Conduct Policy

Information about us. We are Faber and Faber Limited (Company No. 00944703, VAT No. 572 9170 23) of The Bindery, 51 Hatton Garden, London, EC1N 8HN (‘Faber’, ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’).

How to contact us. If you have any questions about this Policy, please visit our Contact Us Page for full details on how to contact us.

Information about this Policy. This conduct policy (the ‘Policy’) sets out the standards that apply across the entire Faber Academy ecosystem, both online when you upload content to our website https://faberacademy.com/ (‘Site’), make contact with other Users on our Site, link to our Site, or interact with our Site in any way, or where you attend any kind of online or in-person Faber Academy event such as a seminar, group event, writing class or workshop (‘Classes’).

What this Policy applies to. This Policy applies to student generated literature (‘Works’), to debates or discussions taking place in Classes,  and to any and all material which you contribute to our Site and to any interactive service associated with it, including but not limited to, discussions in our online classrooms, forums or private messages including those made on third party messaging platform and/or any behaviour between students, tutors, Faber Staff, alumni or guests at any time while they are affiliated with Faber Academy (‘Contribution’).

Who this Policy applies to. This Policy will apply to any student, tutor, Faber staff, alumni or guest (‘Users’ or ‘you’) who makes a Contribution to our Site, or in Class, on Faber Academy property or outside of Faber Academy property in an environment with other students, tutors, Faber Staff, alumni or guests in person, online or via a third-party messaging platform.

Acceptance of this Policy. Please ensure you read this Policy carefully before interacting with our Site making a Contribution, attending Classes or entering into an environment with other Users. By using our Site, or by making a Contribution or participating in any Class offered via Faber Academy online or in-person, or entering into an environment with other Users, you confirm that you accept the terms of this Policy and that you agree to comply with them. If you do not agree to this Policy, you must not use our Site, make a Contribution or attend any Class offered by Faber Academy online or in-person, or in any way contact any other Users. We recommend that you save a copy of this Policy for future reference.

Other terms which may apply to you. Please ensure you have also read Faber’s Terms and Conditions, our Website Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. These terms, together with this Policy, will govern our relationship with you.

Changes to this Policy. We may amend this Policy from time to time. Every time you wish to use our Site, make a Contribution or attend a Class, please check this Policy to ensure you understand the terms that apply at that time.

Accuracy. Where you are stating a fact, always double check the accuracy of it. If you are referring to a fact that comes from a report, study or article, try to cite the source of the fact so that other Users can understand the context and engage more usefully in discussion. Where you are stating an opinion consider whether it is one that you sincerely hold and whether it is one that suggests discriminating or prejudicing others; where you report someone else’s opinion take care not to represent it out of context or to misconstrue it. Discussions built on falsehoods are not constructive.

Relevance. Contributions should be made to add to a debate and broaden a perspective on the topic being discussed. While this means that additional points may be relevant to bring in, and while discussions may broaden and wander over time, you should not make a Contribution which is entirely off topic and causes the discussion to take a drastic turn in a different direction. In particular, where you have strong views on a particular subject, avoid conduct that tries to make every discussion feature the topic on which you hold those views. While you may consider your chosen topic to be urgent or important, others should be allowed the freedom to discuss other topics if they wish to.

Mindfulness. When making a Contribution, consider how could this be interpreted by other Users. There is a difference in how you come across in writing and in conversation and your tone may not come across as you intended in writing. Try to be as clear and specific as possible in your Contributions so that your intended meaning is more likely to come across. In particular, if you are making a Contribution or Work that is designed to provoke or to test another person’s Contribution (in a way that is often described as “playing devil’s advocate”) it may be helpful if you make that clear at the same time as adding your Contribution, or at the start of the Work in which that material features.

