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A connection is what lets a tutor see a learner's records. Families decide who is connected, and can end it at any time.
What it does
AltEd deliberately shares nothing about a child by default. A tutor or provider can only see a learner's profile, assignments, attendance, progress and portfolio once that learner's family has accepted a connection with them — and even then, the tasks and targets you set stay with your family. Everything a tutor sets reaches you; nothing you set reaches them.
That means:
Families are in control. You choose which providers can see your children's records, and you can withdraw that at any moment.
Providers can't add themselves. Nothing a provider does on their own — booking a session, setting work — grants them access. Only your acceptance does.
Ending a connection is immediate. The moment you end it, that provider loses access to everything about your learners.
Ready to follow along in the app?
No password, no card — a magic link and you're in.
Sessions and billing sit on top of a connection: a provider can only schedule a tutoring session for a family they're connected to.
Where to find it
Connections don't have a screen of their own: they sit with the people they connect.
Families:Providers in the side menu, under Provision (/dashboard/providers). Connect with a provider is at the top; requests waiting on you or on them come first; Your connections is at the bottom.
Providers:Learners in the sidebar, under Provision (/dashboard/learners). Families asking to connect is at the top, then your learners, then Families.
Administrators:Schedule → Connections lists every connection on AltEd.
An old link to /dashboard/connections still works — it takes you to the right one of these.
The Providers screen (guardians)
/dashboard/providers is the second place a guardian works, and Providers under Provision in the side menu opens it. Your home page is your family's own day; this is everything that comes from someone else, on one screen:
Connected providers — a card each, with the learners they teach, their next session, how many of this term's sessions were attended, what they've shared, and what you owe them. Message and Sessions sit on every card.
This week — the sessions and classes they've scheduled in the next seven days.
Set by providers — work assigned to your learners by anyone other than you, with its status.
Messages and Shared resources — the latest of each.
Classes — the group classes your learners are signed up to, when there are any.
Showing at the top filters the whole screen to one learner, so "what's going on with Zain" is one click. A learner nobody teaches yet gets a line offering to find them a tutor or class. Until you've connected with anybody, the screen explains what connecting does and offers Find a provider.
Your connections are here too: requests sit at the top under Needs your response and Waiting on them, and Your connections at the bottom lists every provider who can see your learners' records, with the way to end each one. Browse providers on your home page and Find a tutor or class on a learner's card open Connect with a provider here.
Providers: each connected provider, then what they've scheduled, set, said and shared
Step by step
Connect with a provider (families)
Open Providers in the side menu.
Select Connect with a provider at the top of the screen.
Narrow the list if you like:
For — choose one of your learners, and their age goes into Learner's age. Coming from Find a tutor or class on a learner's card, or from Find a provider for …, starts with that learner already chosen.
Subject — one subject, or a whole group: All Languages finds tutors of any language, All Performing arts anyone teaching music, drama or dance. Type to search; a group's name works too. See Subjects below.
Learner's age — type an age to see who teaches it. Providers who haven't said which ages they teach stay in the list, after the ones who have; only those whose ages leave your learner out drop away.
A line under the filters says how many providers match.
Choose the provider. Each shows their headline, then what they teach and the ages — "Arabic, French · Ages 5–11" — from what they've said and from their classes. Only providers who have chosen to be listed appear.
Add a short message if it helps them place you ("Maya's maths, Tuesday afternoons").
Send. The request sits under Waiting on them until the provider accepts.
Subjects and their groups
AltEd keeps one list of subjects, in groups, and uses it wherever you search or choose a subject:
11 plus, GCSE preparation, A level preparation, SATs
Subjects written differently are read as the same one — "Mathematics", "maths" and "GCSE Maths" are all Maths — so older classes and courses are found too.
Respond to a request
Requests needing your answer appear at the top of the screen — Needs your response on a family's Providers screen, Families asking to connect on a provider's Learners — showing who asked and any note they sent.
Accept — they can now see your learners' records.
Decline — nothing is shared, and they're told the request was declined.
Declining also limits how soon the same person can ask again: 30 days after the first refusal, 90 after the second, and after a third they can't ask again at all. The limit follows the two of you — not which view either of you is in, and not whether the request is still listed: ending the connection or withdrawing the request doesn't reset it. It also counts only your own asking, so turning someone down doesn't count against you when you ask them later. You can still ask them whenever you like — changing your own mind is not spam. Anyone can send up to 20 new requests a day.
