Frequently asked questions

A class costs a per-session rate times the number of times it meets in the term. Forty-five minutes is $18 a session, an hour is $22, an hour and a quarter is $26. In a fourteen-week term with one recess week that is thirteen sessions, so an hour-long class is $286 for the term. The term dates and fees page shows the multiplication for every class.

You join the waiting list and you are told your position in it. When a place comes free the person at the top is offered it and has three days to take it. There is no charge and no way to buy priority.

Yes — one per student per discipline. It is a real class and the student joins in. It does hold a place for that week, which is why it is booked in advance rather than dropped in on, and it is why a full class cannot take a trial.

Yes, if the class has a place. You pay for the sessions still to come rather than for the whole term. The enrolment page does that arithmetic in front of you before you confirm.

Three for First Steps ballet and creative dance, four for First Steps tap, six for most technique classes, and eight for group guitar. Singing lessons start at about eleven and there is a page explaining why.

The teacher knows they are new, the class knows they are new, and nobody is put at the front. A first class for a very young child sometimes involves standing at the side and watching, which is a normal way to spend forty-five minutes and is not a wasted fee.

From the corridor, through the window into Studio A. Not from inside the room, because a room of six-year-olds with eleven parents in it is a different room. There is a watching week at the end of each term when families come in.

It depends on the discipline and there is a page for it. Nothing is branded, there is no school uniform, and for most classes the only thing you cannot improvise is the shoes.

Tell us. Missed classes are not refunded but a student may take up to two make-up classes a term in another class of the same discipline, subject to a place being free.

No. Our levels are our own, we are not presented as registered with any examination board, and no student here is entered for a named board's examination. There is a page saying so plainly, including what that costs you.

No, for any class or either ensemble. What limits a place is capacity.

The summer recital is one day in a hired theatre with two shows. Taking part is optional and about seventy per cent of students do. The fee is $45 and it covers costume hire and two seats; there is no separate costume bill and no compulsory photograph package.

Yes, for piano, violin, guitar and singing, at $45 for half an hour, $62 for forty-five minutes and $78 for an hour. They are booked in the diary on this site up to six weeks ahead.

No, and you should not. The school lends guitars and violins for a first term, and the teacher will tell you what to buy afterwards — including the size, which matters more than the price.

Yes. There are six open adult classes a week and most of the people in them started as adults. Open level means beginners are expected rather than tolerated.

The ground floor, Studio A, Studio B, the office and the accessible toilet are step-free from the street. Studio C and the music rooms are on the first floor and there is a lift. Tell us what you need before you enrol and we will be straight with you about what we can and cannot do.