Summer Term
Commences
April 18 (Fri)
Half
term
May 26 -30
End of
term
July 7th
SPECIAL EXAM NOTICES!
CLICK HERE FOR COACHING INFO
CLICK HERE NEW BILLING INFO
Web-site
and Email
Please
let us know if you have any ideas for the site and for
anything you think is missing. To assist with
communications and make it easier to contact us the school
has this wonderful web-site for up to date news and an
email address for pupils and parents to get in
contact:
info@glendaletheatrearts.co.uk
This can be used to ask questions, notify us of absences and confirm lessons.
Reminders
PLEASE REMEMBER:-
DO NOT park our drive or next door - even for a few moments.
DO NOT stand outside other peoples homes or gates having long conversations.
DO NOT pull up outside the studio and honk your horn for your child to come out. Please think how awful it must be if this happened every few minutes for two or three hours.
DO NOT shout at friends arriving or leaving who might be some distance away in the road.
All behaviour reflects on the school so I ask that you behave in a considerate manner, as you would want outside your own front door.
Grooming and Presentation
Appropriate hairstyles should be worn for all classes and teachers will ask pupils to leave to room and sort their hair/clothing out if they are not up to standard. Jewellery should not be worn. Now that the weather is getting colder and pupils are more wrapped up in the daytime, it is very noticeable when pupils do not 'freshen up' before classes. There are some wonderful deodorant wipes now available so please make sure your child is fully prepared and clued up on personal hygiene.
EXAM COACHING LESSONS
With a large
number of exams coming up it might be helpful if these are
explained.
It is not
possible in the regular weekly classes to cover i) the
entire examination syllabus, ii) all of the unset work and
iii) get everything to the necessary standard. All
classes are of the standard of the grade but are not in
themselves exam classes. The set work is taught, but many
steps have to be done one at a time and it is not possible
in a normal class to do this every week. This is the case
especially in tap work, as the beats need to be heard
individually to make sure none are missed. Not only is this
very, very time-consuming in a full class, but also very,
very boring. The work for examinations is expected to reach
a greater degree of finesse, with the final/finer details
only being coped with, or understood, by those ready to
take the exam. It can be very confusing for the newer
members of a grade and can also push a pupil beyond their
current abilities.
Other reasons
for coaching are:
Strength.
As the levels progress the body must perform harder and
harder combinations involving more stamina and greater
muscle tone. In the same way as an athlete would prepare
for a competition, a dancer must prepare for an exam. You
wouldn’t expect to workout once a week, be told you
have the ability and knowledge to run a marathon, and not
expect to put in more time and effort into the training! At
the higher grades in ballet near-daily classes are needed
just to get the body ready never mind the
brain.
Knowledge.
The younger grades need to go over work very regularly to
keep it all in their heads. Apart from practicing, a
once-a-week lesson is barely enough to hold the work
steady; more is needed to
improve the work. The
higher grades and majors have a very broad content that
cannot be covered in a single lesson and usually include
theory, which should be tested.
Individual
requirements. It is very rare
to find that the candidates have difficulty with the same
exercises as those new to the class. Usually it will be the
trickier things such as amalgamations or rhythms that need
cleaning up and these are beyond the average class member.
If they weren’t, they would all be taking the
exam!
Finally,
practice is vital. During lessons candidates are given
specific corrections or tips for improvements. Unless these
are taken on board and the work is done then improvements
will not be made. Having spent time in the class, time
coaching and a fair amount of money to enter and coach, it
seems extremely stupid not to do the one thing that is free
and that has the greatest benefit of all!
"
Notes Regarding Payments and Changes in Billing and
Payments for Private Lessons and
Coaching:
As
from
1st
May please
DO NOT pay for any
lessons or coaching
at the time of the lesson. There is a
new system now in place and ready: Each calendar
month’s lessons will be billed retrospectively within
the first week of the following month. Please then pay that
bill with 7 days of issue. Should you wish to avoid
building up a large bill during a busy month then you are
welcome to submit cheques (not cash) on account. You will
then receive a bill clearly showing the lessons taken, the
amounts due, any payments received on account and a total
to pay. This way we should reduce any problems
occurring when teachers receive payments during lesson time
and having to record it. The whole process of receiving and
recording individual payments is both time-consuming and
costly. Since everyone knows the cost of lessons and also
knows how many lessons have been taken, there should not be
any surprise on the bills and therefore no reason to delay
payment.
Sample
example:
Lessons
5th
May
30 minutes
£14.10
12th
May
60 minutes
£28.20
19th
May
15 minutes
£7.05
Total
£49.35
10th
May
Received
on
account
£25.00
Balance due
as at May 31st
£24.35
Any
bill not settled within the due time will be subject to a
reminder letter for which there will be a charge.
ONLINE PAYMENTS
It
is now possible to make all payments via online transfer
direct to the school account. Please use the pupil’s
surname to identify the payment. The information you need
to make the payment is:
Account
61496913 Sort code (bank)
40-47-25
These payments
are easily tracked by both you and the school. Term fees
can also be paid this way.
Please do not
write cheques for small amounts. We record every cheque
twice and in order to keep our bank charges to a minimum
are restricted in the number of cheques we can process at
any one time. The administration and effort for a cheque of
£7.05 is exactly the same as for a cheque of £70 or indeed
£700! The new billing system should avoid the necessity for
small cheques. If you are paying an amount on account to
reduce your end of month bill then please round it up for
ease… £30 is easier than 28.20 etc, and any payment
on account should not be for less than £25.00.
I
hope this simplifies things for everyone. This school is
still very ‘administration heavy’ and so we
hope this new billing system along with the ability to make
online payments will ease the work for everyone.
CASH
Due
to the costs involved for insuring cash we would ask that
you avoid using cash whenever possible.
As a final
note, please place your cheques in the box provided. It is
not necessary to see anyone to hand over a cheque and would
allow the office to be used more
efficiently.
Miss
Mandy