Heddy points & the Ladder

Heddy points are how aitutors.me notices genuine effort. When your child finishes a real tutoring session — with any of the tutors — they earn points automatically. Points add up towards the Heddy Ladder (seven owl levels, from Elf Owl to Heddy's Own) and can be exchanged for small digital rewards: accessories and scenes for their own Heddy, and collectible badges.

One promise underneath everything: points only ever go up. There are no streaks to lose, nothing expires, and a resting week simply means no new points — never fewer old ones.

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How earning works

• A tutoring session that lasts at least 3 minutes earns points — with any tutor, in any subject.
• The session earns 10 to 30 points, depending on how genuinely your child engaged (the tutor's own read on the session — not a test score, and struggling with a hard topic still earns; only opening-and-closing a session earns nothing).
• There's a ceiling of 60 points a day per child, so points reward real engagement rather than racking up sessions.
• Reviewing that day's due flashcards also earns points — a flat 10 points, once per day, the first time your child finishes at least one card review that day (on top of, not instead of, any session points earned that day).
• Points never expire and are never deducted for inactivity.

Your child can ask any tutor "how many points do I have?" mid-conversation, and the tutor will tell them.

Sharing a flashcard to the Shared Sky, having it approved, or another child adopting it doesn't earn points. It's real recognition on its own — Heddy celebrates a first published card and a featured one right there on screen — but it isn't a points source. The two earn paths above (a tutoring session, a daily flashcard review) are the only ones today.

The Heddy Ladder

Every point your child has ever earned counts towards their lifetime total, which sets their level on the Ladder — seven owls, small to majestic:

Level	Owl	Lifetime points
1	Elf Owl — the world's smallest owl; everyone starts here	0
2	Little Owl — small but famously stern	50
3	Tawny Owl — Britain's woodland owl	150
4	Barn Owl — the heart-faced night hunter	300
5	Eagle Owl — ear tufts and fierce amber eyes	500
6	Snowy Owl — Heddy's own species	800
7	Heddy's Own — a title Heddy gives personally	1,200 (+ a gilt star per 500 after)

A steadily-engaged child (three or four sessions a week) reaches Snowy Owl in about one school term. Spending points on rewards never lowers a level — the Ladder only climbs.

Where your child sees all this

In the web tutor (aitutors.me/tutor), the My Heddy button opens your child's own room:

• The hub — their Heddy (wearing whatever they've dressed it in), their level, and recent points.
• The Ladder — all seven owls and their progress up it.
• The Reward shop — eleven collections now: badges, a properly full wardrobe (eighteen outfits, from an artist's beret to a pocket watch), seasonal fits, little treasures Heddy carries at her wing tip, tiny friends who keep her company, things for her nest corner, sky and weather, quiet sparkle effects, portrait frames, scenes, and one exclusive item unlocked at each Ladder level. Everything has a fixed price and stays available all year — the seasonal fits included.
• Dress Heddy — put earned accessories on their owl.
• My shelf — everything they've collected.

Asking, approving, and redeeming

Children can't spend points themselves. In the shop they tap "Ask to claim", and the request appears on your dashboard with a one-tap Approve — so every redemption is a shared moment, and you always see what's being spent. If you'd rather not approve something, just dismiss it; your child simply sees the item become askable again, never a "no".

You can also redeem directly from your dashboard (the "Redeem directly" section under Heddy points) — handy for surprises, or if your child uses the tutors through Claude rather than the web tutor.

What points are — and aren't

• Points cannot be bought with money, and they never convert to money, discounts, or subscription credit. They're recognition, not currency.
• Every reward has a fixed price — no mystery boxes, no limited-time offers.
• There are no leaderboards and no comparisons between children — each child's journey is their own.
• A safeguarding conversation never earns points — a hard rule, checked before anything else.

Common questions

My child had a quiet week — do they lose anything? No. Nothing decays, ever. A rest week just means no new points that week.

Does struggling in a session earn less? A session where your child genuinely wrestled with something hard still earns points — effort is the whole point. Only non-engagement (a session under three minutes) earns nothing.

Can I see why points were awarded? Yes — your dashboard's Heddy points section shows each session's points with the subject and the tutor's read on the session. Your child's own view shows just the subject and points, deliberately.

My child's flashcard got a lot of adopts in the Shared Sky — shouldn't that earn points? Not today — Shared Sky activity (publishing, moderator approval, another child adopting) is celebrated on screen but doesn't move the points ledger. Only a tutoring session and a daily flashcard review do.