Rowell Jao
Regarding my policy for missed lessons with FCC:
UPDATE effective August 2019 -
Shield's Scholarship Recipients:
Congratulations on being a recipient of the Shield's Scholarship through FCC's Cadence program! For those who have auditioned and have scored in the top 10, you'll receive twelve (12) 45-minute lessons for the first semester. All others will receive twelve (12) 30-minute lessons for the first semester. Continuation of the scholarship into the second semester will be dependent on the student's attendance and progress through my recommendation. Any student absences during the 12 consecutive lesson dates in the semester will be counted as missed lessons from the 12 lessons and not be made up or rescheduled. Please see below for what can be counted as a make up lesson.
Missed lessons and Make-up lesson Policy:
Your child’s music education is important to prioritize regular attendance. Please keep this in mind when you consider other activities.
It is not possible to schedule make-up lessons when a student misses a lesson for any reason including illness or prearranged vacation. With this in mind, make-up lessons are not provided.
Unfortunately, credits or make ups are not issued for missed lessons unless it's a major holiday that FCC is closed for lessons that day. I will do my best to notify you ahead of time of a lesson cancellation on my part, and of course make-up any lessons I miss regardless of it being my illness or any other scheduled activity I need to be at. And I will try to do it as soon as possible at a mutually agreeable time within the enrolled sessions.
If a student arrives late for a lesson, the student will receive instruction for the remainder of the scheduled lesson only.
As a courtesy, please notify your teacher with atleast 24 hours of advance notice via email, if a missed lesson is to be planned. If FCC is closed due to a major holiday or severe inclement weather, then we can look into options for a make-up lesson, depending on availability.
Please understand that I have reserved this lesson time for you. If you choose to not use the reserved lesson time, it is lost forever. And to make it up, I have to make another slot available, thus giving you twice the amount of time that you paid for and taking up another paid slot I could be using for another student or activity. If continued cancellations and non-payments are happening, then you risk forfeiting your reserved lesson time and FCC will not allow me to continue teaching unpaid lessons.
There is no make-ups for school or other activities. It is a distinct disadvantage to myself because lessons are one-on-one, and therefore the easiest to cancel and reschedule on your part. It is your choice on how many activities you do and how busy you choose to be. My time is as valuable as any other person’s activity. I should not always be the low man on the totem pole just because other activities that involve more than one person seem more important or are harder for you to miss. It is your decision if you choose that another activity is more important than our contracted regularly scheduled lesson. There are no make-ups for missing school or church or sporting events, and to be fair it is the same for the lessons I teach. This includes vacations, school events, church events, sporting events and life events and celebrations. Life is about creating priorities and making choices and compromises. These choices are up to you and all I can do is make guaranteed space available to you and you are charged for reserving that space.
I want to be as accommodating, nice and fair as possible.
MAJOR HOLIDAY EXCEPTIONS:
For the Fall and Winter of 2019, I am willing to accommodate two (2) make up lessons, one for the weeks of Thanksgiving Holiday and one for Christmas Holiday. No other times besides those.
If I have agreed to accommodate a make up lesson for you, please make sure that students prepare for it. If students are not prepared for a make up lesson, then the make up lesson will not be good use of time, and I'd recommend not having the make up lesson in order for the student to reflect and spend time practicing to allow a later make up lesson be more meaningful. I'd rather not have the student spend that make up lesson time for them to use as practice time that they could have done at home. This means I may cut the make up lesson short if we are extending their normal lesson time to use as a make up lesson.
Substitute Teacher:
A substitute teacher may be provided if I am unable to teach lessons. The substitute teacher appointed will be one of the other FCC violin teachers and they will be well-informed of each students' needs for lesson instruction during my absence. Please keep in mind that billing will remain the same if you choose to attend lessons or not with a substitute scheduled. Just like in school, (public, private, college, etc.), tuition remains the same when a substitute teacher is assigned during the absence of the normal teacher. Thank you for understanding!
Illness Policy:
In the case of real illness, please refrain from coming to the lesson, stay home to rest until healthy again. If the child or parent arrives at the studio ill, we reserve the right to send the parent and the child home. If a student is too ill for school, he/she is too ill for his/her music lesson. We work in close proximity and with our hands, so germs spread easily. Please consider the health and well being of our instructors and other students. If I get sick, then 60-70 students miss their lesson.
Lesson Time:
The lesson time includes the process of getting in the room, getting the violin and materials out, tuning up, hellos and goodbyes, and talking and organizing what is going on in your musical life. An hour lesson will have 50-55 minutes of instruction, a 45 minute lesson will have 35-40 minutes of instruction and a 30 minute lesson will have 20-25 minutes of instruction. Lessons sometimes have a logical stopping point that may not always coincide with the exact second the lesson is supposed to end. I hope the quality of the instruction and the development of the student over the long haul and not the exact minutes of instruction at each meeting, is in your interest. It will all average out over the long haul.
Summer Lessons:
Study during the summer is crucial for students to maintain their abilities.
During the summer semester (June-July-August), lessons are more flexible. Since I usually attend teacher conferences during the summer, I feel it is fair to allow flexibility in student schedules for missed lessons and make-up lessons. If you choose to remain enrolled in lessons throughout the summer, any lessons missed during the summer, we will only be able to have make-ups within the summer months. No make-ups will carry forward into the Fall/Winter/Spring semesters. A limit of 3 (three) make-up lessons will be allowed during the summer, one for each summer months (June-July-August).
For most families, in order to keep their preferred lesson time during the school year, they decide to stay enrolled throughout the summer even though they do take off for vacation. This way, they don't risk losing their preferred lesson time when fall begins, especially when many other students are getting into back-to-school enrollment. Ultimately, it's up to you to decide if you need to cancel/stop lessons for the summer and restart back up in the fall. Just keep in mind that canceling/stopping lessons means you'll forfeit your current lesson time leaving it open for other students to sign up for.
Please be very vigilant in maintaining communication with me regarding your plans to be away and scheduling make-ups. Families must make every effort/accommodations on their part in order to schedule make-up lessons to fit my teaching schedule. My teaching schedule/calendar is updated frequently, so please click directly onto the Calendar button to check for availabilities in my teaching schedule. Thank you!
Your enrollment in this studio signifies acceptance of the above policies and entire content of this informational website.
Thank you for understanding!
Please refer to the main Lesson Policies page for additional information by clicking here.
