LESSON PROCEDURES/ARRIVAL:  As the teaching studio/learning space and the waiting area are all in one, please, converse with friends, acquaintances or make/receive phone calls outside of our learning space.            

• First lesson of the afternoon: If you come through the gate earlier (tailgate), please, pass your time by the lake. If, in the interim need a restroom you can find one by the Summer House (near the entrance – by the pool). Only walk to the back of our house (deck and garden) if I agreed previously. Otherwise, please use the steps located on the other side of our fence and arrive to our front door.
• Unless we made an alternate plan, please, arrive about 3 minutes prior to have time to wash hands, use restroom and “get ready, set, go”!
• If lessons are already ongoing, please enter quietly
• Young Siblings: go out if weather allows, read, walk with little ones outside, bring some activity materials or otherwise keep them engaged, unless, they can read, study, draw or colour QUIETLY inside.
• Leave gum, non-water drinks outside the Studio. Water bottle, small food by the table is fine. Make as little fuss as possible, as it all shortens our progress opportunity.

Communication: Please, feel free to email me or call me during my office hours 12:00-2:00pm on weekdays. If you need to miss a lesson, please notify me as soon as possible. Feel free to write me at anytime if there is anything relevant and important I need to know that may impact your child’s progress or to ask questions. I love hearing from you! Please, note, that during lessons my attention is on teaching and only wish to discuss matters briefly. If you urgently need to talk to me regarding piano matters the only way you can meet me is to let me know in advance that we are using part or the whole of your next lesson time. Regarding last lessons of the day: Please, note, I am not available to stay back beyond the couple of minutes of wrapping up, unless we arranged it together. As The Piano Studio is also our home, after our lesson I am ready to make dinner. Thank you for your understanding! 🙂 

Answering phone: With any matters, please, do not call only SMS after 3pm as I am busy teaching. My phone is only on for the parents for that afternoon. I also do not make or receive phone calls unless it is relevant for whom I am working with.

Invoices, Receipts, Late Fees: I am trialling a new Invoices/receipt system. Next year the Invoices will be sent out for you 2 weeks prior lesson 1 starts. This will allow you to organise payment in this 2 weeks window. Late payments will incur an additional $15 fee(!) and will be payable with the late tuition fee.

2020 Queensland Term Dates – with Fees Due Dates

Please, enter your upcoming lesson and payment dates into your phone calendar as I do not send out lesson reminders. 

Everyone is encouraged to make themselves comfortable, however, please, kids, NO SHOES ON THE FURNITURE! While I was not strict before with shoes off by the door, children, if you are planning to sit down on the lounge, please, take your shoes off by the door. Thank You in Advance!

Student Commitment – Weekly Practise: Regular practice is imperative to learn how to play proficiently. Around 20 minutes of practice, 5(!) days a week would be ideal for lower grades and 45mins to an hour  recommended for intermediate grades. More is not always better (if it lacks thoughtfulness!) but in different phases of our learning journey, for example during exam preparation, more practise is mandatory.

Purchase of Books: I do keep some of the books for purchase, if so, I do let you know and you can buy what you need, when you need it. If I don’t have something on shelf, please, visit our local, wonderful music shop and put your order in via calling them or in person. The shop is OZWINDS, Gold Coast Brass and Woodwinds, Address: 2/25 Alicia St, Southport QLD 4215, Phone: (07) 5561 1773 – KAREN AND ROB. Tell them I have sent you. 🙂 Some books that I will be trialling next year are best ordered online. 

Photographing / Videoing Lessons, Events: As I am in the process of building an online school as well, I understand that images and short videos are the way of future education. When something has much teaching or fun value, with your permission I wish to share it on an appropriate, professional platform such as on my Piano School FB page on our closed teaching groups page or on my website. Please, mention to me if that is OK with you.

Missed Lessons: As your Term Payments hold your permanent lesson space, refunds would cancel your enrolment and your space would free up for an other student to take it! Any other missed after school activities, whether it is art, swimming or dancing, –  just to name a few – are all the same. They do not provide reschedule opportunity. To be eligible for a make up lesson, please, let me know of your absence early. If you require it, 1 Lesson /Term can be arranged with me after your absence that was illness related. The times allocated for this are early evening, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday 6.30-7pm. If you are not able to organise the 1 make up lesson you are eligible to have within the Term, the opportunity will expire on the last school day and no longer carries into any of the holidays. If other family emergency, school events or family vacation prevent you from attending, your early notice is still required to maintain your enrolled status and also non-refundable. 

Illness: You are asked not to attend your lesson and please, notify me asap. You are eligible for 1 reschedule/Term as it is outlined above. Students who are mildly ill can schedule a Skype or ZOOM lesson during their regular time. More on this later as I learn it 🙂 From 2019 I anticipate, that a swapping system will supplement support for you for rescheduling when you need it. As I will no longer send out weekly SMS reminders, please, send me an SMS if you have to swap your lesson time so I can provide the detail of the parent who would be helpful for your SWAP. While I can not guarantee that it works every time, I did hear success stories of this system from other piano teachers. 

Swapping System:  As our school is growing, I started to realise, providing make up lessons other than during lesson days for any reason at any time virtually – especially in my weekends or in the term breaks became an unending task. I started to feel too tied down in unstructured ways. I do need more time for working on my own creative ideas and have study AND family time. I am sure all of you would relate and understand this. So, I researched ways of maximising your lesson times, and found the SWAP System that could cater for all other absence beside the one make up that I provide /Term/sick day, may it be a family emergency, medical appointments that isn’t sickness related on the day, school events, play dates, games, non-emergency appointments or family vacations that would keep you away from attending your lesson. Please provide 48 hour notice where possible. A buddy system between you parents, may ensure that your child’s learning progress is not compromised! When you are unable to attend in your lesson time you could  swap lessons directly between each other. Example: You have an urgent dentist appointment at 3pm and there is a long waiting list to see that doctor so you will not reschedule, but, your lesson is at 4pm – if you could swap it with the 5.30pm lesson or better, change the day, you could attend your lesson without having to cancel. Please, let me know if you would be happy to trial it. You can OPT IN or OUT any time. Thank you for your understanding!

My Travel Make Ups: As you know, we have ties to Europe, and while every effort is made to ‘squeeze’ our travels into school holidays I am letting you know, that I may be away for several weeks each year in which case I am ALWAYS offering to make those lessons up before leaving or after my return or by then via my online piano school where you will be able to see recorded lessons that is relevant to your personal learning. That way the kids don’t miss out, the progress continues.

Changing Lesson Time During The Year:  Circumstances, afternoon activities, work etc can change, I understand. Sometimes it takes much shuffling and can be time consuming to deliver what you require. In the case of requesting to change lesson time during the year I can not guarantee it, but we can always try.  If we succeed, it will cost $15 admin fee. 

Discontinuing Piano Lessons: If you stop your tuition for any reason, your fees needs to be paid for all of your lessons that you are finishing off.