Thank You for Your interest in NFER Online Assessments as part of Your school’s/trust’s assessment approach. These Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) cover the supply of Tokens and Subscriptions to customers of NFER Online Assessments (NOA). We recommend that You read these T&Cs prior to purchasing so You are aware of how NOA Tokens and Subscriptions can be purchased and employed, as well as Your legal rights as a Customer.

 Definition of Terms Used in This Document

• “Agreement”: means these T&Cs
• “Assessment”: this refers to the complete set of NOA “Tests” within a particular subject, for example, a maths Assessment will comprise of three “Tests”
• “Customer”: the school or Multi Academy Trust (MAT)
• “Customer Account”: the school or Multi Academy Trust (MAT) account required to make a purchase of a NOA Product(s) on the NFER Resources Shop
• “Establishment”: this refers to either the school or MAT to which the NOA account will belong.
• “Establishment Administrator”: a user with full access and permissions to the NOA Establishment Portal who can add, edit, and delete Admin/Establishment Teachers and Learners from within their Establishment. They can also allocate Learners to Assessments, print passcodes, launch Assessments and view the NOA Reporting Tool.
• “Establishment Teacher”: a user with access to the NOA Establishment Portal who can allocate Learners to Assessments, print passcodes, launch Assessments, and view the NOA Reporting Tool. They will not be able to add/amend/delete Establishment Administrators or Teachers or Learners.
• “Learners”: this term refers to the Establishment’s pupils who will be undertaking (or currently are/have already undertaken) one or more Assessments.
• “NOA Establishment Portal”: the online platform where Admin and Establishment Teachers of NOA can administer all purchased NOA Products, including adding new and amending existing users (in the case of Establishment Administrators), uploading class lists, launching Assessments, and viewing Assessment data and reports via the NOA Reporting Tool.
• “NOA Learner Portal”: the online platform where Learners undertake the NOA tests.
• “NOA Reporting Tool”: this refers to the Assessment reporting function that sits within the NOA Establishment Portal and where Establishment Administrators/Teachers can view data and reports based on completed Assessments. Note, this is not to be confused with the “NFER Tests Analysis Tool” which is a separate tool used to record results and view assessment data and reports for Our paper-based assessments.
• “Products and Services”: collectively refers to Resources available for purchase available to schools and / or MATS ordered via the NFER Resources Shop
• “Subscription”: an option for Customers who want to subscribe to three years of access to NFER Online Assessments. Each Subscription will cover the chosen subject and the three terms within the academic year: autumn, spring, and summer.
• “Token” – a credit equivalent to the value of one Assessment per pupil.
• “Test” – an individual Test being a component of an Assessment e.g., maths, Mathematical Reasoning – Paper 2.
• “User License” – a credit equivalent to one Assessment per pupil for Subscriptions Customers
• “We,” “Us,” “Our”, “NFER” - refers to The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) in England and Wales. Head office and registered address: The Mere, Upton Park, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 2DQ. Registered charity number 313392. Registered number 900899 (England and Wales). A company limited by guarantee.
• “You” or “Your” - refers to the individual authorised to act and acting on behalf of their Establishment visiting Our website/NFER Resources Shop to buy Products from Us.

1. NOA Order Options – Tokens and Subscriptions

1.1 There are three options for ordering NFER Online Assessments (NOA) for Your school/Multi Academy Trust (MAT). These are:

• Tokens
• One-year subscriptions
• Three-year Subscriptions

1.2 For Tokens purchases, each NOA Token is equivalent to one reading or maths             Assessment per pupil, per year group and term. For example, one NOA maths                 token provides one pupil with access to the three Tests that comprise the maths                 Assessment: Arithmetic (Test 1) and Mathematical Reasoning (Tests 2 and 3). This             token can be used for any maths assessment in years 3-6 and any available term             (autumn, spring, and summer for years 3-5; autumn and spring for year 6).

1.3 Access to Your NOA One-Year Subscription will begin on the same day the order is placed (unless problems are encountered with the order placed) and will be valid for 365 days.

1.4 Access to Your NOA Three-Year Subscription will begin on the same day the order is placed (unless problems are encountered with the order placed) and will be valid for 1095 days.

1.5 NOA Subscriptions come in four packages based on the total pupil numbers of Your key stage 2 year groups. See the table below.

