Registered teachers only
Not “experienced tutors”. Not university students. Every person teaching on loop is registered with the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand and holds a current practising certificate.
Checked by a person, and re-checked
We verify each registration number against the public register by hand before anyone teaches. We record every certificate’s expiry date and monitor it continuously — if one lapses, that teacher stops receiving students automatically, that day.
Every lesson recorded
Not some lessons, and not on request — every one. Both people are told before they join and a recording indicator stays on screen throughout. Only loop staff can watch a recording, and only where there is a reason to, such as a concern or a complaint — who opened it and why is logged. Recordings are deleted after 90 days.
Boundaries in writing
Every teacher signs a safeguarding policy before their first lesson: all contact stays inside loop, no personal phone numbers or social media, no meeting in person, no secrecy, and no recording a lesson themselves.
About Police vetting
The Teaching Council Police-vets teachers as part of issuing and renewing a practising certificate. loop relies on that rather than running a duplicate check — we say so plainly, because a current practising certificate is the vetting. Mandatory safety checking under the Children’s Act 2014 applies to government-funded services such as schools, not to a private platform like loop. We hold the Teaching Council’s standard because we think it is the right one, not because we are required to.
If something worries you
Tell us
A concern is taken seriously regardless of how experienced the teacher is.
We may suspend immediately
Suspension is a precaution while we look into it, not a finding.
We watch the lesson
We are not asking a child and an adult to recall what was said.
We report where we should
To the Police, Oranga Tamariki or the Teaching Council. We do not treat that as a last resort.
Nobody is disadvantaged for raising a concern in good faith — parent, student or teacher. There is more detail on our child safety page.
Who to contact
Patrick Helsby — Founder and CEO
loop’s named safeguarding contact
If a child is in immediate danger, call the Police on 111 first. Don’t wait for us.