Discrimination. You must not make any Contribution which is discriminatory in nature. This means that you should not make any Contribution which makes an unjust or prejudicial statement about a person or group of people based on their personal characteristics such as age, disability, gender reassignment status, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity status, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Threats, harassment , bullying and violence. You must not make any Contribution which is threatening or harassing in nature or promotes violence either to an individual or a group of people.. Types of behaviour which may be considered threatening or harassing or bullying include but are not limited to:

• Insults, name-calling and offensive language and gestures;
• Inappropriate jokes including jokes which are racist, sexist, homophobic, biphotic, transphobic or agest, or which contain derogatory or stereotypical remarks about a particular ethnic or religious group or gender or are of a sexually explicit nature;
• Ridiculing and undermining behaviour;
• Inappropriate or unnecessary physical contact;
• Physical assault or threats of physical assault;
• Intimidating, coercive or threatening actions and behaviours;
• Unwelcome sexual advances including but not limited to physical contact, invasion of personal space, inappropriate remarks about a person’s appearance or dress, sexually explicit language and verbal and physical innuendo, intrusive staring of a sexual nature and persistent unwanted advances;
• Isolation, non-cooperation or deliberate exclusion;
• Inappropriate comments about a person’s appearance, intrustive questions or comments about a person’s private life and malicious gossip;
• Outing or threatening to out someone’s sexual or gender indentity;
• Offensive images and literature;
• Pestering, spying or stalking.

This list is non-exhaustive but is indicative of behaviour which would be considered unacceptable conduct by Faber Academy.

Hate and provocation. You must not make Contributions which incite hatred, or which are designed to provoke an individual or group of individuals, or cause that person or those individuals needless anxiety.

Legality. You must not post any Contribution that is illegal. This includes any Contribution which is slanderous, defamatory, libellous, encourages crime, is in breach of a court order or in contempt of court, or puts children at risk or encourages any other User to do any of these things.

Artificial Intelligence (AI). You undertake not to pass off any work produced entirely by or in significant conjunction with chatbots or other AI platforms (including but not limited to ChatGPT, Google Bard, Sudowrite) as your own writing, without making this explicit. This applies to applications for courses, work shared on courses or work presented in anthologies or other publications related to Faber Academy courses.

Ownership. You must not post any content or submit any Work which is plagiarised, or which would otherwise represent a breach of copyright (or any other intellectual property right).

Advertising. You must not make a Contribution directly seeking financial gain, for example asking for sponsorship or advertising a product or services or other messages that might be considered spam.

Privacy. You must not make a Contribution which includes personal data (such as the telephone number, location, home address or email address) of yourself or any other individual. You should not make a Contribution which includes information about another person which would reasonably be considered private about another person without their consent (for example, information about their personal relationships or employment).

Respect. You will treat your fellow Users, students, tutors, Faber Staff, alumni or guests with respect at all times and this will include respecting their sensitivities and boundaries during Contributions, in Classes, while using the Site and/or in any in person, online or other interactions through third party messaging sites.

At Faber, we encourage freedom of expression, which is a fundamental right protected by the Human Rights Act 1998 and by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

We understand that some opinions may cause offence, even if not intended, but nevertheless free speech protection extends to views that may shock, disturb or offend.

However, freedom of expression is not an absolute right. It does not protect statements that discriminate, harass, or incite violence or hatred against others on grounds of race, religion, nationality, gender or sexuality. Human rights exist to afford protection from that behaviour; and inciting hatred, or engaging in harassment or other threatening behaviour, is likely to be a criminal offence. The law also protects the reputations and privacy of others.

Often there is a balance to be struck between these rights and those of free speech. It is not always easy to decide what crosses the line.  Much will depend on the context of the content at issue and what appears to be the intention behind it. Some cases are more straightforward, and we will not tolerate any hateful content which encourages harm, exclusion or denigration of a group of people.

We want our community to be a place where everyone’s voice can be heard, and in order to progress ideas within the framework of a constructive debate, we need to  create an inclusive atmosphere that encourages focused discussion based on legitimate ideas.

Our conduct standards are designed to strike this balance: to foster creativity, expression and discussion without facilitating discrimination, hatred or violence.

