Education Licence FAQs

All state-funded schools in the UK hold the CLA Licence through central agreements with regional education bodies. Most Independent schools also hold the licence, but just check with IAPs, SCIS or CLA. We license sixth-form colleges and further education colleges directly, so just get in touch with CLA if you're unsure that your institution has the licence.

The CLA Education Licence covers individual educational establishments on a single school's site, and copies can be shared with teachers in an individual school. These copies may not be shared across a group of schools such as a MAT.

Staff and students at your school or college can receive copies made under the licence. The key thing to remember is that the copy must be secure to your institution. It should not be shared outside the school, or put on a public facing website.

You can make as many copies as are needed to see that each student and any staff supporting the class has access to a copy. It’s fine to put the copy on the VLE or intranet, just make sure it’s secure to your school or college.

If your school or college purchases or subscribes to a digital product like an e-book platform, that will usually come with a licence agreement - known as your primary licence agreement. Primary licences are issued by publishers and other providers, and the CLA Education Licence is designed to complement them. A primary licence might permit the making of copies. Make sure you check before copying as this can vary from publisher to publisher. You might want to copy under the CLA licence though, not the primary licence, perhaps because the CLA licence terms of 5% are more generous. Ultimately it is up to you which terms you copy under, the primary licence or CLA’s. Just remember that the material has to be included in our licence. Use the Check Permissions tool to confirm.

If you have a question about your invoice or balance, or would like to top up your deposit, please contact education.renewals@cla.co.uk