1. Agreement and who we are

Stratford Maths is an online and offline-capable mathematics learning service operated by Stratford Technical Academy NPC, a South African non-profit company with registration number 2025/601610/08 ("Stratford", "we", "us" or "our").

These terms apply to learners, parents and guardians, teachers, tutors, school administrators, schools, sponsors and anyone else who accesses or pays for the service. By creating an account, approving a learner, buying or redeeming access, or continuing to use Stratford after being shown these terms, you agree to them. If you accept for a school or another organisation, you confirm that you may bind it.

If a separate written agreement with a school or sponsor conflicts with these terms, that written agreement controls only for that school or programme and only to the extent of the conflict.

2. Children, parents and guardians

Stratford is designed for Grades 4 to 9, so many learners are children. A learner under 18 must have a parent or legal guardian's permission to create and use an account. The parent or guardian accepts these terms for the learner and authorises the personal-information processing described in this notice.

A school or teacher inviting learners must make sure it has the lawful authority and any permission required to use learner information for education. A learner who works independently is not required to join a school. Applying with a class code does not immediately share class progress: the teacher must first accept the application.

Parents and guardians should help younger learners keep their PIN private, use an appropriate recovery email, and understand what their teacher will see after a class application is accepted.

3. Accounts and account safety

Account details must be accurate enough for the service to work. A learner chooses a unique username and four-digit PIN. Teachers and school staff use an email address and password. Do not share a password or PIN, pretend to be someone else, or allow another person to submit work as the account holder.

A learner may add a verified learner or guardian email for recovery and progress reports. That email is optional. Anyone who adds another person's email confirms that the person knows and agrees that Stratford may use it for those purposes. Report frequency can be set to none, weekly or monthly.

Tell us promptly if an account may be compromised. We may require reasonable verification before changing credentials or releasing account information.

4. What Stratford provides

Stratford provides CAPS-aligned Mathematics learning for Grades 4 to 9, including explanations, practice, diagnostics, revision, assessments, progress views, assignments and teacher reporting. Some features are available without payment; other curriculum content needs active paid or sponsored access.

CAPS alignment means the material is designed against the South African curriculum. Stratford is not the Department of Basic Education and does not claim government endorsement. Schools remain responsible for their own teaching, assessment, promotion decisions and compliance duties. Results and recommendations are learning aids, not guarantees of marks, promotion, admission or any other outcome.

Learners can continue with downloaded material when offline. Work done offline may remain only on that device until it reconnects and syncs. Users should not clear the browser's site data before unsynchronised work has uploaded.

A signed-in learner can use “Report a problem” on a question. The learner chooses a fixed problem category; there is no message box. The device sends a bounded description of the displayed Stratford question so the server can calculate non-reversible equality hashes. Stratford retains those hashes, safe machine-format generation coordinates, grade, topic, level, language, report counts and marking booleans; it does not retain the browser-supplied question wording, answer text, explanation text or diagram labels. The learner's selected or typed answer and written working are never included.

5. Schools, teachers, classes and sponsors

A class code identifies a class; it does not grant curriculum access. A learner who uses a class code submits a join request. The responsible teacher may accept or reject it. Once accepted, the teacher and, where applicable, authorised administrators at the same school can see the learner's class identity, progress, focus areas, assigned work and assessment results for legitimate educational purposes.

Teachers and administrators must access only learners they are authorised to teach or support, keep class and staff codes secure, review join requests carefully, and use learner information only for lawful educational administration. They must remove or report access that is no longer appropriate.

Sponsors may receive programme-level impact and participation reports. Stratford designs these reports to use aggregated or de-identified information rather than exposing an individual learner's answers. A separate written sponsorship agreement may set additional lawful reporting requirements.

6. Sponsored access, paid access, cooling-off and refunds

Access periods

A sponsor code or verified payment grants the learner, grade and period shown with that offer. Access codes are not cash, may not be sold, and may be limited by programme, school, grade, expiry or available seats. The exact expiry is shown in the learner's account where available.

Payments

Prices are shown in South African rand. The total shown when the order is reviewed is the amount charged, unless the checkout clearly states otherwise. Paid plans are once-off access purchases. They do not renew automatically and Stratford does not charge the payer again unless the payer starts another purchase. An early renewal extends from the learner's existing paid expiry so remaining paid days are not lost.

Payment is processed by the payment provider shown at checkout. We record the product, amount, status and provider reference needed to verify the transaction and grant access. We do not ask learners to send card details to a teacher and do not store full card details in the Stratford learner account.

Cooling-off and refunds

Where section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act applies, a consumer may cancel an online service transaction without reason within seven days after the agreement is concluded. The Act contains exceptions, including where a service begins with the consumer's consent before that period ends. Nothing in these terms removes a right that South African law does not allow us to remove.

Send a refund or incorrect-charge request to the contact email below, with enough information to identify the payment. We will refund where required by law, including where a duplicate or incorrect charge is confirmed or where Stratford cannot provide purchased access. Approved refunds go back through the original payment method where reasonably possible. Sponsor codes have no cash refund value.

7. Acceptable use

You may use Stratford for personal learning, teaching and authorised school administration. You may not:

• copy, scrape, republish, sell or mass-download the question banks, explanations, software or reports;
• share paid access or codes outside the learner, class or programme for which they were issued;
• probe, bypass or interfere with access controls, rate limits, security, marking or progress records;
• upload malicious material, automate abusive requests, or overload the service;
• use another person's account or learner information without authority; or
• use Stratford in a way that is unlawful, harmful, discriminatory or disruptive to learning.

