1. Course
1.1 Enrolment
A student's enrolment in the British Council's annual courses for children and young people is valid for the entire school year and the annual fee applies. For students enrolled during the school year, the enrolment shall be valid until the end of the school year and the respective payment plans shall apply.
To complete the enrolment, all documentation must be filled in and signed and the payment must be made.
1.2 Guardians can choose to enrol their children in face-to-face courses or online courses.
These regulations are applicable to the enrolment and attendance of face-to-face courses, online courses or face-to-face courses that must take place online due to closure periods.
2. Fees and payments
Fees can be paid preferably by bank transfer or Ticket Ensino Digital. Payments by cheque, debit or credit card, Cheque Estudante, Cheque Formação, Cheque Dejeuner, Ticket Ensino, or Ticket Educação are also accepted.
If trimestral or monthly payment option is chosen, payments should be made within the stipulated deadline, communicated during enrolment and on point 4.
Invoices are sent by email. Upon receiving them, guardians are responsible for confirming all data is correct.
Students with sponsored courses must pay the complete annual fee and matriculation fee upon enrolment, by submitting the respective form filled out and signed, in order to issue the invoice. Sponsored students are not entitled to refunds.
The British Council cannot accept payments made from banks (or other financial institutions) sanctioned by the UK or any other relevant jurisdiction. Where the British Council discovers evidence of payment from a sanctioned bank and/or sanctioned financial institution we will freeze all funds related to that payment and will be unable to deliver the service for which the payment was intended. Please therefore ensure that you do not make payments from an account in a sanctioned bank and/or sanctioned financial institution.
3. Drop outs, Refunds and Credits
3.1 The enrolment is effective for the whole school year, regardless of the chosen payment method, except in the situations detailed in sections 3.2 and 3.3.
Please send any requests for dropouts, refunds or credits via email, to info@pt.britishcouncil.org.
3.2 Requests for refunds or credits made before the first class of the course:
The fee paid shall be refunded or credited in full.
3.3 Requests for refunds or credits made after the start of the course:
Requests for refunds or credits will be considered in the following circumstances:
- Medical reasons.
- Change of place of residence, study or work to a location where the British Council does not provide face-to-face or online courses.
- Changes in work hours or the official school timetable, which results in total incompatibility with all the timetables available for the course, either face-to-face or online.
- The refund or credit must be requested in writing and accompanied by documentation proving one of the situations described above.
Upon approval, a refund or credit shall be made as follows:
- The date of the refund request will be taken into account when calculating the amount to be refunded/credited and will be proportional to the classes the student will not be attending from that date onwards.
- An administration fee of EUR 60.00 shall be retained.
Requests for refunds must include:
- Request for refund
- Documentation supporting the reason for the request
- Bank details form.
In case two members of the same family are enrolled, where one of the enrolments is cancelled, the family discount shall also be cancelled.
In the case of sponsored students, there will be no refunds.
In the case of payments by any type of education/training tickets or 'cheques' there will be no refunds.
Credits must be used by a specific date or within one year of the date of issue. They may also be transferred for the enrolment of a direct family member in the same school year or in the first term of the following school year. Credits cannot be converted into refunds.
Refund payments are made by bank transfer.
Refunds and credits cannot be issued for academic periods or courses that have already ended.
The British Council cannot make payments to banks (or other financial institutions) sanctioned by the UK or any other relevant jurisdiction. If you request a refund to be sent to an account at a sanctioned bank and/or sanctioned financial institution, you will be asked to nominate an alternative method of payment that does not breach sanctions. Failure to provide an alternative method of payment will result in non- payment of the relevant funds
4. Fees
Paying for enrolment is made through the payment options described in Point 2. Monthly payments will be made through digital platform, with no exceptions.
