terms & cancellations
1. Who we are
Northern Coffee School is an SCA-authorised training provider operating at Heart & Graft Coffee Roastery, 21 North Street, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, M8 8RE.
Northern Coffee School is a trading name of Heart and Graft Coffee Limited, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 09519472. Registered office: 21 North Street, Manchester, M8 8RE. VAT registration number GB194271101.
These terms apply when you book a place on any of our courses. Please read them before booking — by completing a booking you agree to them.
Contact: [email protected]
2. Booking and payment
Course fees are payable in full at the time of booking. Your place is confirmed once payment has cleared and you have received a booking confirmation by email — not when you submit the booking form.
The price shown on each course page includes all materials, coffee, milk, use of equipment during the course, and your SCA certification and assessment fee. It does not include travel, accommodation or parking.
All prices shown on our course pages include VAT at the applicable rate. Our VAT registration number is GB194271101.
For group, corporate and wholesale bookings arranged by invoice, we will state clearly on the quote whether the figure is inclusive or exclusive of VAT.
We may change our published prices at any time, but the price you paid at the point of booking is the price that applies to your booking.
Bookings are taken through Bookwhen. Their terms cover the booking transaction itself; ours cover the course.
3. Cancelling or moving your booking
Your cancellation window depends on the course:
| Course type | Full refund if you cancel |
|---|---|
| One-day and two-day courses | More than 14 days before the start date |
| Three-day Professional tracks | More than 28 days before the start date |
Your window is stated on your booking confirmation.
Outside the window: cancel for a full refund. Email [email protected] and we’ll return the payment to the original payment method within 5 working days.
Inside the window: you can either
- move to another scheduled date at no charge, subject to availability, or
- cancel for a 50% refund of the fee paid.
We can’t offer a full refund at that point, because we’ve committed the trainer, the equipment and the coffee to your place and it’s usually too late to fill it. This is subject to your separate legal right to change your mind, below, which may give you a full refund even inside the window.
Moving dates: you can move a booking twice, subject to availability. After that, a further change is treated as a cancellation under the terms above.
If you don’t attend and haven’t contacted us, the fee is not refundable and no transfer is available.
Arriving late: courses start promptly and build sequentially. If you arrive more than 30 minutes after the start time we may not be able to admit you — particularly on assessed courses, where we have to certify your attendance to the SCA. Where the course allows it we’ll always try to get you in, but please don’t rely on that. If we can’t admit you, the booking is treated as a non-attendance.
Sending someone else instead: you’re welcome to transfer your place to another person at any point before the course starts, at no charge, provided they meet any prerequisites. Tell us their name and email in advance. This doesn’t count against your two date changes.
Your separate legal right to change your mind
If you are booking as a consumer, you also have a statutory right to cancel within 14 days of making your booking, under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.
This is different from the windows above, and it’s worth understanding the difference: the windows above count back from the course date, while this right counts forward from the day you booked. You get whichever is more favourable to you.
To use it, email [email protected] within 14 days of booking and tell us you want to cancel. We’ll refund you in full, to the original payment method, within 5 working days.
If your course falls within those 14 days. By booking a course that starts less than 14 days away, you are asking us to start providing the service during your cancellation period, and you accept that once the course has been delivered you will no longer be able to cancel it. If you cancel after the course has begun but before it finishes, we may keep a proportionate amount of the fee reflecting what we’ve already delivered.
This right applies to consumers only. It does not apply to bookings made by a business, including group and corporate bookings under section 10.
4. If we cancel or change a course
Our courses have minimum group sizes — training in a working roastery only works with enough people in the room to run the exercises properly. If a course hasn’t reached its minimum we may cancel it.
We will always give you at least as much notice as we ask of you:
| Course type | Notice we give you |
|---|---|
| One-day and two-day courses | At least 14 days |
| Three-day Professional tracks | At least 28 days |
If we cancel, you can choose either a full refund or a transfer to another date.
We know a cancellation from us is inconvenient, particularly if you’ve arranged time off. So whenever we cancel a course, we’ll also give you 10% off your next booking with us as a gesture of goodwill.
We can’t cover travel, accommodation or other costs you’ve incurred, so please bear that in mind before booking non-refundable travel for a course that isn’t yet confirmed as running.
We may occasionally need to change a trainer, the running order, or the room within the Heart & Graft site. These aren’t cancellations and don’t give rise to a refund, provided the course content and certification remain the same.
If circumstances outside our reasonable control prevent a course running — including equipment failure, utility failure, illness of the only qualified trainer, extreme weather, or restrictions imposed by law — we will offer a transfer or a refund of the fee paid.
5. Who can attend
Age. You must be 18 or over to attend our courses. This is for two reasons: our courses run inside a working roastery around hot equipment and machinery, and the SCA sets a minimum candidate age of 18 for the certifications we deliver.
Prerequisites. Some courses require a lower-level certification in the same track. Prerequisites are listed on each course page, and it’s your responsibility to check you meet them before booking. If you arrive without the required prerequisite we may not be able to teach or assess you, and the booking will be treated as a non-attendance.
Courses are taught and assessed in English.
