Terms of Service

1. Who we are

Hash Future School ("Hash Future School", "we", "us", "our") is an online school for learners aged 6 to 17, operating from Peringala P O, Kochi, Kerala 683565, India. We teach live, online, in small cohorts, and we guide families towards recognised external board pathways.

You can reach us at learn@hashfuture.school or on +91 94971 20591 (phone and WhatsApp).

These terms should be read with our Privacy Policy and our Refund Policy, which form part of this agreement.

2. The agreement

When you enrol a student, pay a fee, book a demo or use our website or learning platform, you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, please do not enrol or use the service.

Where we describe things on the website, in a proposal, in an email or in a fee confirmation, that description forms part of the agreement. Where a specific written offer conflicts with a general statement on the website, the specific written offer applies.

3. Who may enrol

• The adult who enrols a student - a parent or legal guardian - must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter this agreement. The agreement is with that adult, not with the child.
• The student must be between 6 and 17 years old to join the school programme. Some workshops, and our events, have their own age bands, which we publish on the relevant page.
• You must give us accurate, complete and current information, and tell us promptly if it changes. We may ask for reasonable evidence of a student's age or identity where a programme or a partner body requires it.
• We may decline or cancel an enrolment where a programme is not suitable for a student's needs, where a cohort is full, or where we cannot provide a safe or effective learning environment - and we will refund any fees paid for the part of the programme we have not delivered.

4. What the programme includes

For the annual or monthly school programme, the fee covers:

• twelve months of live online classes, five days a week, in a small cohort;
• a 1:8 mentor ratio, in cohorts of 10 to 15 learners;
• daily parent reports and a verified project portfolio;
• guided pathway planning towards NIOS, Cambridge IGCSE or GED, according to the route your family chooses;
• a monthly in-person meet-up with the local cohort, where one runs in your area;
• access to our learning platform, where records, reports and project work live.

Workshops, intensives, events and one-to-one services are described on their own pages, and their own descriptions form part of this agreement for those purchases.

5. What is not included

These are not part of the programme fee, and are the family's responsibility:

• Board examination fees. NIOS, Cambridge IGCSE and GED set and collect their own fees, directly from families.
• IIT Madras School Connect course fees, which are set and charged per course by IIT Madras, not by us.
• A laptop or tablet and an internet connection good enough for live video classes.
• Travel, accommodation and any personal expenses - for example, travel to an in-person finale or meet-up.
• Third-party textbooks, materials or software a board or partner body requires.

6. Boards, certificates and what we can say

This section matters, so we state it plainly.

• We guide and prepare learners for external board examinations. We are not an accredited board, not a NIOS study centre and not a Cambridge-registered school.
• The certificate or credential is issued by the board, through its official centres, after the board's own examination and its own assessment. Registration, eligibility, examination scheduling and results are decided by the board, not by us.
• Board rules, syllabuses and examination arrangements change from time to time. We follow them and tell you when a change affects your child's pathway, but we cannot control them.
• Pathway guidance is advice, based on what you tell us about your child and on the board's published requirements. The decision to register with a board, and the responsibility that comes with it, remains yours.
• Where a partner institution (such as IIT Madras) sets the terms of its own programme, those terms apply to that programme, and the partner's decisions are its own.

7. Fees, billing and changes

Our published programme fee is ₹99,000 a year, or USD 1,000 a year for families paying from outside India, and ₹8,250 a month on the monthly plan. Twelve monthly payments come to ₹99,000. The published fee is what we charge, and we confirm the exact figure in writing before you pay anything.

• Payment. Fees are paid through the secure payment page or link we send you, operated by our payment provider. We never ask for card details by email, chat or over the phone, and we never accept payment into a personal account.
• Billing cycle. On the monthly plan, each month is billed in advance for the month ahead. On the annual plan, the year is billed as agreed in your fee confirmation.
• Taxes. Any tax that applies to your purchase is shown on your invoice and included in the amount you pay, unless your confirmation says otherwise.
• Currency and international payments. Families outside India pay the USD amount through an international payment link. The amount your bank debits may differ with its own exchange rate and charges, which are outside our control.
• Fee reviews. We review the fee once a year. We will tell you about a fee change before it applies to you, and it will not apply to a period you have already paid for.
• Late or missed payment. If a payment is not made, we will contact you. If it stays unpaid, we may pause access to live classes and the platform until the account is cleared, and we may end the enrolment under section 17.
• Scholarships and discounts. Where we grant one, we will confirm its conditions in writing, including whether it continues if attendance or engagement falls away.

