Safeguarding at Murouj Academy

Murouj Academy teaches children and adults in one-to-one online Quran classes. Today we can confirm three safeguards: girls and women are always taught by female teachers, parents choose their child's teacher and can switch at any time, and every class runs in our own online classroom. Our full written safeguarding policy is being finalised and will be published on this page.

What we can confirm today

• One-to-one classes only. Murouj Academy never runs group classes, so your child is never in an online room with other students they don't know.
• Female teachers for girls and women. Girls and women are always taught by female teachers. Adult men are taught by male teachers.
• Parents choose the teacher. For children, the parent chooses the teacher from our teacher profiles, and can switch to a different teacher at any time. Matching is never random.
• Our own classroom. Classes run in Murouj Academy's own online classroom, which opens from a link, with no account or app for your child to install.
• Qualified teachers. Every teacher is a native Arabic speaker from the Arab world and holds an ijazah, a formal authorisation to teach the Quran. We don't hire a teacher without one.

What our written policy will cover

We are writing a full safeguarding policy rather than publishing promises we haven't put in writing yet. When it is ready, this page will set out:

• how we check teachers before they join, given that our teachers live outside the countries our students live in;
• what parents can see and do during a child's class;
• our rules for contact between teachers and students outside class;
• how class recordings are handled, if any are made;
• who to contact with a concern, and how quickly we respond.

Background checks and teachers who live abroad

Murouj Academy's teachers live and teach outside the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. National background-check systems in those countries, such as the UK's DBS check or a Canadian police check, only search records held in that country, so they can't be used for our teachers in the usual way. We would rather say this plainly than advertise a check that wouldn't mean much. Our written policy will explain what we do instead.

Tips for parents of young learners

These are good habits for any online class, with us or anyone else:

1. Set the class up in a shared room of the house, not a bedroom.
2. Stay nearby for the first few lessons, so you get to know the teacher and the way they teach.
3. Talk to your child after class about what they learned and how it felt.
4. If anything worries you, contact us straight away.

How to raise a concern

If you are worried about anything that happens in a Murouj Academy class, message us on WhatsApp at +1 (315) 541-8837 or email info@muroujacademy.com. You can also ask to switch teacher at any time. See our contact page for all the ways to reach us.