In our terms and conditions that all piano students sign when starting lessons, it states that we do not reschedule piano lessons. This includes swapping lessons. If you are wondering why we have this condition, here is some information:
- Each student receives a weekly slot for lesson. Our teachers all work on different days and some travel a long way to give your lesson so they are not available on days other than when they are scheduled to work in the studio. Alex and Mirna both live over an hour each way by bus, therefore they cannot just pop in for 1 lesson on a day that they do not teach. We also have a very packed schedule 7 days a week so we can’t interrupt the studio to slot in ad hoc lessons as our students attend lessons back to back.
- If you are unable to attend, the teacher will still be paid for that lesson as their teaching hours are fixed for each half-term by the number of students on their roster. If they were to teach you again later during the week, then this would be an additional lesson that would incur the usual lesson fee. We cannot adjust the next invoice to remove the missed lesson’s fee as your teacher will have already been paid for this lesson.
- Even with plenty of notice, we are unable to administer requests for lesson swaps or reschedules. To reschedule just one lesson could lead to a series of complex timetable swaps and multiple emails to secure a change of time. As you can appreciate, with over 100 students, this would be a heavy administrative burden that would not be sustainable for a small business. We do not have a full-time administrator and every single email sent costs the business time and resources to reply. This is why we will not respond to any requests about rescheduling lessons as we explained fully our terms and conditions to you when you first came for lessons. We will however do a refresher in person when we next see you and go through this information with you if you are unclear about any of it.
- Our piano teaching studio offers a well-planned weekly lesson that is supplemented by termly performance opportunities, school trips and graded exams. By keeping a fixed weekly lesson schedule, we can use our time to plan the extra-curricular schedule which goes above and beyond what other piano teachers offer.
- We do not share contact details of students/parents as they have not consented to receive emails from other students/parents nor are we able to implement this service due to GDPR rules and ICO data compliance.
We include the terms and conditions on every email communication and these are also readily viewable online on our web site Fees page. All students sign this document before starting lessons and we explain this in person to you when you come for your consultation lesson.
We thank you for your cooperation in the smooth running of the piano teaching studio!