8. Cancellation and refunds

You may withdraw from a programme by telling us in writing at learn@hashfuture.school or on WhatsApp. The trial period, the refunds available for the school programme, workshops and event registrations, and how long a refund takes are all set out in our Refund Policy, which forms part of these terms.

Fees paid directly to third parties - board examination fees, and IIT Madras School Connect course fees - are not ours to refund. We will help you ask the right organisation, but the decision is theirs.

9. What we ask of your family

• A workable learning environment. A quiet space, a working device, a stable connection, and an adult nearby for younger learners.
• Attendance and engagement. Live sessions work when the student turns up ready to take part. We will tell you if attendance or participation becomes a problem, and we will work with you on it before it affects the student's place.
• Supervision of device use. Families supervise their child's use of AI tools and the internet outside our sessions. We teach responsible use; we cannot monitor a child's device at home.
• Honest work. Students may use AI tools in their work, and are expected to disclose that use and to be able to explain what they have built. Work a student cannot explain does not count as theirs.
• Your messages and notices. Please read the emails and messages we send about schedules, fees and your child's progress.
• Class links and access. Class links, platform logins and materials are for your family. Please do not share them with anyone else.

10. Your child's work and portfolio

• Your child owns their own work. Projects, artwork, code, writing and ideas a student creates remain the student's (or your family's). We do not claim ownership of them.
• We may publish approved work. With the parent or guardian's consent, we may feature a student's project on our showcase pages or in our marketing, under the display name and details agreed with you. We never publish a child's contact details, and we never publish a child's photograph without written consent.
• You can take it down. You may withdraw that consent at any time by writing to us, and we will remove the published work and confirm that we have.
• A licence for internal use. You grant us permission to keep, review and share your child's work inside the school - with mentors, moderators and the school community - so we can teach, assess and moderate it.

11. Our materials and brand

Our curriculum, lesson materials, assessments, platform, reports, templates, recordings, logos and brand belong to Hash Future School or our licensors. Your family gets a personal, non-transferable licence to use them for your own child's learning while you are enrolled.

That licence does not allow you to copy, record, publish, resell, sublicense or hand our materials to another family or to a competing school, or to use our name or logo without our written permission. If you would like to use something publicly - for example, to mention that your child attends Hash Future School - ask us first and we will normally say yes in writing.

12. Recording and privacy in class

• We do not record live classes as a matter of course. If we need to record a particular session - for example, for a student who has to miss it, or for mentor training - we will tell you beforehand and ask the parent or guardian for consent, and any recording is kept only for that purpose.
• Please do not record or photograph other children. Sessions include other students. Recording, photographing, screenshotting or sharing a session with anyone outside it is not permitted, and would breach our Privacy Policy and the privacy of other families.
• Your own child, for your own family. If you want a record of your child's own presentation or progress, ask the mentor, and we will help where we reasonably can.
• Reporting a concern. If you believe a session was recorded or shared in breach of this section, tell us immediately at learn@hashfuture.school.

13. Conduct and acceptable use

Our sessions are a shared space for children. We expect students, parents, mentors and guests to treat each other with respect.

• Not acceptable: bullying, harassment, discrimination, threats, abusive language, sharing sexual or violent content, or anything that makes another learner feel unsafe; plagiarism or presenting another person's work as your own; using our platform for spam, advertising or unlawful activity.
• Private contact. Mentors, staff and other families must not contact a student privately outside our own school channels. If you receive such contact, please report it to us immediately.
• Safety first. We may remove a participant from a session, and we may suspend or end an enrolment, where we believe someone's safety or the learning environment requires it. Where a concern involves a child, we will involve the parent or guardian and, where the law or safeguarding good practice requires it, the appropriate authority.
• Consequences. Less serious issues are handled with a conversation and a clear expectation. Repeated or serious breaches can lead to suspension or the end of an enrolment under section 17.

14. Events and competitions

Programmes such as the International Junior Entrepreneurship Challenge, Future Talks and our workshops have their own rules, eligibility criteria and deadlines, published on their own pages. By entering, you accept those rules as well as these terms.

