Before you come
Your first class
Written for the parent standing in the corridor, and for the adult who has been meaning to come for two years and is now in the doorway.
Arrive fifteen minutes early, once
Long enough to find the room, change, use the lavatory and meet the teacher before the rest of the class arrives. After the first week five minutes is plenty, and by the third week everybody arrives at two minutes to.
Where parents are
In the corridor. There is a window into Studio A and it is usually full of people looking through it. Not in the room — a class of six-year-olds with eleven parents in it is a different class, and every teacher here will tell you the same thing about what happens to a child's attention when they can see their own adult.
The corridor is narrow and at half past five on a Tuesday it is genuinely crowded. There is a bench, it seats about nine people, and if you would rather go for a coffee and come back, that is entirely normal and nobody will think anything of it. For First Steps classes an adult stays in the building throughout.
If a child will not go in
This is common, it is not a failure, and it does not mean the class is wrong. A three- or four-year-old's first two or three weeks are often spent at the edge of the room watching, and the teacher will not force it. Watching is a way of taking part and children who spend a fortnight at the side usually join in without any announcement in the third week.
What we will do is tell you honestly if we think the class is wrong for your child — too old, too young, the wrong discipline, or simply not this year. We would rather have that conversation in week three than take a term's fee for an hour everybody dreads.
What the first class contains
- A warm-up that is the same every week. The repetition is the point at every age: a class whose opening ten minutes never change is a class a nervous student can survive on the second week.
- Being spoken to by name. The teacher will learn every name in the first class. In a room of twelve that is possible; it is why the classes are the size they are.
- Something to take home. One step, one exercise, one thing to show somebody. Not homework — the thing that makes a child want to come back.
- No assessment, no placement test and no audition. Nobody is being looked at to decide whether they are good enough. There is nothing here to be good enough for.
Adults, specifically
The hardest part of an adult class is the twenty minutes before it. Almost every adult who comes back after the first week stays for the term, and almost every one of them says the same thing about nearly not coming in.
You will be behind in the first week. Every combination is given in two versions and taking the simpler one is not a lesser class. Stand at the back if you want to. Nobody will mention it, because most of the room did the same thing in their first month.
The first six weeks of an adult class, described honestly
Collection, and what we will not do
A student under twelve is released only to an adult named on the enrolment form. We will not hand a child to somebody who is not on it, and we cannot accept a change from the child. Add a name by telling the office.
A class is not childcare. A class is not childcare and this school is not licensed as a childcare provider. Students under twelve are released only to a named adult and there is no supervised waiting before or after class.
The practical page
What to wear and what to bring
Per discipline, and shorter than you expect. Nothing here is branded, there is no school uniform, and for most classes the only thing you cannot improvise is the shoes.