Payment must be made for all lessons/classes, whether taken or missed. Make-up lessons/classes will not be given in the case of student absence. As a courtesy to the teacher, we ask that the school office be notified if a student is to be absent. If the teacher is unable to give a lesson or class, the student may be given the option of taking either a make-up or an online lesson or class with the student’s own teacher or taking the lesson or class with a substitute teacher. Lessons and classes falling on bank holidays will be rescheduled to another day in the term.

The New School is fully committed to providing a safe environment for children and young people, and to safeguarding the well being of our young students, in the school, online and in the context of our Outreach Programme. See our Child Protection Policy for more information.

In-school students under the age of 18 are under supervision during their instruction time only and must otherwise be supervised by a parent/guardian. To ensure your child’s safety, please be sure to pick him/her up promptly after his/her lesson or class finishes. Neither teachers nor school administrators are responsible for supervising children outside of their teaching times.

Communication with adult students or parents is normally by email or text message. (Please add the New School’s mobile phone number – (086) 869 5415 – to your phone’s contacts.) And please ensure that we have up-to-date contact details for you, especially your email address and mobile phone number, add the school’s email address (info[at]newschool.ie) to your list of safe senders and check your emails on a regular basis.

Students of the New School, both in-school and online, are expected to behave in a responsible manner and with due regard for their health and safety, as well as the health and safety of other students and members of staff. (See COVID-19 Safety and Fire Safety below.) Students may not enter classrooms without permission, and they may do so only for their lessons/classes or to practice. Food and drink may not be consumed in teaching/practice rooms. And smoking is strictly prohibited in the New School and adjunct teaching facilities.

The health and safety of all New School students and staff are of paramount importance to us during the time of COVID-19, and we have made a number of changes to our equipment, our procedures and student requirements to make the school as safe as possible. All in-school students, parents of in-school students, those using our practice facilities and visitors to the New School must acknowledge and comply with our COVID-19 Safety Policy.

The New School reserves the right to dismiss any student due to frequent absences, disciplinary reasons, overdue tuition payments and/or non-compliance with New School policies and/or regulations. In such a case, tuition fees will not be refunded.

Enrolment for lessons and courses, both in-school and online, requires a completed enrolment form and, except for those students using payment plans (see below), full payment of tuition fees. We are unable to hold places on our lesson timetables or in our group courses provisionally and without payment of fees.

• Private Lessons. Although we schedule new students in order of enrolment and make every effort to suit student preferences, scheduling of private lessons will depend on available time slots with the most suitable teacher(s). Scheduling of new Second and Third Term enrolments takes place no earlier than two weeks before the start of term.
• Partner and Small Group Lessons. Students enrolling for partner lessons (two students) and small group lessons (three or four students) are responsible for forming their own groups. Booking of partner and small group lessons cannot be confirmed until enrolment forms and tuition fees are received from all group members.
• Group Courses. Places in group courses are available on a first-come, first-served basis, based on date of enrolment.

We accept full tuition fee payments and payment plan deposits by credit/debit card, cash or bank transfer. Please do not pay any fees until we have confirmed that a place is available for you or your child on our timetable or in one of our group courses.

If paying by credit/debit card, you can do so in person or by phone, or we can send you an invoice for online payment. If paying by bank transfer, please do so well in advance so that the payment will arrive in our bank before your / your child’s tuition is due to begin. Also, be sure to identify clearly who is making the transfer, and send us a receipt to indicate that you have done so. We can provide the New School’s bank details for online transfers on request.

We accept payment plan instalments (see below) through online invoicing only.

All in-school students (and parents of students) should take reasonable care of their own safety and the safety of others. This includes both familiarity and full cooperation with the New School’s Fire Safety Policy, as well as following our procedures for handling fire alarms and evacuation of the school. (Each classroom has signage describing the evacuation procedure for that room.)

The New School reserves the right to cancel any group course because of insufficient enrolment. In such a case, enrolled students will be given the option of taking private or partner lessons of greater value and at no additional cost or a full refund of tuition fees. The alternative options if we don’t reach the minimum enrolment of three students for our one-hour courses for beginners and intermediate students are:

• One student enrolled: 30-minute private lessons
• Two students enrolled: 45-minute partner lessons

If three or more students are enrolled in one of these courses, it will run as normal.

The New School offers both in-school tuition, which takes place in the school itself, and online tuition, which takes place in the student’s home.

In-School Tuition Requirements

In-school students are required:

• To adhere to the New School’s COVID-19 Safety Policy.
• To acknowledge that if the Irish government requires temporary closure of school facilities due to an increase in the COVID-19 infection rate or if the New School administration determines that it is not safe to continue with in-school tuition, the student’s tuition will be moved online until the school re-opens for in-school tuition.
• To acknowledge that if the student’s teacher has a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection or has been in close contact with someone who has, the student’s tuition will be moved online until the teacher can return to the school.
• To understand that all in-school students are required to continue with online tuition during school closure periods or if their teachers have confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infections unless it is impossible to do so. No refunds or deferrals will be made if the student or parent declines online tuition but the student is otherwise able to take it. Any exemption from participating in online tuition must be agreed before the start of tuition in a term or year. If you wish to be exempt for reasons of age, access or lack of technical requirements, please contact us as soon as possible.
• To have an instrument to practice at home (except for voice, theory, songwriting and music technology tuition) and to bring to their lessons/classes (except for piano, drum kit, Irish harp, cello and double bass tuition).