Fair, authorised testing by Stratford or with our written permission is allowed. Please report suspected security problems privately rather than exploiting or publishing learner information.

8. Privacy notice: information we use and why

For the Stratford service, Stratford Technical Academy NPC is generally the responsible party under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). A school may also be a responsible party for its own educational decisions and instructions. Stratford may act as an operator for a school where a written agreement says so.

Purposes

We use this information to:

• create and secure accounts, verify emails and recover access;
• deliver, mark and adapt mathematics learning;
• sync offline work and show learner, teacher and school progress;
• manage class applications, assignments, sponsored seats, purchases and expiry;
• send requested progress reports and essential service messages;
• prevent abuse, investigate faults, maintain records and comply with law;
• group, investigate, correct and regression-test reported question, answer, explanation, diagram and curriculum faults; and
• produce aggregated or de-identified programme and quality information.

Lawful basis and children's information

We process information with the prior consent of a competent person for a child where required, to perform the service agreement, to meet legal duties, and for legitimate interests such as account security and service integrity where those interests do not override a person's rights. A school must identify its own lawful authority for information it asks Stratford to process.

Who receives information

We disclose only what is reasonably needed to: authorised teachers and school administrators after a learner is accepted into a class; the learner and authorised guardian; authorised Stratford administrators reviewing de-identified question-quality issues; hosting, email, backup and payment providers bound to protect it; professional advisers, regulators or law enforcement where lawfully required; and programme sponsors through aggregated or de-identified reporting. Daily question-quality email summaries contain counts and a secure sign-in link, not learner identities, question text or answers. We do not sell personal information and do not use learner profiles for behavioural advertising.

Retention and security

Detailed learner answer-attempt evidence is normally kept for up to 150 days: the 120-day learning-evidence window plus a 30-day end-of-term reporting buffer. A learner-linked question-report occurrence is normally removed after 90 days and its short-term report-rate bucket after two days. The de-identified aggregate issue may be kept while it is open and for up to 24 months after it is fixed or dismissed so the correction can be regression-tested. Account, derived progress, class, access and assessment records are kept while needed to provide the account and legitimate school record, resolve disputes, protect the service or meet legal duties. Payment and audit records may be kept for the period required by financial or other law. Expired verification and recovery credentials are removed or rendered unusable. We delete or de-identify information when its lawful purpose ends, subject to backups and mandatory retention.

We use reasonable organisational and technical safeguards, including hashed credentials, access control, verification, rate limits and transport encryption. No internet service can promise absolute security. If a breach creates a legal notification duty, Stratford will notify the Information Regulator and affected people as required.

If a service provider processes information outside South Africa, we will use a lawful transfer basis and require appropriate protection.

9. Your privacy choices and rights

Subject to POPIA and other applicable law, a learner, parent, guardian or staff member may ask whether we hold their personal information; request access, correction or deletion; object to certain processing; or withdraw consent. Withdrawal does not make earlier lawful processing unlawful and may mean we cannot continue an account that needs the information concerned.

Learners can change report frequency in the learner dashboard. For an account or privacy request, email us using the address below. We may ask for proof of identity and, for a child, proof that the requester is the competent person. You may also complain to South Africa's Information Regulator.

10. Intellectual property and permission to use Stratford

Stratford and its licensors retain rights in the software, design, question banks, explanations, diagrams, reports, branding and other content. While an account and any required access are active, we grant a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable permission to use the service for learning, teaching or authorised school administration. Ordinary classroom display and printing of a teacher's authorised Stratford materials is allowed. Commercial republication or creation of a competing bank is not.

Users keep ownership of material they lawfully upload, such as a school assessment. They give Stratford the limited permission needed to store, process and display it for the requested service and confirm they have the right to upload it.

11. Availability, maintenance and changes to learning content

We aim to keep Stratford available and accurate, but connections, devices, hosting, power, maintenance and third-party services can fail. We may correct questions, explanations, curriculum mappings, security problems or features. We will take reasonable steps to minimise disruption and preserve valid learner progress, but uninterrupted or error-free service cannot be guaranteed.

If a confirmed content or marking error affected a learner, Stratford may correct the content and related progress record. Teachers should use professional judgment before relying on a single automated result.

13. Suspension, termination and expiry

Access ends when its paid or sponsored period expires. We may suspend or restrict an account where reasonably necessary to protect learners, investigate suspected abuse, prevent unlawful access, respond to a school authority change, or enforce these terms. Where appropriate, we will explain the reason and allow a fair opportunity to respond.

A user may stop using Stratford at any time and may request account deletion. Ending use does not erase payment, audit, assessment or other records that we or a school must lawfully retain. Terms that logically continue—such as payment records, privacy rights, intellectual property and dispute provisions—remain applicable.

14. Questions, complaints and disputes

Please contact us first so we can investigate and try to resolve the issue. Include the account username or payment reference where relevant, but never email a PIN, password or full bank-card number.

A consumer may use any complaint or dispute-resolution body available under South African law, including the National Consumer Commission or a competent consumer tribunal, and may approach a court with jurisdiction. Privacy complaints may be taken to the Information Regulator. These terms are governed by South African law.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms for legal, security, product or operational reasons. The page shows the effective date and version. If a change is material, we will give reasonable notice in the service or through an available contact channel before it takes effect where practicable. A change will not remove already-paid access without a lawful reason or a suitable remedy.