1.6 For schools with more than 360 KS2 pupils on roll, please contact Our Schools Partnership Team, (schoolspartnerships@nfer.ac.uk) who can advise on bespoke packages.

1.7 For purchases via MAT Head Offices, please refer to the roll size table outlined in 1.5 above to determine the subscription package required for the relevant trust schools within the MAT. You may also wish to contact Our Schools Partnership Team, (schoolspartnerships@nfer.ac.uk) who can offer further purchasing advice.

 2. Pricing

2.1 Prices for NOA Tokens and Subscriptions are detailed on Our website.

At any time, We reserve the right to change prices without prior notice. Any price changes will be reflected on Our website.

2.2 No discounts are eligible for any orders of NOA Tokens and Subscriptions, unless specifically stated in writing by NFER.

3. Purchasing

3.1 Payments can be made via debit card, credit card or by invoice.

All purchases need to be completed via the NFER Resources Shop and will require a Customer Account to be set-up in order to process the payment and obtain the relevant details for the initial NOA Establishment Administrator account(s) to be created and delivered. A valid school email address is required for the Customer Account and the Establishment Administrator e.g. a Gmail or Hotmail address will not be accepted as proof that the request is legitimate and genuine.

3.2 If paying by invoice, payments must be made within 30 days of the purchase of NOA Token(s)/Subscription(s) from the NFER Resources Shop. We reserve the right to withhold access to NOA if payment has not been received within this timeframe.

3.3 Payment for Three-Year Subscriptions will be broken down over the duration of the Subscription. An annual invoice will be generated for each of the three years covered by Your Three-Year Subscription purchase. One-Year Subscriptions and Token purchases will be invoiced in full at the point of purchase.

4. Customers Residing Outside of UK

All NFER NOA Products are available for use outside of the UK. If You encounter any technical issues regarding the Product, please contact Our NOA Helpdesk.

5. Validity of Tokens

5.1 Each NOA Token is valid for one-year (365 days) from the date of purchase which means it can be used at any point for any online Assessment during that period. When Tokens are allocated to an Assessment the allocation will draw down the number of Token (s) closest to the expiry date rather than, for example, the Tokens that have most recently been purchased.

5.2 Once a Token has expired i.e. past the 365 days of validity, it will not be possible for it to be reinstated for use on any NOA Assessment.

5.3 Tokens are non-transferable and can only be used by the Establishment Account that made the purchase. They cannot be transferred to other, external Establishment Accounts.

5.4 The minimum number of individual Tokens that Customers can purchase is one with no maximum limit.

6. Validity of User Licenses (Subscriptions)

6.1 User Licenses will remain valid for the entire Subscription period but will cease to be valid after a Subscription period expires.

6.2 User Licenses are only applicable to NOA for the purchased subject and year group.

7. Re-takes

7.1 In the event that an Assessment exercise is interrupted due to unforeseen circumstances, once the Test is paused it can be resumed again at a later date without the need for new Tokens to be used or purchased. Alternatively, Establishment Administrators/Teachers can select to reset one or more individual Tests to enable Learners to restart the Test(s) from the beginning.

7.2 Individual Tests can be reset at any stage whether they are completed or are currently in progress.

7.3 When resetting a Test, the Token or User License can only be used by the

assigned individual Learner originally selected where the Assessment exercise has been interrupted due to unforeseen circumstances.

7.4 If an Assessment exercise is interrupted due to a technical error from NOA, please contact Our NOA Helpdesk so that we can attempt to fix the issue.

 8. Launching Assessments: General

8.1 If You decide to run a NOA Assessment outside of a typical term time e.g. requiring pupils to undertake a NOA summer Year 3 Assessment at the start of Year 4 autumn term,

You are advised to get in touch with us beforehand via Our NOA Helpdesk as this may impact reporting data.

8.2 We recommend running technical checks beforehand to ensure access to the Establishment Portal, as well as running practice questions on the Tests themselves.

 9. Refunds: Tokens

9.1 Purchasers of NOA Tokens can request a refund for the full amount of unused Tokens purchased if the request has been received in writing to the NOA Helpdesk within 30 days of the purchase date and there is no record of these NOA Tokens being used to

complete an Assessment within that timeframe.

9.2 Once we have received the refund request, the requested number of NOA Tokens to be refunded will expire on the Establishment’s account and will no longer be available to use.

