completion date. An extension is not automatic, and a pause does not create an indefinite right to resume at any future time.

When the agreed final completion date is reached, the course ends even if some assignments have not been submitted or completed. Poetry Kit is not obliged to continue accepting work or providing feedback after that date, except where required by law or where a further extension has been agreed in writing. We will aim to remind students of an approaching deadline and consider reasonable requests for help or adjustments, including where disability or other circumstances require consideration.

3. Communication and assignments

Courses are normally conducted by email. Students should check their email regularly, follow the instructions for each assignment and send their own original work to the address provided, usually in the body of an email.

Students are expected to maintain reasonable contact throughout their course and normally to respond to assignments within one week, unless another arrangement has been agreed. If a student does not respond to course correspondence or assignments for five consecutive weeks, without having agreed an extension or break with Poetry Kit, they will be deemed to have withdrawn from the course. Poetry Kit will send a reminder after four weeks of no response, giving the student an opportunity to get in touch before the course is closed at five weeks. Once closed, Poetry Kit will have no obligation to provide further tuition or feedback under that enrolment, subject to the student’s statutory rights and any reasonable adjustments required by law. Please contact us promptly if illness, travel or other circumstances will prevent you from replying.

If you experience an unreasonable delay in receiving a reply, please contact us: an email may occasionally be delayed or missed. We will try to make suitable alternative arrangements if a student cannot continue using the usual online method, although alternative delivery cannot always be guaranteed.

4. Feedback and support

We aim to give fair, constructive feedback that reflects the tutor’s considered view of the work submitted. Students are welcome to ask questions about assignments and comments, and we will try to help them make progress towards their writing goals.

5. Copyright and use of materials

Students retain copyright in their original poems and other writing submitted during a course, including work developed in response to a tutor’s suggestions. Where an exercise uses a pre-existing text, rights in that underlying text remain with its copyright owner.

Course lessons, teaching emails and supplied materials are provided for the enrolled student’s personal use. They must not be copied, republished or shared with others without permission, except where the law permits. The student’s own original work remains theirs to use.

6. Fees, cancellations and changes

Course fees should be paid before teaching begins. Once a course has started, a place cannot normally be transferred to another person without Poetry Kit’s agreement.

Students who enrol online will have any statutory cancellation rights that apply to their purchase. For most online teaching-service contracts, this includes a 14-day cancellation period starting the day after the contract is made. Where teaching has not begun, a cancellation made within that period will normally result in a full refund.

If a student expressly requests that teaching begin during the statutory cancellation period and then cancels within it, Poetry Kit may charge a proportionate amount for services already supplied, where the legal requirements for doing so have been met. Where a service has been fully performed during that period, the cancellation right may end if the required express consent and acknowledgement have been obtained. Students will be given the relevant cancellation information before entering into the contract.

After any statutory cancellation period, requests to withdraw will be considered individually. Where permitted by law, Poetry Kit may retain a fair and proportionate amount for teaching already provided and genuine losses resulting from cancellation. We will explain any proposed deduction. We do not apply automatic £25 or £40 cancellation penalties.

Where illness, bereavement or other exceptional circumstances interrupt a course, we may agree a pause, a transfer to a later course or a restart. Any arrangement, additional charge and new final completion date will be confirmed in writing before it takes effect. A transfer or restart does not provide indefinite access to tuition.

If Poetry Kit cancels a course or cannot provide the agreed teaching, we will offer an appropriate remedy, which may include a refund in accordance with the student’s legal rights. Nothing in these terms limits statutory consumer rights.

7. Questions or concerns

If you have a question about a course, its delivery, a payment or a complaint, please email info@poetrykit.org. We will consider your concerns and seek a fair resolution.

Before enrolling, check the expected duration, final completion deadline and fee for your chosen course. Three-week short courses, five-week courses and longer programmes have different timetables. If a final completion deadline is not shown, please ask for written confirmation before the course begins.

Frequently asked questions · Course fees and payment · All courses