NEWS

SPRING NEWSLETTER - TERM TWO 2022

Dear Parents and Carers,

First of all - can I just say how special the shows were last week!  Every single student should be so proud of themselves for their courage to get up on stage and perform their socks off.  I know for many, it was their first time on a stage - and I am sure you will all agree that every student in the academy did themselves extremely proud.  

I can't believe how quickly the last term flew by - but here we are, thinking about January, and I wanted to share some information with you ahead of the Christmas break.  I will be out of the office from lunchtime(ish) this Thursday 16th December and due to a minor operation and of course taking some time out to spend with my family, I won't be checking emails or the office phone until 5th January at the earliest.  If something is super duper urgent you can reach me via Facebook Messenger here, and I'll come back to you as soon as I can - thank you in advance for your understanding.

Please keep this email somewhere you can refer to for the remainder of the term if needed, and it will be saved on our website here.  

Term Dates and Payments

Our current term has now finished for all classes.  All of our new term dates and fees can be found on our website here.  Classes start back w/c 10th January, and broadly run in line with the school term from that point.

If you are on our GoCardless payment system, there is nothing you need to do.  The first (or full) payment will be automatically debited on or around 30th December and the second installment (if applicable) will be automatically debited on or around 25th February 2022.  Our fee amounts can be found on our website here (siblings will receive our sibling discount) and are the same as last term for the Minis and Midis.  Your preferences (pay in full or two installments) have been stored from last term, or recently updated if I have reached out to you in the last week.  If you would like to change your preference, you must please contact me before 2pm tomorrow (Wednesday 16th December) as the payments will be set up to be debited automatically, and once I have done this I will not be able to change them.

If you pay by bank transfer, please could you pay the first or full payment before or on 30th December and the second installment (if applicable) before or on 25th February.  Please see the website here for payment amounts, and I will pop out reminder emails closer to the time.

Please note that I will not physically be in the office on the 30th when the GoCardless payments are debited, but any issues, please reach out to me via facebook messenger as above as soon as you notice any issue and I will sort it asap.

I must please stress that whether you choose to pay in full or in two installments, the commitment is for the full twelve week term.  Once a space has been secured, it is allocated to that student for the full term, and a full term's payment is required, regardless of how many sessions are attended or if you choose to leave the academy before the end of term.  Please take the time to review our Terms and Conditions for full details.

Communication

Our two key communication methods are email and Facebook.  Please save this email address to your 'safe senders' list to ensure we don't end up in spam.  We also have a Facebook Hub for parents of enrolled students where we post class material for at-home rehearsal, news and updates.  The link to the group is here.  

The contact number for the office is 07973262895 - but this phone is office based, linked to an answering service and is not monitored constantly, but I check in regularly. The office is open between 10am - 3pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and 10am - 12pm on Friday.  The only way to catch me with a super urgent message (especially outside office hours) is via Facebook Messenger as above, and if I'm not teaching I'll come back to you as soon as I can.  If your message isn't urgent, email is the best way to communicate please, so we can keep track of queries and conversation threads.

What to Wear/Uniform

Our preferred uniform is our Academy Tshirts and Hoodies with plain black/grey/navy joggers, leggings or shorts please.  These are available to order via our website here or direct with Bumblez shop on Shepton Mallet High Street.  I will be putting in an order over the Christmas break, so if you would like to order anything via me please let me know sizes and personalisations ect before Thursday lunchtime (but you can still pop into Bumblez on their open days after this week).  One note of caution is that we have found the Tshirts to be running large, but hoodies seem relatively true to size.  Unfortunately once a garment has been personalised we can't offer a refund, so please do pop into the shop to speak to Debbie to check sizing if you are unsure (but I advise double checking her opening hours over the Christmas break before making a special trip to Shepton).  Please note I currently sell these at the cost price to me, as an introductory offer, so cannot unfortunately offer any discount/sibling discount.

The uniform isn't currently mandatory, but we are considering making it mandatory (minis and midis only) for the start of the next summer term (after Easter) by way of advance notice, and there may be a small increase in cost later down the line.  

If a student isn't wearing an Academy T-shirt or Hoodie, please can we ask that they wear the following:

• A neutral (black/grey/navy) Tshirt and or Hoodie

• Neutral (black/grey/navy) Leggings, jogging bottoms or shorts.  No dresses, skirts or jeans please.

Also:

• No jewellery, tassels or loose clothing that may get caught or hurt the student or others please.  Please can long hair be tied back and off the face.

Please remember that most of our class is physical and movement based, so clothing must please reflect that for safety reasons.  General rule of thumb, if it's not something that would be worn for a school PE lesson, it's probably not quite right for our classes either :) 

Footwear is soft soled dance shoes - ideally split sole jazz shoes, but any soft jazz or ballet shoe is fine, or bare feet.  Please note with bare feet, particularly with our Midis, they may start to struggle with feet getting stuck to the floor when practicing technique work (such as turns), so I really do advise investing in some soft soled shoes if you possibly can.  In addition, as all spaces are community spaces, I always check for anything obvious that may harm little feet, but I can't guarantee the cleanliness of the floor.  

If you have a pair of soft soled dance shoes that no longer fit, please do donate them to us, and we can donate them back out to students that need them.

We don't have any dedicated changing facilities at our halls (except toilets), so please arrive ready to begin class.

Our Code of Conduct information, which includes notes about attire can be found on our website here 

Spectators 

In our Micros session a parent or carer please needs to remain with the student for the duration of the session, and maintain responsibility for their student before, during and after the end of the class.