10. Cancellations and Refunds – Subscriptions

10.1 Customers of any Subscription can request to cancel their Subscription within the first 30 days of purchase. They will be eligible for a refund for the full amount of their Subscription value provided that there is no record of a NOA Assessment being completed by one or more pupils within that timeframe.

10.2 Customers of three-year Subscriptions will have the option of activating a break under this clause after 365 days from the date of purchase i.e. the first year of Subscription access. They will have a 30-day window in which to activate this clause and will need to do so in writing by sending an email to the NOA Helpdesk requesting to activate their break clause. The clause will remain valid for the full 30 days provided that there is no record of a NOA Test being completed by six or more pupils within the 30-day window – the pupil amount is designed to cover any re-takes within this time-frame. If there is no record of this, then Customers are eligible to request a refund for the remaining amount (pro-rata) of the two years left on their Subscription.

11. Refunds – General

All refund requests need to be submitted via email to the NOA Helpdesk and need to be requested from a valid school email address e.g. a Gmail or Hotmail address will not be accepted as proof that the request is legitimate and genuine.

 12. Licensing of NOA Content

12.1 We own all intellectual property rights for the NOA Establishment Portal and NOA.

12.2 Once an order for NOA Tokens or Subscription(s) has been placed and accepted, we will license access to the NOA Establishment Portal to Your Establishment and the ability to launch Assessments. Any other use of NOA content is strictly prohibited unless permission is granted by NFER. You/Your Establishment may not copy, modify, publish, transfer, be involved in any transfer or sale of, reproduce, distribute or in any way exploit any of NOA’s content, in whole or in part.

13. Copyright and Our Rights to Prohibit Use of the NOA Platform

13.1 All materials, technical design, content, images and information, know-how, methodologies, and other intellectual property used in providing access to NOA, including but not limited to the software design and content of the platform which includes the Assessments, administration instructions and guides are all copyright NFER and cannot be reproduced or used for any purpose other than that permitted and/or licenced by a single purchase of that Product or Service.

13.2 If there are any instances of the NOA Product being used for unpermitted, and/or commercial purposes including as outlined in 12.2 we reserve the right to withdraw access to the NOA Establishment Portal and to also take appropriate further action depending on the severity of the breach identified.

 14. Our Rights to Adapt the NOA Product

14.1 We reserve the right to adapt the NOA Product to adhere to relevant laws and regulations.

14.2 We may be required to undertake technical improvements and updates to the NOA Product. Our intention is for these improvements and updates not to interfere with Customers’ use of the Product. However, where that is unavoidable, we aim to inform all Customers ten working days or more before any planned downtime to undertake these improvements and updates. Customers will also receive a resolution e-mail to confirm the downtime period has finished and NOA is available for use again.

14.3 In the case of any unplanned maintenance i.e., in response to technical issues raised, we will inform all NOA Customers at the earliest opportunity and how their access to the Establishment Portal and/or the Assessments may be affected. We will keep Customers updated on these matters until the issue is resolved.

15. Technical Support for NOA Customers

15.1 NOA is supported by Our in-house NOA Helpdesk; any queries or issues regarding Your use of the NOA Product can be raised via this page. The Helpdesk will contain the option to raise a ticket or telephone Our Helpline, as well as provide useful articles to support you throughout Your use of NOA.

15.2 In the case of any upgrades to the NOA Establishment Portal or the NOA Learner Portal, which would temporarily restrict access to users (in full or partially), we will endeavour to ensure that these periods will take place during quieter usage times i.e. outside of school hours and term time. All users will be informed of these upgrades via email at least ten working days prior to the upgrade work taking place.

15.3 For basic queries Our NOA Helpdesk team will endeavour to provide an initial response within one-working day and no longer than three working days of the ticket being raised.

16. Establishment Administrator Access

16.1 When purchasing NOA via the Resources Shop, you will be prompted to provide a ‘delivery contact’ who will be set-up as an Establishment Administrator of Your

Establishment’s NOA account. In the case of MAT Head Office orders on behalf of their Trust schools, you will be prompted to add a person for each of the schools You are purchasing NOA Products. Please note, Establishment Administrators can change their access and other users at any point after they have gained access, but it is advisable to consider who the most appropriate Establishment Administrator for Our Establishment should be initially.

16.2 There is no limit on the number of Establishment Administrator or Establishment Teachers that can be setup for an individual Establishment.

