Terms & Conditions 2019

  • All Lessons must be paid for in advance.
  • Lessons will be paid for in blocks of four.
  • Method of payment can be cash, debit or credit card.
  • The Music & Dance Academy reserves the right to refuse entry to any student where fees have not been paid in advance.
  • All fees are payable whether the student is in attendance or not. No reduction in fees due to the sickness of the student or parent/guardian will be granted.
  • If the regular teacher is unavailable for a lesson a substitute teacher may be allocated, or a credit will be given.
  • The Music and Dance Academy will make an allowance of up to 3 lessons per year for holidays which the student must give 4 weeks notice in advance.

Cancellation Policy Explained

Our cancellation policy:  Lessons cancelled by the student for any reason cannot be made up, nor can tuition be refunded. Reception may, at their discretion, offer to reschedule the lesson if your teacher has an available time slot.

Some guidelines to be aware of:

  • Our teachers are paid for scheduled lessons regardless of student attendance.
  • If a teacher offers some rescheduling options and none of those work for you, there are no further options unless another student cancels, opening up another space.

Our business model: Weekly Lessons
Our administrative structure and pricing are based on weekly appointments, month after month, year after year. Our policies, standard in our industry, follow from that business model.
Prospective clients do not call us for one lesson – they are looking for weekly lessons. For this reason, it makes little difference whether a current client cancels with an hour’s notice or a month’s notice – that time slot cannot be rebooked.

Why we cannot offer refunds for missed lessons:

As we grow, we meet increased demand by adding more teachers and more physical space in which lessons can take place. We cannot then adapt to reduced demand (lost revenue from missed lessons) without raising our prices.
The bulk of your tuition at The Music and Dance Academy is paid to your teacher. We could not continue to operate if we did not pay the teachers for their scheduled appointments while giving refunds to clients. Likewise, if we were to pay the teachers while simultaneously refunding missed lessons, we would not be able to maintain our presence in the area.
Relaxing our new attendance policy would destabilize our school by reducing the incentive of students to commit to regular attendance. Weekly lessons that must be paid for regardless of attendance override any conflicts that may come up. We have been fortunate to have a very high rate of student retention and strong student attendance is a part of that. Strong attendance contributes to success on the instrument which, in turn, reinforces the commitment to lessons.

The Challenges of Rescheduling

Reception can reschedule lessons if your teacher has space in his or her schedule and a studio is available. However, some teachers are in such high demand that they literally do not have any availability. In addition, some teacher’s schedules only include one teaching day making it impossible to reschedule these lessons.

Our new policies will allow us to continue to build a legacy of great music education. Thank you for understanding!