In order to support our commitment to maintaining a successful marketplace, we have made some important updates to our Tes Author Code. These changes clarify our expectations of Tes Authors and reaffirm our commitment to upholding high standards for resources on site and ensuring that the platform remains a fair and supportive space for authors and users alike.
For the most part, the updated Author Code brings together guidelines already detailed within the Author Academy or in policies on the site. This blog will walk you through each aspect of the Code and explain what it means, and why it has been included.
This refreshed code will align all of our authors under the same expectations – whether you are a long-standing author or are new to the site, it is important that you read through and understand each point.
We would like to thank you in advance for your understanding and hope that you will come on this journey with us to continue to improve the platform for all users.
Author requirements
1. You must be at least 18 years of age to share resources on tes.com.
In line with the main tes.com site rules, authors must be at least 18 years of age.
2. You must ensure that your contact details are up to date and that your email address has been verified.
We must be able to contact you should we need to. This is to ensure that you are kept up to date with changes to the terms under which you are sharing your resources and so that we can liaise with you regarding customer enquiries.
3. Your username and shop name should be carefully chosen and cannot be inappropriate or offensive and should not misrepresent you.
Both your username and your shop name are visible to other users on Tes. This is part of your brand. Please make sure you set these to something that is appropriate, and that you are happy for other users to see.
Please also note that you should not choose a name that would indicate an affiliation with an unknowing third party; this includes using “Tes” as part of your username or shop name.
4. You must reply in a timely manner if you are contacted by Tes Customer Support regarding a customer issue.
The Tes Customer support team act as a liaison between you and customers. They will contact you on behalf of downloaders and buyers; providing a swift response to such queries will allow the team to resolve any queries about your uploads and improve Customer experience with your content.
5. One account is permitted per author unless there has been express permission granted in writing by the Tes Resources team.
Due to a rise in users creating multiple accounts with the purpose of uploading AI spam content, we have taken the decision to restrict authors to one account only as standard. This is to help us tackle the behaviours of false users trying to maximise the impact of their uploads.
We acknowledge that some authors have multiple accounts already and that, moving forwards, there will still be a genuine need for multiple accounts. We simply ask that you contact us before setting these up so that we can assess your request.
If you already have multiple accounts, we will be sending out an email in the coming months so that we can capture and retrospectively approve this. We will not be taking any action to remove such accounts in the interim.
Content standards
1. You must not upload content that is unlawful, defamatory, offensive, inappropriate, slanderous, pornographic, insulting, threatening, racist, sexist, or that incites hatred, violence or division through misinformation or bias.
This point is generally self-explanatory. With topics that require a level of sensitivity, please consider providing appropriate warnings in your descriptions and ensure that your content includes any context needed for other educators to use your material to teach. Consider the nuances that you would naturally use that may not come through in the material provided.
Due to current world events, we have inevitably seen an increase in resources covering topics that are potentially politically divisive. Please ensure that you are aware of, and are adhering to, the Department for Education’s guidance “Political impartiality in schools”.
2. You must only upload original content that you have created yourself or that your organisation has created, featuring material that is either your own or that is correctly licenced and for which the relevant permissions have been granted. For further information please visit the copyright section of the Author Academy.
Adhering to Intellectual Property laws is a legal requirement. You must ensure that content uploaded to Tes is in line with the applicable laws. Our on-site guidance gives you an introduction to Intellectual Property – however, we recommend that you do your own research and seek out advice relevant to your own resources.
3. Your content must be appropriate and relevant for the intended audience and learning objectives. Please ensure that your content is accurately tagged, titled and described. Please do not upload duplicate copies of your resources. Each resource should be usable as a standalone piece of content without any need for further purchases.
Misrepresenting your content through inaccurate tagging, titles or descriptions has a detrimental impact on its visibility on-site, and resources that are not ‘as described’ frequently cause content complaints. Similarly, uploads of duplicate content under separate listings can cause mistaken purchases, and content that cannot be used without a further download and/or purchase often causes refunds. Such negative experiences can cause mistrust and put users off browsing your other resources in future. We want to see you succeed and building the trust of your audience is key to this.
4. You must not make fundamental changes to the subject or purpose of a resource once it has been uploaded, although you may make minor edits and updates to the content as required.
We have seen a significant rise in the practice of ‘recycling’ resource listings to benefit from the residual SEO impact and positive reviews on the page. This is not expected practice as it misrepresents the listing to prospective customers through irrelevant reviews.
Furthermore, in instances where you are selling your resources, you are potentially damaging your own earnings. For example, if you replace your 2024 Christmas Quiz with a 2025 Easter Quiz, all users who purchased your 2024 Christmas Quiz will automatically receive the new resource with no need to purchase.
5. If you use generative AI in the creation of your content, you must check and edit the outputs yourself as appropriate and ensure that you have the right to share the content produced. Please indicate in your description if you have used AI to create or assist in the creation of content.
We have recently contacted all authors regarding this. Please see the blog post here for more information.
6. You should not advertise to or encourage students to join the Tes platform to download resources. Tes.com is a website aimed at educators and, in line with this, our terms and conditions state users must be at least 18 years of age to register.
In line with the main tes.com site rules, users must be at least 18 years of age. In addition to this, the Tes Resources platform is a place for sharing content with other educators and not directly with students. While the end user of the resource will usually be a student, you should not be advertising directly to students.
7. Your resources must not include images or videos of individuals under the age of 18 taken with personal cameras, videoing equipment or mobile phones.
This is a safeguarding requirement.
8. Tes reserves the right to limit the number of uploads by an author where we consider there has been a breach in fair usage.
We are seeing significant changes in the way that content is being created, including the use of generative AI and templated content. To maintain a competitive and fair platform, we may take the decision to implement upload limits.
Use of our platform
1. You must not use tes.com to advertise other websites or direct users to other websites to buy or download content. This includes but is not limited to using external URLs in your descriptions, titles and previews, and using your shop banners and descriptions to advertise. You may include external URLs within uploaded resource files if the link does not require a login, is directly relevant to the context of the resource and does not promote commercial/personal gain. All resources should be downloadable directly from the Tes website and should not be hosted on third party websites.
Tes should not be used as an advertising tool to drive traffic away from the website and to external businesses and websites; this includes your own personal websites and alternative selling sites.
We published a reminder about this in 2024 and have since seen an increase in authors using their descriptions to drive traffic off-site without the use of an external URL and using their shop banners to advertise external sites. To clarify, any form of advertising that directs users away from tes.com is not permitted.
We would ask that you review and make relevant changes if your content is not in line with this before 31st July 2025.
2. You must solicit only genuine purchases, downloads and reviews to ensure honesty and integrity in the marketplace.
In order to protect the integrity of the marketplace and promote fairness across all authors, we have mechanisms in place to prevent authors purchasing, downloading and reviewing their own content. Using other means to circumvent these rules with the intention of improving your resource listings is strictly prohibited. Examples of this include asking friends, family and fellow authors to write false reviews and setting up multiple accounts to enable you to review your own content.
Please check the reviews on your resources and remove any that do not adhere to this policy before 31st July 2025.
3. You must act respectfully towards other Tes users and during interactions with Tes staff. This includes, but is not limited to, responding to reviews, discussions within the Tes Author Community Facebook group and liaising with our Customer Support team.
Whether you are responding to reviews, talking to each other or talking to members of staff at Tes, we expect that you act respectfully in your interactions and help us to promote a supportive community for all educators who use Tes Resources.