Report a request
A request to connect is often the first thing someone writes to you, so its note is checked as it's sent, like a message. Under a request waiting for your answer, select Report this request, choose what's wrong and select Send report. Reporting doesn't answer the request — you can still Decline it. See Safe messaging.
If a note you sent is being checked by AltEd's moderators, your Waiting on them list says Being checked by AltEd's moderators before they see it; the request itself has gone, without its words. You're told when the note is passed on or removed.
End a connection
Find them under Your connections at the bottom of Providers (a family), or under Families at the bottom of Learners (a provider).
Open the … menu and choose End connection.
Confirm. Access stops immediately — the provider can no longer see the family's learners, their records or their portfolio.
Past sessions and charges stay on both sides' ledgers; ending a connection stops future access, it doesn't erase history.
The provider keeps their own curriculum plans, but nothing of your children: a plan that was for one of them now says Unassigned, back at Pending, and the provider keeps no copy of how far your child got. The plan's history records that a connection ended, without your child's name. Your own log still has every topic they started and finished.
Any of your own plans you shared with that provider are no longer shared. They stay yours and stay with your child, and connecting again doesn't share them again. See Share a plan with a tutor in Curriculum builder.
If you're a provider
Families connect to you, not the other way round — this is what keeps children's records private by default. So:
Turn on List me as a provider — from Get found by families on your home page, or in Settings › View — so families find you in the provider list, and share your name with the families you work with.
Requests arrive at the top of Learners under Families asking to connect. The last step of your setup guide, Connect with your first family, opens it too.
Accept, and that family's learners appear in the list beneath, the family under Families, and you can schedule sessions for them.
Make sure your headline in Settings says clearly what you teach — it's what families see when choosing you from the list.
Someone's page
Everyone you're connected to has a page — a provider for a family, a family for a provider. It opens when you select their name where it's mentioned in a note, at /dashboard/people/…. It shows who they are to you, their headline and bio, how long you've been connected, the learners you have in common, Message (the conversation with them), and the notes each of you has shared with the other by mentioning them. Only people you're connected to have a page you can open.
What each screen shows
Wherever they appear, connections are ordered by what needs doing:
Needs your response (a family) or Families asking to connect (a provider) — requests awaiting your decision, with Accept and Decline. Only shown when there are some.
Waiting on them — requests you've sent, with a … option to withdraw.
Your connections (a family) or Families (a provider) — everyone currently connected, with the date it started; the … menu has Messagetheir name, which opens your conversation, and End connection. A provider sees this once a family has connected.
Declined requests — a quiet record of what was turned down, folded away beneath.
Tips and good to know
Connect before booking. A provider can't schedule a session for your family until you've accepted, so do this first.
Connecting shares your learners' records with that provider — their profiles, assignments, attendance, progress and portfolio. It doesn't share anything about your other providers or your payments to them, and it doesn't hand over the tasks and targets you set for your own family: a tutor sees the work they set, what your child hands in against it, and the log entries you mark for everyone.
If someone asks to connect and you don't recognise them, decline. You can always connect later.
Ending a connection is not a judgement you have to justify, and it takes effect straight away.
Troubleshooting
Problem
What to try
"You're already connected."
There's an existing connection with that provider — check Your connections on Providers.
"They've already asked to connect with you — accept their request instead."
Their request is waiting under Needs your response.
"The other party needs to accept this request."
You can't accept your own request; the person you asked has to.
A provider says they can't see my child
Check they're under Your connections, not still under Waiting on them.
I'm a provider and can't schedule a session
No family has connected with you yet. Ask them to connect with you from their Providers screen.
I can't find Connections in the menu
It has no screen of its own any more: a family's are on Providers, a provider's on Learners.
"They declined your last request. You can ask again from …"
They turned your request down recently. Wait until the date shown, or ask them to connect with you instead.
"You can't ask again"
They've declined three times. If things change, they can still ask you.
"You've sent a lot of requests today"
There's a limit of 20 new requests a day. Try again tomorrow.
The provider list is empty
No providers have joined yet, or none have completed their profile.