16.3 It will be the responsibility of existing Establishment Administrators to add/amend/delete users to their NOA Establishment Portal. For more information on how to add/amend users to the NOA Establishment Portal, please see this link.

17. Security

17.1 All appropriate technical and organisational measures are in place to protect data. NFER is ISO/IEC 27001 certified which demonstrates that we have the policies, practices, procedures, organisational structures, and system functions to maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information. We also hold Cyber Essentials Plus. Current Certificate numbers can be provided on request. Data uploaded to the NOA Establishment Portal is encrypted at rest and in transit using HTTPS/TLS. Data in NFER Products are securely stored within NFER and its hosting provider. We conduct an annual penetration test on Our IT systems to ensure that they are secure and protected from malicious attack. The technical and organisational security arrangements of any third parties who process personal data on NFER’s behalf are assessed to ensure they are appropriate.

17.2 We operate Microsoft Windows Operating Systems and industry standard enterprise software such as databases and email, all managed to recognised industry standards with a full patching regime. All NFER laptops and mobile storage devices are encrypted and accessed with PIN-codes and strong passwords. Annual penetration tests are carried out by a CHECK-accredited supplier and remediation undertaken. We use a replicated disaster recovery service (RDRS) which allows the business to continue to operate in the event of failure. Any personal data which is shared with Us is transferred using Our secure portal and is encrypted in transit (HTTPS and TLS 1.2).

 18. Warranties

The NOA Establishment Portal cannot be tested in every possible combination and operating environment. The software may not operate in an uninterrupted manner on operating systems or browsers that do not meet the minimum technical requirement (Windows 8.1 and above, iOS11, IE11, Microsoft Edge and the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari web browsers).

19. Privacy

NFER takes the privacy and security of Your school’s data very seriously. Our approach to data protection is set out in the data protection statement on Our website. Your order for and use of Our NOA Products signifies Your agreement to these T&Cs and is taken as Your written authorisation to the use of personal data in accordance with the NOA Privacy Notice.

20. Confidentiality

All NFER staff, both permanent and temporary, are required to agree to conditions of service that include requirements to maintain the confidentiality and security of all data. On joining, NFER staff are provided with Our Data Security Policy (available on request) and are directed towards the associated policies and procedures on the NFER intranet. All staff are required to sign and return a statement to HR confirming that they have read and will comply with them. They re-affirm this commitment annually following the update of the policy.

21. Validity

21.1 By ordering the NOA Product, you are deemed to be confirming Your acceptance of these T&Cs.

21.2 The terms and conditions of all NFER Products are subject to change at any time, with the current terms being available on Our website. It is Your responsibility to check the terms and conditions before ordering and using NFER Products.

22. Force majeure

Where there is a delay or failure to deliver goods or services, or where damage or defect has occurred to goods that is due to circumstances beyond Our control, NFER shall not be liable. This condition does not affect Your statutory rights.

23. Law

This Agreement is governed by English law. You hereby irrevocably submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts, notwithstanding the jurisdiction of where you are based.

24. Limitation of Liability

Subject to any relevant UK consumer protection legislation including Our obligation under the Consumer Contracts Regulations (formerly Distance Selling Regulations) to give you a refund, if you cancel Your contract, if we do not perform the contract within 30 days or to the agreed timescale, Our liability for any breach of these T&Cs shall be limited to the value of the goods ordered by You in the relevant transaction. The liability of NFER to the Establishment whether in contract or in tort, arising from this Agreement shall be limited to the amount of the fees paid in the twelve months prior to the claim under this Agreement.

NFER shall have no liability to the Establishment for any consequential, indirect loss, loss of profit, data, reputation, revenue, or goodwill whether in contract or in tort. To the fullest extent permissible by law, NFER excludes any implied conditions as to satisfactory quality and fitness for purpose and quality of Services or Products.

The Establishment warrants that it will not infringe the Copyright, intellectual property rights or the legal rights of NFER or any third party and where it does it shall fully indemnify NFER from all loss and liability arising from such breach of warranty including, without limitation, legal fees on an indemnity basis.

No cap or limit of liability shall apply to this indemnity notwithstanding any other provision of this Agreement. Nothing in this Agreement shall exclude or limit the liability of one party to the other for death or personal injury caused by its negligence or for fraudulent misrepresentation. The provisions of this clause shall survive termination of this Agreement from any cause.