For all of our other sessions (Minis and Midis), please can we ask our parents and carers to leave their child at the Academy to work with the class leader(s) for the session.  We now have the fab Leanna assisting me in both of our Minis classes for the new January term - so plenty of support for our students.  To reassure you, we are both enhanced DBS checked and experienced in working and being with young children - Leanna is mum to our wonderful students Joseph and Immanuel and has been working with us for a term at the academy with our Saturday group, so I am absolutely delighted that she can now also support with our Friday group.

Parents and/or carers are welcome to stay for the first session to ensure students settle back in, or drop in at the beginning and towards the end, but we find that students often focus, engage and show higher levels of confidence and concentration without parent or carer observation for the duration of the class.  If, however, your student is vulnerable and they require your supervision or support you are welcome to stay - we have likely discussed this previously.  

If COVID restrictions continue to accelerate, we may have to ask all parents and carers to not enter the hall at any point during sessions and operate a drop off/pick up system to limit the number of people in the room, so please be prepared that this may be implemented if we are required to do so (although we continue to hope not).  More about COVID below, and I will update on this again in the New Year, when we hopefully know more about what will happen.

If a parent or carer is staying, please could we only have one parent or carer per student, and please could we very politely ask that any parents or carers remain silent and unobtrusive (including not waving at, or calling out to students) during the session so as to not distract and potentially cause accidents.  

Please can we ask that spectators do not take photos or videos at any point during our sessions for child safeguarding reasons.  

Thankyou.

Refreshments

We don't have a snack break, so please don't bring any food to lessons, and especially no food is to please be consumed during a lesson as this is a health and safety risk.  Please can you ensure your child has a water bottle.  I have been asked by the hall to not use their dishware, so will no longer be able to supply glasses/cups during class - only top up water bottles.

Performances

I can't believe we are already thinking about this, but our Minis and Midis will be working towards an original show to perform at the end of the 12 week term to parents and carers (Covid Permitting).  This will be at the end of their respective session, on the last session of the term (8th and 9th of April) - fairly similar to this term, as it seemed to work well - one for the diaries!  The show will be 'Singing (Dancing and Acting) In the Rain' and will feature an original script written in-house, alongside songs and dance routines, which will be rehearsed during the weekly classes.  As with last term, to perform in the last session is not mandatory, the weekly classes are the most important element of what we do, so if your student would prefer to not perform, please let me know as soon as you are able - it isn't a problem.

Lockdowns and Covid

At the time of writing the Omicron variant is spreading, but the jury seems to be out on what the next few weeks hold for us.  Some restrictions are being tightened again, but there seems to be a lot of debate in parliament/the media on how serious this variant is in terms of hospitalisations and ultimately deaths, and what restrictions are appropriate.  We are of course all hoping that nothing will be as severe as the full scale lockdowns we saw in 2020 and early 2021, but if the last two years have taught us nothing, it is that we cannot predict the future.  

Generally speaking (if the rules are the same as the last time around) if schools can stay open, we can continue to teach in person - albeit with appropriate precautions.  Fingers crossed we will not have to implement our own 'Plan B', but if we do, we will move into online teaching via Zoom.  Group sizes will remain the same, content will remain the same and students will be able to participate and learn in almost exactly the same way they currently do in our 'in-person' sessions.  We will even be able to offer local (socially distanced) pick up points for props and costumes ect - so students will get the full term experience.  Costs will remain the same, as although I won't expect to pay for the venues, there will be additional costs in upgrading our online platforms (such as zoom) and my time offered and the content offered will be exactly the same.  I hope this is understandable and I thank you for your support.

For reassurance, I am currently teaching all of our classes on a national home education platform virtually, and I can assure you our classes translate well online and are extremely popular.  We will even be able to perform our end of term showcase online, so parents won't miss out either.

All I ask is that if we do go into a lockdown and have to move online, hopefully it will only be very temporary - I understand it will be a challenging time for all of us, but please continue to support the academy, and send students, as a very small business if we don't get that support we might not be able to come back at all when this is all over.  Thank you so much in advance :) 

For now - let's focus on the in person lessons, and hope that our 'Plan B' doesn't happen.  As above, if you don't need to stay to observe a session, please leave your student with us to minimise the amount of people in the room, and please only one observer per student or family group.  If you are staying, please could you wear a mask once inside the building and sanitise everyone with you on the way in.  I will open the door to ventilate between sessions.  If the student has any COVID/Cold symptoms please perform a lateral flow test and only come to class if they have a negative result.  As the group leader I am double vaccinated (booster jab booked for next week) and regularly undertake lateral flow tests.

I will update again in the New Year if our position has to change, and please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any concerns.  Thank you in anticipation of your continued support.

Examinations and One to Ones

I am registered to teach the LAMDA Musical Theatre Solo/Duo Syllabus for examination and certification.  To be entered for examination requires regular one to one tuition alongside group classes (there is an additional cost for this).  You can find more details here - or please contact me to discuss.  I can also offer one to one singing lessons for fun and skills building. 

Finally - we have recently updated our T&C's and these are here on the website and Code of Conduct here.  By attending a taster session or enrolling in the academy you agree to our terms and conditions and our code of conduct, and we will advise you if these update again in the future.

Most of the info you need can now be found on our website, Check out FAQ's or the Parents Info sections as a first port of call - but if you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to come back to me (reminder - if urgent, and you would like a response before 5th Jan, please contact me before lunchtime on Thursday 16th).  This newsletter will be stored in the 'latest news' section of the website, under 'about us'.

I hope you have a magical (hopefully relaxing) Christmas break.  Here's to the end of another wonderful term and the academy and I can't wait to see you all back in the New Year.