Can a Tutoring Business Use Teachers Pay Teachers and Twinkl Resources? Copyright and Licensing in Australia, the UK and the US

Not legal advice. This is general information for tutoring operators, drawn from the official sources linked below. Rules change and facts vary, so confirm anything that matters with the relevant copyright body or a lawyer.

Can a tutoring business use Teachers Pay Teachers and Twinkl resources?

Only as far as each resource’s licence allows, and the licence is often written for a classroom teacher rather than a company. Teachers Pay Teachers’ terms prohibit using a resource “for commercial purposes”, including in connection with “a business or profit making activity”, and its Individual Licence is for one educator only. Copyright law adds a second layer. Exceptions that let schools copy material often depend on non-commercial use, and a tutoring company is commercial.

Last updated: October 2026.

We could not retrieve Twinkl’s terms and conditions page, so we make no claim about what a Twinkl membership allows a tutoring company. Ask Twinkl, and read its current terms, before you rely on one.

Two different questions

Teaching resources copyright raises two questions, and owners blur them.

1. What does the resource’s own licence let you do? This is a contract between you and the seller. It governs your use of a bought file.
2. What does copyright law let you do without asking? This covers copying pages from a textbook, a website or a past paper.

A statutory licence or an exception answers the second. It does not rewrite the first.

Does Australia’s education licence cover a tutoring business?

The Copyright Act 1968 contains statutory licences for education, administered by Copyright Agency. Smartcopying, the National Copyright Unit’s site, explains that the Statutory Text and Artistic Works Licence lets educational institutions copy and communicate text and artistic works for educational purposes, and says all government schools and most non-government schools and TAFE institutes are covered (Smartcopying). Its guidance is written for schools and TAFEs.

Does it cover private tutoring? Copyright Agency says it can. Its page for private education providers states that it holds agreements with “more than 1,000 other private education providers including higher education and ELICOS providers, RTOs, tutoring organisations”, and that the licence “allows copying and communication of third party text, images and print music for educational purposes” (Copyright Agency: Statutory Education Licence for private education providers). In December 2025 Copyright Agency and the Australian Tutoring Association announced a partnership on copyright awareness in the tutoring sector, including webinars and a “Good Copyright Governance” badge (Copyright Agency announcement, 2 December 2025). Sources read 5 October 2026.

Three things to check before you rely on it:

• Whether your business qualifies. The page does not say whether a very small business or a sole trader can take the licence. Ask Copyright Agency, through the enquiry link on that page, whether your structure qualifies.
• What it covers. It is a licence for copying third-party text, images and print music. It is not a clearance for reselling or sharing someone else’s resource pack.
• How it sits with a seller’s own terms. The pages we read do not say whether the licence overrides a marketplace’s terms, so ask Copyright Agency before you assume it does.

Pricing is quoted on request, so we do not give a figure.

VCAA past exams (Victoria)

Many Victorian tutoring companies use past VCE exam questions, so this one matters. The VCAA owns the copyright in VCE exams, and some exams contain third-party material. Its past-exams page says “Schools may use these past VCE examinations in reliance on the VCAA’s allowance for educational institutions.” Its Copyright Terms of Use allow schools and educational institutions in Australia to copy VCAA works for non-commercial educational purposes. For commercial use beyond what the Copyright Act allows, the VCAA says its permission is required, and “a copyright fee may be charged when the proposed use is commercial in nature” (VCAA past examinations; VCAA Copyright Terms of Use; read 5 October 2026).

Neither page mentions private tutors. The VCAA’s pages don’t address private tutoring, so ask the VCAA Copyright Manager (vcaa.copyright@education.vic.gov.au) how it treats a tutoring company’s use before using past exams commercially, and get the answer in writing. If you are unsure, link students to the VCAA’s own past-exams page instead of republishing the papers.

Does the UK teaching exception cover a tutoring business?

The UK’s teaching exception is narrow. GOV.UK says it covers copying “solely to illustrate a point” where the use is “not done for commercial purposes”, with sufficient acknowledgement, and that it is not meant to undermine the sale of teaching material. The legislation is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. A for-profit tuition company is a commercial setting, so do not assume the exception applies. [Source: GOV.UK, Exceptions to copyright, Teaching, read 5 October 2026.]

Does the schools’ licence cover private tutoring? The Copyright Licensing Agency’s Education Licence is written for educational establishments in the UK. Its published pages describe schools, colleges and other educational institutions, and we found no statement on whether a private tutoring business can hold one (CLA Education Licence terms). Ask CLA whether a tutoring business is eligible before you assume it is.

Does fair use cover a tutoring business?

The US has no equivalent statutory licence for schools. The main tool is fair use, a four-factor test set out in section 107 of the Copyright Act:

1. Purpose and character of the use, including whether it is commercial or nonprofit educational.
2. Nature of the copyrighted work.
3. Amount and substantiality used.
4. Effect on the market for the original.

The Copyright Office notes that “teaching, scholarship, and research” appear in section 107, and that courts tend to favour educational or transformative uses over commercial ones. It also says there is “no formula” that lets you use a set percentage or amount of a work without permission. [Source: US Copyright Office, Fair Use Index, read 5 October 2026.] For a for-profit tutoring business, factor one does not help you the way it helps a public school, and factor four matters most if you are copying from something sold to teachers. Fair use is decided case by case, not by a rule of thumb.

Summary

What this means for how you run the company

• Buy the right licence. One Individual Licence is one person. Several tutors need several licences or a plan the seller confirms covers them. Our guide to where to buy tutoring resources covers the questions to ask before you pay.
• Do not copy textbook pages or past papers on instinct. For VCAA past exams, work from the VCAA’s own terms and ask it about your use. In Australia, the Statutory Education Licence is the route to look at. Elsewhere, ask first.
• Write a one-page materials policy and give it to tutors: what may be copied, what must be bought, what must be asked about.
• Keep records of what was bought and under which licence.

Copyright matters in practice, not just on paper. The case I run into most is using VCAA past exam questions, which need care, and what is allowed depends on the use: private tutoring or something more commercial. The VCAA section above sets out what its own terms say, and where they stop. A page that does not mention tutors is not permission for tutors.

Where ClassQuill fits (and where it doesn’t)

ClassQuill does not check copyright or licences on files you upload, does not sell resources and is not a marketplace. It is where you store the materials you have the right to use: the Library holds worksheets and files, and you can attach a Google Drive file by link, which ClassQuill sets to “anyone with the link can view”. Confirm the licence before you upload or attach anything.

Related reading: Where to buy tutoring resources · How to organise a tutoring company’s resources in Google Drive