School policies

Attendance and absence

Tell us if a student will be absent, by telephone or by e-mail, before the class where you can. A register is taken every week and an unexplained absence for a student under eighteen is followed up the same evening.

A class missed is not refunded and is not credited. It is made up: a student may take up to two make-up classes in a term, in another class of the same discipline at a suitable level, subject to that class having a place. The office arranges it.

Persistent absence is a conversation rather than a penalty. A student who has stopped wanting to come is better served by stopping than by being brought.

Withdrawing from a class

Notice is two weeks, in writing, and the fee for the remaining sessions in that term is refunded from the date the notice takes effect.

A withdrawal returns the place to the class immediately, and the first person on the waiting list is offered it that day.

The registration fee is not refundable, because it has been spent on registering the student.

The waiting list

When a class is full you may join the waiting list. The list is in the order people joined it and your position is shown to you when you join and whenever you ask.

When a place comes free the person at the top is offered it and has three days to accept. If they do not, the offer moves down the list. That expiry exists so that a queue nobody is watching cannot keep a class empty.

An offer holds the place while it is open. This is the reason the class does not show as available to somebody else during those three days.

There is no charge to be on a waiting list and no priority that can be bought.

When we cancel a class

If we cancel a class — weather, a building problem, a teacher's illness we cannot cover — the session is either rescheduled or credited against the next term's fee. We do not simply lose it.

A class that falls below four enrolled students may be closed at the end of a term. We will tell everybody in it at least three weeks before the term ends and move students into another class or refund the unrun sessions.

The building closes for the recesses printed on the term dates page. Those dates are already excluded from the number of sessions you paid for.

Collection of students under twelve

A student under twelve is released only to an adult named on the enrolment form. Add or change a name by telling the office; we cannot accept it from the child.

For First Steps classes an adult stays in the building throughout.

If nobody has arrived fifteen minutes after a class ends we telephone the numbers on the form in the order given. A member of staff stays with the student.

Behaviour, and what we will not tolerate

Students are expected to arrive on time, to be ready to work and to let other people work.

We do not use weight, body shape or appearance as teaching material at any age, in any discipline. A teacher who did would not be teaching here.

Bullying, whether between students or from an adult, is dealt with immediately and is one of the very few things that ends an enrolment without notice.

Fees and payment

Fees are per term, per class, and are due before the term starts. The arithmetic is published: a per-session rate times the sessions that class meets.

A late joiner pays pro rata from the date they start. This is arithmetic and not a discount, and it is offered rather than asked for.

The family discount of 10 per cent applies to every class after the first in one family in one term, whether that is a second child or a second class for the same child.

If a term's fee is genuinely difficult, tell the office. We would rather arrange something than lose a student, and that conversation stays between you and the office.