We are running an Open Studio session where you can come and meet the teacher, find out about music lessons and have a try of the piano.
Join us for a free taster session which is open to groups of up to 4 musicians at a time that are interested in learning the piano. You can find out what we offer, how lessons work and you can ask any questions to the teacher. They can also let you know how to book in for a 1-to-1 consultation lesson plus give you details of all the current vacancies. Please note this is not an individual piano lesson but more an opportunity to come to our music studio and try out the piano briefly if you like. This session is open to children from age 4+ and adult learners too. Please note this session is not suitable for candidates enquiring about Music Aptitude Tests or Scholarships.
Monday 9 September – Saturday 26 October (7 lessons) Half Term (1 week) Monday 4 November – Saturday 21 December (7 lessons)
Monday 6 January – Saturday 15 February (6 lessons) Half Term (1 week) Monday 24 February – Saturday 5 April (6 lessons)
No lesson on Monday 21 April & 5 May for Monday students (Bank Holiday)
Tuesday 22 April – Saturday 24 May (5 lessons / 3 lessons for Monday students) Half Term (1 week) Monday 2 June – Saturday 19 July (7 lessons)
TOTAL LESSONS: 38 lessons (36 for Monday students)
Here is some information about the Consultation Lesson and the terms and conditions.
How the Consultation Lesson Works We understand that you will have a lot of questions about starting piano, singing or guitar lessons. The most common of these is what age should we start lessons. This varies but generally anywhere from age 4 upwards is a guideline for starting. We can only assess readiness to start when you book a consultation lesson as no two students are alike. Consultation lessons are 30 minutes in duration and 1-to-1 only. We do not offer group tutoring. Parents are welcome to stay for this session. We also have many adult students too – it is never too late to start!
The consultation lesson is £50 and is payable in advance by online banking only. You will have time during the 30 minute lesson to speak to the teacher and we allow for 5 minutes at the end for a discussion of what we covered and how to progress. After the consultation lesson, we give you 24 hours to pay the balance of fees for the remainder of the term. We are unable to hold spaces open for students that do not contact us within this time period. Lessons are £45 for 30 minutes plus a new student registration fee of £20. We follow the Southwark state school timetable. We do not charge for holidays when we are closed. Your lesson time remains the same for the academic year and we do not refund or reschedule missed lessons for any reason as we are a private school.
About the SE22 Piano School We offer music lessons for adults and children from age 4 or 5. The business was established from a private residence in East Dulwich in 2007 before moving to commercial premises just off Lordship Lane and we have been in this property for well over 10 years now. You can read more about our piano school’s journey here. We are proud winners of the Southwark Business Awards and we are partnered with Casio pianos.
Our students can follow a graded exam system or they can just learn for pleasure. We teach various styles of music including pop, classical and jazz. We include skills such as ear tests, aural training, improv and sight-reading in lessons. Some students will go on to achieve Music Scholarships to local schools such as Kingsdale, Prendergast and Haberdashers and we offer specialist tutoring for these entrance exams. We also tutor students for all local private schools (Dulwich College, JAGS, Alleyns). In addition to the weekly lesson we offer twice-yearly performance opportunities at our student recitals.
Our Team Please click here to read the teacher bios. We don’t just teach piano, we also offer singing and guitar lessons too. Our teachers also offer lessons in a variety of languages (French, Spanish, Russian and Bulgarian).
Please watch our welcome video from our Head Teacher Lorraine:
At your first lesson your teacher will go through the Terms and Conditions for lessons with you. These are included below and we ask all parents to sign a copy of these both electronically and on paper which you keep for your records.
Please sign up to our mailing list and agree to the terms and conditions for lessons before attending your first lesson. (Mailing list link provided by email when you register).
Term Dates are listed on your invoice and on our website. www.se22piano.co.uk. We are unable to respond to emails asking for term dates but we have included this information on the auto-reply for your convenience.
Nb. We cannot swap or refund missed lessons as our timetable is heavily booked without any breaks and your teacher only works set days. Your lesson time is your weekly slot and cannot be altered so please look after it carefully!