Act within the spirit of this Policy. The Conduct Standards in 3 above, are guidelines and are designed with the above principles in mind. When using our Site you should behave in a way which is in keeping with the spirit of this Policy and not just the letter of it

Materiality of breach. Any breach of this Policy constitutes a material breach of the Faber Academy Terms and Conditions. Our rights under those terms and conditions will apply to this Policy in addition to the right set out in this clause 5.

Right to determine breaches and appropriate action. Faber has the right in its absolute discretion to determine whether a Contribution is in breach of this Policy and what the appropriate action to be taken in response to that breach.

Right to notify User of a breach of this Policy. If Faber deems a Contribution made by you or made on your Account to be in breach of this Policy, we may issue a warning to you and ask you to either remove the Contribution or amend the Contribution so that it no longer breaches this Policy.

Right to remove Contribution with notice. If you do not respond to our warning to remove or amend the Contribution swiftly or if you refuse to do so, we will be entitled to remove the Contribution ourselves.

Right to remove the Contribution without notice. If we determine that a Contribution is likely to cause serious harm or offence or is a clear violation of this policy, we have the right to remove the Contribution without prior notice to you. We will endeavour to let you know afterwards if your Contribution has been removed in line with this clause.

Right to remove Works and Users from Classes: If you breach this Policy in one of your Classes or in any Works which you submit, we reserve the right to remove those Works from any Classes they have been shared in and/or remove you from that Class and any other similar classes.

Right to delete or suspend Account or Faber Academy membership. If you breach this Policy, we reserve the right to delete or suspend your Account and/or cancel or suspend your membership and any courses you have booked with Faber Academy.

Right to pass details to the appropriate authorities. Where we consider that a Contribution represents a criminal offence (such as incitement to violence, or harassment) we reserve the right to disclose the Contribution made and your details to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary or as required by law.

Right to bring legal proceedings. We reserve the right to commence legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from any breach by you of this Policy.

No liability for action taken or not taken. We exclude our liability for all action we may take, or not take in response to breaches of this acceptable use policy. The actions we may take are not limited to those described above, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate. Any decision not to take action will be solely at the discretion of Faber Academy.

If you think a Contribution violates this Policy. If you believe a Contribution made by another user is in breach of this Policy, please contact us via our contact form.

Right to apply this to Works and Classes. This Conduct Policy applies also to Works shared in Classes or on our Site, and to debates and Contributions which take place in our Classes, online or in person or through third party messaging sites.

If you are not satisfied with our decision. If you have been subject to any action set out in clauses 5.3 – 5.9 and you disagree with our reason for taking such action, or if you have reported a Contribution under 5.11 and no action has been taken and you disagree with our reason for refusing to take such action our complaints procedure is as follows

Raise a concern. In the first instance, you should raise a concern either with your tutor or with Joey Connolly, either via our contact form or by post (address below). Raising a concern will open a dialogue up between yourself and Faber and we will work with you to resolve the concern.

Joey Connolly
Director of Faber Academy
The Bindery
51 Hatton Garden
London
EC1N 8HN

Raise a Complaint. If you have raised a concern but are not satisfied with the outcome, you can raise a formal complaint by contacting Joey Connolly (contact details as set out in clause 11). When raising a complaint, include as much relevant detail as possible, including dates and times, the names of the parties involved, the specific nature of the complaint and, if possible, a record of any previous contact you have had with Faber regarding the issue.

The Head of Faber Academy will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within two working days of receipt of the complaint and will aim to respond in full within ten working days thereafter. In order to try to resolve your complaint, it may be necessary to appoint a third-party mediator. This may be the Head of Faber Academy or it may be someone else, but if such an appointment is deemed necessary, it will be made in consultation with you. Our aim is always to resolve a complaint quickly and equitably.

Appeal a decision. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint, or if your complaint specifically concerns the Head of Faber Academy, you may raise it to the director with responsibility for Faber Academy, Bonnie Jones. To do that, write to:

Bonnie Jones
Faber
The Bindery
51 Hatton Garden
London
EC1N 8HN

The director’s decision will be final.

Our assurances. Whenever you raise a concern, complaint or appeal a decision with us we will always listen and respond: