Student communication and support guidelines

We are so delighted to welcome you to our student and/or membership community! 

It is important to us that you enjoy your learning journey with the School of Natural Skincare and feel supported during your studies. These guidelines have been created so you know what support you can expect from the School and how to get in touch with us, as well as how to connect with and seek or offer support amongst your fellow students.

These guidelines are set out in two sections:

• Support – including technical/administrative support, peer support and tutor support.
• Tutor-led activities and engagement

By enrolling in a course or joining our online community, you are agreeing to abide by these guidelines.

SUPPORT 

The three channels of support we offer are:

• Technical, administrative and pastoral assistance is provided by our customer service and student experience teams.
• Peer support is provided in our School of Natural Skincare online community.
• Tutor support from qualified, professional cosmetic scientists is provided in our Tutor Q&A forums (hosted within our online community) for the duration of your course enrollment or membership of the Natural Cosmetic Formulation Club.

1. Technical, administrative and pastoral assistance 

Please contact us by email at [email protected] about any of the issues listed below. Our team is delighted to help you and email is the fastest way they can do that. A member of our team checks emails each business day (Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays).

• Technical issues with accessing the online classroom or Club portal.
• Accessing course materials or classes within the Club. 
• Accessing the School of Natural Skincare online Circle community. 
• Your assignments (if applicable).
• Renewing your course access.
• The Club credit system.
• Joining the Formulators’ Forums.
• The emails you receive.
• Any feedback you wish to share with us, including complaints. We will work with you to resolve any issues as quickly as possible.
• Asking for advice about the best course of study for you or asking questions related to taking an additional course.

Please note that tutor support by email or direct message is not included in your enrollment fee. Tutor support is provided within our Tutor Q&A forums, and you can find further details of this below.

2. Our School of Natural Skincare online community 

When you enroll in a course with us, we will invite you to join our private online community. This is hosted on the Circle platform and accessible via the Circle app or on desktop.

We really hope that you will love being a part of our community and that you find the contributions there valuable. These guidelines will help to make this community a great environment for all of us.

Community Hub

The Community Hub is a place for:

• Peer-to-peer support and encouragement.
• To get to know other students and community members.
• To share knowledge and advice with your peers.

For peer-to-peer support, you can post a question in the Community Hub. As the Community Hub is a place to reach out and discuss topics with other students, please do not tag tutors in these posts.

We encourage students to help each other – there is a wealth of knowledge in the group! If you have experience or knowledge to contribute and can help another student, please do so. 

The Community Hub is not for:

• Requesting help/information about your assignments from the School.
• Excessive promotion of your products or brand.
• One-to-one support from the School.
• Sharing concerns or complaints. If you have anything of this nature to share with us, please contact us by email. This allows us to address the issue efficiently and helps maintain a positive environment for the community. 
• Technical support. If you require technical support with accessing the course materials, please email us at [email protected]
• Tutor support. This is provided within the Q&A Forums, not the Community Hub. 

To maintain safe, enjoyable, and useful spaces that support you during your studies, members must adhere to the community guidelines. We may delete comments that we deem break these guidelines and we reserve the right to remove people from the group who fail to follow the guidelines.

3. Tutor Support

Our courses are designed as independent self-study courses, which will take you through the process of gaining knowledge and practical skills in a step-by-step manner. However, we know how important it is to have support when you are learning, especially on a self-study course and we really want you to have somewhere where you can get reliable responses to your questions, as efficiently as possible.

Within the School of Natural Skincare online community, there is a Tutor Q&A section that is available to students with an active enrollment in that course. Each course has its own Q&A forum within this section. There is also a Club Q&A for classes found in our Natural Cosmetic Formulation Club. This is where you can ask specific questions related to your studies. We are very proud to have a team of qualified, experienced, professional cosmetic scientists supporting our students. 

What is the Tutor Q&A for?

Our tutors are here to support you by answering questions that fall within the scope of the course or class you are taking. 

You can use the Tutor Q&A to ask specific questions relating to your studies. Tutors will answer questions related to ingredients, formulas, product types, guidelines and methods covered within the curriculum of the course or class you are enrolled in. 

