I’ll start with stating our current policy at the onset.
You can cancel any lesson, for any reason and get up to 4 make up credits per year.
These music lesson credits are valid until August 30th as long as you are a registered student.
All you have to do is login to your dashboard and mark the class you are absent for. You can do this up to 7 weeks in advance but you must do it with a minimum of 24 hours notice. (Actually before midnight the day before).
When you are booking a make up class you can do it with 4 hours notice up to a maximum of 7 days notice.
So this generous policy, combined with the video lesson option, solves 90% of the reasons people might miss a lesson.
How we got here
Over the 20+ years we have been in Winnipeg teaching music , we have had a myriad of variations to our cancellation/make up policies. The current one has been in effect since 2020 and, while no policy is perfect, it serves us, the teachers, and the families best.
You don’t get makeups for any other of your children’s
(or your) activities
Again I will reiterate that, no other activity, that you or your child is involved in, will get you refunds, reschedules or make ups events. You don’t get refunded school tuition or taxes if you are sick. You don’t get make up dance classes if you go away. You don’t get an extra hockey practices if you forgot to go.
The History
In the past we allowed make ups for illness and family emergencies with little or no notice to a limit of 3. The only caveat was they needed to make up the lesson within the same week. Seems fair and fool proof, right?
We had families complain that, if Johnny was too sick on Tuesday, they’d still be too sick to come in Friday. So they wouldn’t do the make up the same week.
Ok not fool proof.
We now had to keep track of these lingering make-ups.
We had to call this list every time an opening came up.
We had families complaining about that, if they gave us 24 hours notice for a hockey tournament or a weeks notice for a vacation and that that should qualify for a make up.
We had families outright lie that they were sick but then see them in mall or the student would regale the teacher about the hockey tourney/weekend getaway they were at when supposedly sick.
We had families wanting make ups for lessons they forgot about.
We had no easy way to control how many make up lessons anyone got.
We had some getting none and some getting way more than anyone else.
We had no way to know every families schedule and availability for make ups.
Etc. Etc. etc.
At this point we had people wanting make ups for everything and no practical way of scheduling them.
- Illness (½ the time this can now be solved with a video lesson)
- Emergencies
- Vacations
- Forgotten last minute
- In-service days
- Private schools extended Winter and March Breaks
- Exam week
- Weather ( 100% of the time this can be solved with a video class)
- Soft holidays (Halloween, Valentines, Easter Monday)
- Saturdays of long weekends
If we ‘made everyone happy’ we would have no teachers (at least no good ones lasting 10+ years with us) and no business.
At the very least we would have no life doing admin for 200 families/students all wanting different things.
So, in short, any policy we have on this (or anything) makes someone unhappy.
We also have many families that didn’t care about any make up lessons for missed classes. They figured, their absences, their problem.
Obviously, neither extreme of wanting zero make ups or make ups for every little thing, is a practical model.
So, the answer was to adopt a policy that allowed the most options.
With our current system of getting make ups music lessons for literally anything, families have the maximum amount of flexibility for both cancelling and rescheduling
It is also fair, as it is applied equally across all families.
Short notice for missed lessons happens in only two scenarios:
- Sudden illness (many times you could still do a video class)
- Family Emergency
Hastily called practices for sports? Last minute invite?
It’s your choice to attend the regularly scheduled lesson vs. last minute situations. All the other reasons can be handled with a video lesson.
With little of no notice about a missed class, we can do nothing with that spot. We can’t find someone to take that spot with so short a notice. The teacher just sits there and it is not available to any other student.
24 hours or more notice is something we can all take advantage of.
When someone gives 24 hours notice, which happens in a huge variety of situations:
- Sports Games/Practices
- Out of town tournaments
- Theater/Sporting tickets
- Vacations outside of our school holidays
- Birthday Parties
- Those Soft Holidays (Halloween, Valentines, Easter Monday)
- Fridays or Saturdays of Long Weekends
- Days we are open that some places are close (Louis Riel, Remembrance Day)
- Family events
- Visiting relatives
- Car Trouble
- Illness
- Family Emergencies
Now you can use that spot to schedule your make up lessons.
When you cancel your lesson, you will be looking for a make up spot. With popular teachers with full schedules, this would be impossible with the old system of accepting last minute cancellations.
Now you can look for places where someone has given 24 or more hours notice.
Spots that suit your schedule!
If you take advantage of the 7 week notice, you can use you make ups credits BEFORE the actual absence.
If you give the 24 hour notice you can book an earlier time that same day.
Students Quitting.
The odd time we have had students quit with make-up credits on the books. You need to get those make ups in before your last lesson or they will disappear. There is no refund for missed lessons by the student or the teacher.
Over all this is THE BEST cancel and make up policy available to you for ANY activity you are currently enrolled in.
Log in now to take full advantage of it today
River Heights School of Music
info@riverheightsmusicschool.com
204-487-3664
2025 Corydon Ave. #202
Winnipeg Manitoba
R3P 0N5