• Entry and registration are complete only when the published fee has been paid, where a fee applies.
• Judging, scoring and awards are decided by us and our judges, and decisions on eligibility and awards are final.
• You are responsible for the accuracy of your entry, for having the right to submit the material you enter, and for the conduct of your team and mentor.
• With your consent, we may publish entries, names, schools and photographs of participants in connection with the event. For any participant under 18, that consent comes from the parent or guardian, and it can be withdrawn by writing to us.
• Travel to an in-person finale is optional and self-funded, unless we grant a travel scholarship in writing.
• Event fees and refunds are covered by the Refund Policy.

15. Technology and availability

• Classes are delivered over the internet, using third-party conferencing, video and platform services. Their availability, and your internet connection, are outside our control.
• We work to keep the service available, but we do not promise that it will be uninterrupted or error-free. There will be scheduled maintenance, and there will occasionally be failures.
• Where we are responsible for a cancelled or missed live session, we will offer a replacement session, a recorded alternative or a credit. Please tell us promptly about a session that did not work for you.
• Neither of us is responsible for a delay or failure caused by something beyond our reasonable control, such as a widespread internet or power failure, a natural event, a change in law, or the failure of a third-party platform.

16. Timetable, mentors and cohorts

We may adjust timetables, class groupings, mentor allocations and the order of topics during a programme. Where a cohort is smaller than we planned, we may combine two small cohorts so that the learning experience works, and we will tell you if that affects your child's schedule.

We will not materially reduce the programme you have paid for without telling you. If we make a substantial change that significantly affects your child - for example, a large reduction in live teaching hours - you may withdraw from that programme and receive a refund of fees for the undelivered part, under our Refund Policy.

17. Suspension and ending enrolment

You may end an enrolment at any time by telling us in writing. Fees already due, and the refund position, are governed by the Refund Policy.

We may pause or end an enrolment if:

• fees remain unpaid after we have contacted you about them;
• there is a serious or repeated breach of these terms, including the conduct rules in section 13;
• we believe that continuing would put a student, a mentor or another family at risk;
• we are required to do so by law, by a board, or by a partner institution; or
• we are no longer able to run a programme - for example, if a cohort cannot be sustained.

Where we end an enrolment for a reason other than a breach by your family, we refund the fees paid for the part of the programme we have not delivered. Where we end it because fees are unpaid, the outstanding amount remains due. On request, we will give you the student's reports and portfolio records so your child keeps their own work.

18. Outcomes we do and do not promise

Our promise is about the quality of the teaching, the honesty of our reporting and the work your child does. It is not a promise about results.

• We do not promise any particular mark, grade, rank, admission, scholarship, placement, income or other outcome, for any programme, pathway or student.
• We do not promise that a board will accept a registration, grant an exemption, hold a centre near you, or schedule an examination when you would prefer it. Those decisions belong to the board.
• What we do promise is this: we teach the programme we have described, we tell you honestly how your child is progressing through the reports we publish, and we will act quickly if something is not working.

19. Our responsibility to you

• We are responsible for providing the programme with reasonable care and skill, and for complying with the law that applies to us.
• Except where the law does not allow a limit, our total liability to your family under this agreement is limited to the fees you have paid us in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim. A refund under our Refund Policy is counted towards that limit.
• We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses - for example, lost earnings, the cost of alternative schooling or loss of opportunity - where those are not a direct and foreseeable result of our failure.
• Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability that cannot lawfully be limited: our liability for fraud or wilful misconduct, for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or your rights under consumer protection law, including the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 in India.
• You are responsible for the conduct of your family on our platform, and for any fees or materials your child buys from a third party using the accounts you control.

20. Changes to these terms

We update these terms from time to time, usually to reflect a change in our programmes, our providers or the law. The version published on this page is the current one, with the "last updated" date shown at the top.

Where a change materially affects your family, we will tell you by email before it takes effect. A change never applies retrospectively to a period you have already paid for. If you do not accept a material change, you may withdraw before it takes effect, and the Refund Policy will apply.

21. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of India, and the courts at Kochi, Kerala have jurisdiction over any dispute arising from them.

Before going to court, please write to us at learn@hashfuture.school with the subject "Grievance". We will acknowledge your message and try to resolve it directly, and we will tell you who is handling it. Nothing in this section removes a right you have under the law of the country where you live, including your right to approach a consumer protection authority or a court there.

22. Contact us