| Payment dates |
Early Years (4-5 years old) |
Young Learner |
YL (Prime) |
|
| Annual payment |
Upon enrolment |
1.050€ + Reg. fee |
1.420€ + Reg. fee |
1.480€ + Reg. fee |
|
Termly |
Upon enrolment |
380€ + Reg. fee |
503€ + Reg. fee |
500€ + Reg. fee |
| Following installments |
380€ | 503€ | 500€ | |
| Monthly payment |
Upon enrolment |
114€ + Reg. fee |
151€ + Reg. fee |
156€ + Reg. fee |
|
Following |
114€ | 151€ | 156€ |
The registration fee is 60.00€ | Family discount is 30€ from the second enrolled child. Family discount is 20€ for registrations on the 2nd term and 10€ for registrations on the 3rd term
In case the deadline for payment expires and the fee is still due, access to classes may be suspended. If payment is not made 120 days after the deadline, the British Council reserves the right to submit a case to the Balcão Nacional de Injunções.
The British Council reserves the right to cancel classes with an insufficient number of students, in which case every effort will be made to find an alternative timetable for students.
5. Force majeure
Enrolment is for the school year, for a total of 30 weeks of classes.
The academic progression in face-to-face and online classes is the same. In both face-to-face and online classes, students benefit from access to exclusive British Council content, namely in the Primary Plus and Secondary Plus programmes.
Initial enrolment is made for face-to-face or online classes. If, at any time, the British Council is unable to continue providing face-to-face classes (following restrictions imposed by the authorities or by decision of the British Council, based on health, welfare or safety directives, or for other reasons of force majeure), face-to-face classes will be switched to online classes. In these cases, online classes become the teaching mode for courses initially acquired as face-to-face.
6. Other
6.1 Unattended classes.
It is not possible to make up for classes missed by students.
6.2 Period of closure
The British Council is closed on Portuguese public holidays and may also be closed on some occasions for training or administrative reasons, and no classes shall be scheduled on these days. The calendar also includes periods without classes during the Christmas and Easter holidays.
6.3 Teacher turnover
The British Council tries not to make any changes in the teaching staff during the school year. However, due to illness, other absences or force majeure, unavoidable changes may occur.
6.4 Depending on the level, different timetable options will be available. Enrolments shall be processed according to the date on which the enrolment documents were received at our customer services
As there is a limit of students per class, it may happen that, depending on the time when the enrolment is requested for a given timetable, the class is already full.
In these cases, the British Council opens a waiting list. The waiting list does not constitute a commitment to open more places in a particular timetable. Guardians are recommended to always request enrolment for alternative timetables.
In the event that there is more than one class of the same level in the same timetable, we may transfer students between these groups according to age, or for academic reasons. Class transfer requests after the start of the school year must be approved by the academic team.
6.5 Use of online teaching platform
6.5.1 Access and use of the platform must be in accordance with the guidelines provided by the British Council at the time of enrolment.
Access to the platform is given through credentials using the guardian's email address. This information can be changed after the start of the course at the written request of the Guardian.
6.5.2 We will use all reasonable endeavours to ensure that the online learning platform services are available at class times.
However, due to the nature of the Internet, the British Council cannot guarantee that the experience of using the services on these platforms will be uninterrupted or error-free.
The British Council cannot be held responsible for any delays, downtime or any other loss or damage caused by issues in the transfer of data over telecommunication networks and facilities, including the Internet, nor for any difficulties derived from the browser or equipment used.
The customer acknowledges that the provision of these digital services may be subject to limitations, delays and other problems inherent in the use of these communication services, and that no compensation will be provided.
6.5.3 No image or audio recording of any element of the online classes is permitted, nor is the reproduction and distribution of course materials; copyrights and intellectual property rights are the exclusive property of the British Council. The British Council grants the student a non-exclusive licence to use the course materials for individual study, never for commercial purposes.
Students must respect the confidentiality of the information to which they have access during classes and the privacy of other participants.
The British Council reserves the right to cancel the enrolment if the conditions detailed in this section are not met.
7. Communications
All communications regarding the administrative or academic management of the course attended by the student will be sent exclusively to the Guardian's email address.
On the enrolment form, the Guardian may nominate a second person:
- as an emergency contact
- to share information, if requested by the second contact.