6. Health, safety and the training environment
Our courses run inside an operating coffee roastery. That means hot surfaces, steam, hot liquids, moving machinery, noise, and green and roasted coffee dust.
Please tell us at the time of booking if you have any medical condition, disability, injury, allergy or access requirement that may affect your participation, or if you are pregnant. We’ll do what we reasonably can to accommodate you, and we’ll tell you honestly if we can’t — in which case you’ll get a full refund. Telling us costs you nothing and lets us plan properly.
On the day, you must:
- Wear closed-toe, flat, non-slip footwear. We can’t admit anyone in open shoes.
- Tie back long hair and remove loose jewellery and dangling sleeves around the roaster and grinders.
- Follow your trainer’s safety instructions at all times.
- Not attend under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
We can refuse admission, or ask you to leave, if you don’t meet these requirements. No refund is due in that situation.
Caffeine. Courses involve tasting significant quantities of coffee, particularly on the Brewing and Sensory tracks. If you’re sensitive to caffeine, or have a heart condition, high blood pressure, or any condition affected by caffeine intake, speak to your GP before booking. You’re never obliged to swallow — spitting is standard cupping practice and we’ll show you how.
7. Allergens
Please tell us about any allergies when you book.
We do not serve food, snacks or refreshments on our courses.
What you will come into contact with is coffee, dairy milk and plant-based milk alternatives, all of which are used in the practical exercises. Nuts and other allergens may also feature in sensory tastings, where a range of reference flavours and aromas is used to train your palate.
Our courses also take place inside a working coffee roastery, which handles green and roasted coffee throughout. We cannot guarantee an allergen-free environment.
When you book, our booking system will email you asking about allergies and medical conditions. Please reply before you attend. We will tell you honestly whether we can accommodate you safely on the course you have chosen, and if we can’t, you’ll get a full refund — including where you booked before telling us.
If you have a severe allergy, please ask us before booking rather than after. Sensory is the course most likely to involve an allergen you need to avoid, because the reference set is central to how it is taught and cannot be removed. Talk to us and we’ll give you a straight answer about the specific course you’re interested in, including telling you if we don’t think we can keep you safe on it. We’d far rather have that conversation early than turn you away on the day.
We can adapt the milk exercises for dairy or soy intolerance. We can’t remove coffee from a coffee course.
8. Certification and assessment
Where a course leads to an SCA certification, the certification is issued by the Specialty Coffee Association, not by us. We deliver and assess the course to their standards; they award the credential. Your certification and assessment fee is included in the course price.
Passing an assessment depends on your performance. The course fee buys you the training and an assessment attempt — it does not guarantee a pass.
Your certificate. Once you have passed both the practical and the theory assessment, your certification is issued immediately — there is no waiting period.
Resits. If you don’t pass, resits can be arranged with your trainer on a case-by-case basis. Email [email protected] and we’ll sort something out with you.
Age. The SCA sets a minimum candidate age of 18 for the certifications we deliver. This is their requirement, not ours, and we can’t waive it.
9. Behaviour
We want the training room to be a good place to learn for everyone in it. We may ask you to leave, without refund, if your behaviour is threatening, discriminatory, harassing, or persistently disruptive to other learners or our staff.
10. Group, corporate and wholesale bookings
Bookings for groups, private courses and wholesale customers are arranged directly with us. Where we’ve agreed separate written terms or invoice terms, those take precedence over this section.
Group cancellations are charged on a staged basis:
| Notice given | Charge |
|---|---|
| More than 28 days before | No charge |
| 28 to 14 days before | 50% of the total fee |
| Fewer than 14 days before | 100% of the total fee |
Reducing the number of attendees on a confirmed group booking is treated as a partial cancellation and charged on the same scale.
11. Photography and film
We sometimes photograph or film courses for our own marketing. Tell your trainer at the start of the day if you’d rather not appear and we’ll work around you — it’s no trouble.
You’re welcome to take your own photos and video for personal and social use. Please don’t film other learners without asking them, and please don’t record assessment materials.
12. Course materials
Course materials, handouts and presentations are provided for your own learning. They remain the intellectual property of Northern Coffee School or the SCA as applicable, and may not be reproduced, distributed or used to deliver training to others.
13. Our liability
Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that can’t be limited by law.
Subject to that, our total liability in connection with a booking is limited to the course fee you paid. We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, including travel and accommodation costs, loss of earnings, or loss of business opportunity.
If you are booking as a consumer, you have statutory rights that these terms don’t affect. Nothing here is intended to exclude them.
14. Your personal data
We handle your personal data as described in our Privacy Policy. In short: we use it to run your booking, meet SCA certification requirements, and keep you safe on the day.
15. Complaints
If something goes wrong, tell us — email [email protected] and we’ll respond within 5 working days. We’d much rather hear it from you directly than not at all.
If your complaint concerns an SCA certification or how we delivered an SCA course, and you aren’t satisfied with our response, you can escalate it to the Specialty Coffee Association directly at [email protected].
16. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. The version that applies to your booking is the version published when you booked.
17. Governing law
These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction.
This version is dated 31 July 2026.