Tutors will also provide troubleshooting advice if you are experiencing difficulty with a formula you are working on.

Support is not provided for questions that are beyond the scope of the course or class you are enrolled in, for example, questions about a more advanced product or ingredient, or a topic that is not covered in the course materials.

How to ask a question

Each week has a specific Q&A post. Simply add your question as a comment on that week’s post. Our tutors answer questions several times a week, so you should receive a reply within a few days.

What falls outside the scope of the Tutor Q&A?

• Extensive, personalized or one-to-one tutor support is not included with your enrollment.
• Questions that are beyond the scope of the course you are enrolled in.
• Creating or rewriting formulations on your behalf.
• Advice on legal matters such as regulations and legislation.
• Detailed feedback on, or an assessment of, your formulations. At the course, you have the opportunity to submit formulations to us as part of your assignments. These are assessed by our cosmetic scientists, who will provide you with feedback on them.
• Tutor support by email or direct message is not provided.

Extent of support and fair use policy

We are committed to ensuring all of our students have fair access to support. Generally, we can respond to up to two questions from each student per Q&A post. If we determine that you have exceeded this limit, we will reach out to discuss it with you. From time to time, we might adjust how often support is provided or how many questions can be answered, depending on how busy that week’s Q&A is, what’s most helpful for the group overall and the Tutors’ availability.

Resources available to you

There will be times when you need to find an answer yourself, for example, by contacting a supplier, a safety assessor, or conducting experiments. 

These resources will be useful to you: 

• The course materials. The content is extensive, and you will be able to find the answers to many questions within the course. 
• Your suppliers. Specific questions about ingredients or equipment are often most appropriate to direct towards the suppliers themselves.
• Q&A archives, where we have compiled the most frequently asked questions and answers for you.
• The search function within our online community. Use keywords to search the community for previous discussions. 
• Yourself! There will be many times that you will need to do your own research or experimentation. In order to become a confident and knowledgeable skincare formulator, you’ll need to try formulations out for yourself. We know it can feel daunting sometimes, but in formulating it, it really is often a case of ‘practice makes perfect’.

If your question is covered in course materials, the tutors will signpost you to the relevant module or lesson within your course. If you are still struggling with a particular ingredient, concept, etc., and have done your best to research this yourself, do come back to us, and of course, we will do our best to help.

TUTOR-LED ACTIVITIES AND ENGAGEMENT

A huge benefit of studying with us is the opportunity to engage with our in-house professional cosmetic scientists. They provide a range of activities to help you develop your formulation skills.

In addition to answering questions in the Tutor Q&A, our tutors are active in the Learning Lab section of our community. This area is available to all students taking our Diploma or Advanced Certificate courses and members of the Natural Cosmetic Formulation Club.

Inside the Learning Lab, you will find:

• Tutors Lab – each week during term time, our tutors will post in the Tutors Lab. These posts will start a discussion on a trending topic, provide a learning activity or mini challenge for you to complete or answer a frequently asked question. Do check in each week to take part in that week’s discussion or activity!
• Formulation Challenge – each term, our tutors will set you a formulation challenge to help build your formulation skills. They will set a brief and then provide feedback at the end of the challenge.
• Formulators’ Forums – each month, one of our tutors will present a topic at the Formulators Forum. Join live to engage in that month’s discussion and activity.

We encourage you to get involved in our tutor-led activities and make the most of the expertise and support available to you. These sessions are a fantastic way to deepen your understanding, strengthen your formulation skills, and stay inspired throughout your learning journey. Whether you’re joining a live discussion, tackling a formulation challenge, or participating in a weekly activity, engaging with our tutors and community will help you grow in confidence and connect with like-minded formulators from around the world.

It is so important to us that you enjoy your learning journey with the School of Natural Skincare and that you feel supported during your studies. In order to provide our students with a fair service, we are required to set boundaries and guidelines around support. However, if you are really struggling or need to clarify something to do with your studies, we would always much rather you get in touch. Our customer service team and student experience team can be reached at [email protected] and they are always happy to help.