In the absence of consent to share information, when requested by this second contact, our customer services will not be able to access requests for information that are not made by the Guardian.
8. Additional information on data protection
The person responsible for using your personal data is British Council, Representação Permanente em Portugal, NIF 980 430 836, Rua Luís Fernandes, 1-3, 1249-062, Lisboa. Email: info@pt.britishcouncil.org
8.1 Why we use your data
8.1.1 Administrative and academic management of the contracted course, which includes:
a) management of the registration process, invoicing and payments,
b) teaching activity, which may include: i) using personal data (student image and voice) during the real time broadcasting of online classes through the British Council learning hub; ii) using student audio or video recordings as academic support; iii) connecting with British Council students from other countries, sharing their work and class recordings to learn about other cultures; iv) using our third-party digital portfolio Seesaw, for teacher, student and parent engagement, sharing among them students’ work e.g. worksheets, photographs, drawings, videos and voice recordings; v) use of the learning hub. (Personal data collected and shared through and for the purpose of the learning activities described above will only be retained as long as necessary, for the purposes it was collected and for the duration of your relationship with us.) Our lawful basis for all course-related administrative and teaching activities is the performance of a contract for the provision of our services.
c) service-related communications with the guardian,
d) communications about our products, services and events and surveys requesting your opinion on our products, provided you have not opted out of these.
8.1.2 To respond to educational and/or health needs situations that may require our attention: the guardianmay, at their own discretion, communicate, on a totally voluntary basis, information that will allow us to provide a better service to the student in situations of disability, specific educational support needs, or health issues where our support may be required.
In relation to these purposes, we will retain data for as long as the relationship with the student resulting from the enrolment process is in force or as long as indicated by the legislation in force.
8.1.3. For marketing communications regarding products, activities and similar services and studies that allow us to obtain your feedback on products and services.
We will keep the data for this purpose for as long as the data subject does not indicate their wish to oppose such processing by opting out of receiving promotional communications from us.
8.2 Legal basis for data processing
8.2.1 The processing of personal data of students under 18 years old and their guardians/parents, that we process for the purposes indicated in 8.1.1 above (administrative, processes, course delivery (in-person and online) and contracted service-related communications) is necessary for the provision of the contracted services.
8.2.2 The legal basis for processing personal data regarding the health of children and young people for the purpose indicated in 8.1.2 above (responding to educational and/or health needs situations) is the consent of the parents/guardians of the underage student
8.2.3 The legal basis for sending marketing communications and initiatives to assess customer satisfaction levels (purposes stated in 8.1.3 above) is our legitimate interest, as allowed by law 41/2004 on data processing and the protection of privacy in the online communications sector
8.3 We may share your personal data with the following recipients
8.3.1 Tax Authorities
8.3.2 Social Services or other public entities with competence in this matter, in cases requiring the adoption of measures for the protection of minors.
8.3.3 British Council Headquarters in the United Kingdom, for purposes exclusively related to the management of British Council. Our corporate data protection policy can be found here.
8.3.4 National and corporate suppliers that process your data on our behalf as sub-contractors and in accordance with the British Council's instructions, including the obligation to adopt technical and organisational measures to ensure data security, for the purposes indicated in point 8.1 above.
8.4 Data transfers
Some of our global corporate suppliers are located outside the European Economic Area. In these cases, international data transfers are conducted in accordance with the required provisions and with the appropriate guarantees, such as standard contractual clauses or other mechanisms approved by the European Commission.
8.5 Your rights as a data subject
You have the right to ask the British Council for access to your personal data and the data of your child, the correction of incorrect data and the deletion of data when they are no longer necessary for the purposes for which they were collected. In certain circumstances, you may request the restriction of processing or object to the processing of data. In these cases, we only maintain the necessary data to reply to any possible complaints.
You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, for any of the purposes for which your consent was requested, taking into account that this will not affect the legality of the data processing carried out on the basis of your consent and prior to its withdrawal.
You can exercise your rights by contacting us at igdisclosures@britishcouncil.org. We will deal with your request within the stipulated period of thirty days.