Late payments incur an admin fee of £10. This is automatically added to your next invoice should you pay late. For the smooth running of the piano school, we rely on your cooperation to settle all invoices no later than 5pm on the last Monday of each half term.
You can choose from the entire Casio digital piano range and get 20% off any Casio piano and keyboard* when purchasing direct from casio.co.uk/emi. Email se22pianoschool {@} gmail.com for the discount code.
*Sale items excluded.
Terms and Conditions for Lessons:
We do not reschedule or refund missed lessons as we operate the same terms as a private school
Your lesson time remains the same for the academic year
A supply teacher will be used if your teacher is not available
In the case of lockdown, lessons will be online. No refund or carrying over of lessons is allowed so please ensure you are able to attend Zoom lessons before you enrol for lessons.
Late payment of an invoice incurs a £10 administration charge. We reserve the right to give away your space if payment is not received after issuing one reminder.
Your teacher is the first point of contact for all queries. They will contact our admin team on your behalf if they are unable to assist you.
One term’s written notice is required to quit lessons. This allows us ample time to advertise the space and fill with another student.
Payment is by online banking only on the last Monday of each half-term for the next block of lessons. We do not offer lessons during the school holidays and no charge is made for lessons during this period.
How to Contact The Piano School
Please note we do not have a full-time administrator and your teacher will be able to answer all questions about progress, purchasing books, exams and any other music-related queries you may have. Our administrator primarily focusses on issuing invoices and chasing late payments. If you have asked your teacher a question and they cannot answer they will ask our administrator to assist you.
Living in London is expensive – there’s no doubt about that. At the age of nearly 45, I am just over a week away from buying a house with my partner in Penge. Having lived in East Dulwich for around 17 years, I can’t afford to live in this area anymore so I have moved about 4 miles away. Luckily Penge is not too far away by bicycle, albeit a very hilly ride home! As a self-employed musician, it has been incredibly difficult to secure a mortgage and the whole process has taken 6 very stressful months to come to fruition. My colleagues at the SE22 Piano School are all in a similar position of not yet owning a property and contrary to popular belief, we do not all live at the piano school. We all rent or live with family and once I move, only one of us lives locally. The rest of the team are 30 – 60 minutes travel away by public transport. We are all non-drivers.
I love our small team of teachers at the SE22 Piano School – they are excellent tutors, great at communicating with the parents, supportive co-workers and our students love coming to their weekly lesson.
The reason that so many of our tutors stay for so long at the piano school is because they are offered a supportive working environment plus they are paid for the hours worked whether the student comes to the lesson or not. As a freelance musician, it’s not the most stable way to earn a living but by paying my team a set amount each week, they know that they have guaranteed hours and income from working at the piano school.
Our students also sign up to the same terms as a private school and the terms and conditions are clearly explained before you register. For example if you attend a local private school and you are sick or there is a family emergency that means you cannot attend school that day, you would not get a day’s fees back nor would you probably ask for this. However some of our students do ask for missed lessons to be carried over or credited even though we regularly remind them that this is never possible. If I was to credit a lesson then this would mean your teacher goes unpaid for that session and I have to dock their pay. If I was to do this regularly to our team then I am fairly sure it would be impossible to retain any of my teachers if their pay was randomly docked.
We hope you understand this is a fair system for our teachers. We are only open 36 weeks of the year so we are unpaid for the other 16 weeks. To lose teaching income regularly when students are away would make it financially impossible for us to be music teachers. There is little demand for lessons during the 4 months or so when we are closed for school holidays. Of course we do other work to sustain us through this time but it is not a regular and reliable as having a set number of music students each week during term-time.
In our email auto reply it does state that we are unable to respond to emails requesting lesson credits/refunds/reschedules. This is because every single email represents a significant cost to the business to respond. As we have been very upfront with all students about the terms and conditions plus we remind you in every single newsletter about this, we are unable to respond to emails regarding this matter. We do not have the operating capacity for a full-time (or even part-time) administrator and therefore your teacher remains the first port of call for all enquiries. It is worth noting that many parents will bring their child to the lesson and see the teacher and say nothing but then send an email later that could have easily been answered by the teacher there and then. If we can avoid doing this it will help greatly for the smooth running of the piano school.
