Spires' phone calling system is free to use for students and tutors.

It connects to a phone over the internet, so you do not need to worry about paying for calls, especially international calls if your tutor is in another country.

Your phone number will remain private, as the call will appear to come from a number starting with 01225 (Bath, United Kingdom).

To use the system, your phone number needs to be entered in your settings tab. Your tutor will need to do the same. If you click 'Edit/Add' in the Phone calling system under 'Account Settings' you will see a pop up that will allow you to update your phone number.

Your phone number needs to be written in the international format. This means there should not be a 0 at the start. The above phone number will not work because it was entered incorrectly, it is also 1 digit short of being a full phone number.

You may enter a landline number if you wish.

If the "Let tutors call me" toggle is black, tutors can call you. If it is grey, tutors can not call you.

We recommend leaving this enabled, i.e. black, so that tutors can make contact with you quickly and easily.

In order to make a call you will need to open the messages between yourself and the tutor.

At the top of the messenger you will see a purple button that says "Call Tutor" next to the tutor's name if the tutor is using the phone calling system.

Clicking this will bring up a pop up asking you to confirm that you wish to call the tutor

After this, you may be prompted for access to your microphone by your browser.

At the end of the call, you can click end call or the tutor may hang up which would also disconnect you

See the full guide on communicating with tutors.