Terms of Service

Last updated: 2026-05-08

Welcome to Hearth Homeschool ("Hearth", "we", "our", "us"). These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the Hearth platform at hearthhomeschool.com.au and the Hearth web application at app.hearthhomeschool.com.au (together, the "Service"). Hearth Homeschool is operated by RS Software (ABN 99 159 631 004). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms.

1. Who can use Hearth

You must be at least 18 years old and the parent or legal guardian of the child(ren) for whom you create profiles. You are responsible for everything done under your account, including by co-parents you invite.

2. Your account

You agree to provide accurate information, keep your password secure, and notify us promptly if you suspect unauthorised access. We may suspend or close accounts that breach these Terms.

3. Subscription, trial, and billing

  • Plans. Hearth is sold as a monthly subscription billed per active child: A$9.99 for 1 child, A$7.99 each for 2 children, A$5.99 each for 3 or more children. Prices are in Australian dollars and exclude any applicable GST.
  • Free trial. First-time subscribers receive a 14-day free trial. You will not be charged during the trial. If you do not cancel before the trial ends, your subscription begins automatically and your card is charged for the first month.
  • Auto-renewal. Subscriptions renew automatically each month until cancelled. You can cancel at any time from the Account page on hearthhomeschool.com.au — cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; you keep access until then.
  • Quantity changes. Adding or removing active children changes the next month's bill at the relevant tier price.
  • Refunds. Hearth does not offer refunds for partial months or unused days within a billing period. This does not affect your statutory rights under the Australian Consumer Law (see §11).

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

  • Use the Service for any unlawful purpose or to upload content that is unlawful, defamatory, infringing, or harmful to children.
  • Attempt to gain unauthorised access to other accounts, our systems, or our AI providers.
  • Resell, sublicense, or commercialise the Service without our written consent.
  • Reverse-engineer, decompile, or scrape the Service or its outputs.

5. AI features and accuracy

Hearth uses third-party artificial intelligence (Anthropic Claude, OpenAI Whisper, Voyage AI) to interpret activity logs, transcribe voice notes, and map activities to Australian state curricula. AI outputs are aids — they are probabilistic, can be wrong, and should not be your sole source of truth for compliance reporting. You are responsible for reviewing AI suggestions before relying on them, especially for evidence portfolios and registration documents.

6. Your content and licence to us

You retain ownership of the photos, voice notes, text logs, and other content you upload ("Your Content"). You grant Hearth a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, process, and display Your Content solely to operate the Service for you. We do not use Your Content to train AI models, and our AI sub-processors are bound by zero-data-retention commercial terms (see Privacy Policy for detail).

7. Children's data

Hearth is designed for parents to log their own children's homeschool activities. We do not market to or collect data directly from children. By using Hearth, you confirm you are the parent or legal guardian of any child whose information you enter, and you accept responsibility for what you record about them. See our Privacy Policy for how we handle children's data.

8. Intellectual property

Hearth, our trade marks, logos, software, design, and curriculum-mapping data are owned by us or our licensors. Your subscription gives you a personal, non-transferable licence to use the Service for your family — it does not transfer ownership of any of our IP.

9. Service availability

We aim for the Service to be available 24/7, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted access. We may perform maintenance, deploy updates, or experience outages. We may modify or discontinue features with reasonable notice.

10. Termination

You may close your account at any time from Settings → Account → Delete account in the Hearth app, or from hearthhomeschool.com.au/delete-account on the web. Closure soft-deletes your account immediately and permanently deletes your data after a 30-day grace period — sign back in within that window to reverse the deletion. Active subscriptions are cancelled at deletion and no refund is issued for the unused portion of the current billing period (subject to your statutory rights under §11). If you are the owner of a multi-parent family, ownership transfers to your first co-parent before deletion so they retain access to the family's records. We may suspend or close your account if you breach these Terms, attempt fraud, or fail to pay. On termination, we delete your data in line with our Privacy Policy retention schedule, except where law requires us to retain it.

11. Australian Consumer Law

Our goods and services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. Nothing in these Terms limits, excludes, or modifies any consumer guarantee, right, or remedy you have under the ACL. Where the ACL permits us to limit our liability for breach of a non-major guarantee, we limit that liability, at our option, to (a) re-supply of the Service or (b) refund of fees paid in the previous month.

12. Limitation of liability

Subject to §11 and any non-excludable rights you have, our total liability to you under or in connection with these Terms is capped at the fees you paid in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim. We are not liable for indirect, consequential, or special damages, including loss of data, loss of profit, or loss of opportunity.

13. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we'll notify you by email or via the app at least 14 days before the change takes effect. Continuing to use the Service after a change means you accept the updated Terms.

14. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. You agree to submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of NSW for any dispute, after first attempting to resolve it with us in good faith by contacting hello@hearthhomeschool.com.au.

15. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email hello@hearthhomeschool.com.au.