Online Tuition Requirements

Online students are required:

• To have internet access, as well as an internet-connected laptop, computer, tablet or smartphone. If using a computer or laptop, it will need to have either an integrated or separate webcam and microphone.
• Free Zoom or Skype software.
• To have an instrument at home for both lessons/classes and practice (except for voice, theory, songwriting and music technology tuition).

In addition, parents of online students under the age of 18 must consent for their children to participate in online tuition, with the understanding that parents can observe their children’s tuition at any time.

See our Online Tuition page for more information about online tuition with the New School.

Regular practice is an essential element of music tuition. All students enrolled for in-school instrumental lessons or courses must have an instrument (or regular access to one) to practise at home and, except for piano, drum kit, Irish harp, cello and double bass tuition, to bring to their lessons or classes. All students enrolled for online instrumental lessons or courses must have an instrument at home for both lessons/classes and practice.

The school also has practice rooms that can accommodate piano students, who can practice on our acoustic pianos, as well as students of other instruments and voice (singing) students. Practice rooms are available at reduced rates for currently enrolled students. See our Practice • Rehearsal Facilities page for more information.

Adult students and parents of young students must inform the school when enrolling if they have any form of long-term illness or allergy, and/or if they are taking any essential medication. It is particularly important that we know about conditions such as asthma, diabetes or epilepsy, so we can handle any emergencies that may arise in an informed way. It is also important to let us know beforehand if a student has any hearing or sight impairment, or any learning or other challenges that might affect his/her ability to participate and respond in a lesson or class. A number of our teachers have experience teaching both children and adults with special needs, but they can’t adapt their teaching approaches if they don’t know what a student’s challenges are. All medical and personal information will be treated in the strictest confidence by the school administration.

We ask all in-school students to turn off mobile phones during lessons or classes unless they are waiting for an emergency call or using them, with their teachers’ permission, to record their lesson or class. When recording a lesson or class, we ask students to mute their phones or put them into ‘airplane’ or ‘flight’ mode.

Students enrolled for private lessons, partner or small group lessons and/or ensembles are eligible for payment plans, which require an initial deposit and one or more instalment payments. Single-term tuition payment plans are accepted only if enrolment is for the full term and takes place before the first day of term (18 September, 8 January or 8 April in our 2023-2024 school year).

Payment plan deposits can be paid by credit/debit card – through an online invoice, by phone or in person – or in cash. Payment plan instalments are paid through online invoices issued on the appropriate dates. Although there are no finance charges, payment plan fees include an additional processing charge of €8 per instalment payment. An additional administration charge of €25 will be incurred should a payment plan instalment payment be more than one week late, and an administration charge of €50 will be incurred should a payment plan instalment payment be more than two weeks late.

From time to time we take photographs of students in lessons, courses or concerts for possible use on our website or publications. No compensation is provided to individuals who appear in the photographs. Please let us know if you do not wish you or your child’s photograph to appear on our website or publications. Occasionally we also film school concerts and showcases for the school’s YouTube channel. Performers who have been filmed will be asked for permission before videos of their performances are made public.

Students enrolling by term must re-enrol before the end of each term in order to guarantee their place on the school timetable for the next term. Places on our timetables cannot be held without official re-enrolment, as well as full payment of fees or payment plan arrangement. Verbal notice from students, parents or faculty cannot be accepted.

For the new school year, we require that all students – those re-enrolling as well as those new to the school – fully complete new enrolment forms. GDPR data protection legislation means that we cannot apply students’ enrolment information from the previous year to the new school year. Enrolment cannot be confirmed and students cannot be scheduled until we receive completed enrolment forms and applicable tuition fees. We process and schedule enrolments in order of receipt and recommend both enrolling and re-enrolling early, since teachers’ timetables fill quickly.

Tuition refunds for private lessons can be made up to the third scheduled lesson. There are no refunds for group lessons or group courses. (See Withdrawal below for refund eligibility.)

The health and safety of our students and faculty is our top priority, and we do everything we can to ensure that the New School remains a safe space for music study. Nevertheless, we may have to temporarily close the New School premises due to COVID-19, a decision determined by government advisories, as well as the administration’s own assessment of the situation. As with severe weather closure (see below), all in-school tuition will be moved online until the school physically re-opens, so there will be loss of tuition continuity.

Every in-school student is required to continue with online tuition during any required school closure periods or if his/her teacher is identified as a close contact or develops COVID-19, unless it is impossible for the student to do so and this exemption has been agreed before the start of tuition.

See our COVID-19 Safety Policy page for more information.

The decision to temporarily close the New School due to severe weather will be determined by government advisories, and as with COVID-19 school closure (see above), all in-school tuition will be moved online until the school physically re-opens.

Please note that although we will endeavour to do so, we may not be able to contact all students or parents regarding emergency closure. Please check our website home page or our Facebook page for updates.

Students are expected to arrive in good time for their lessons or classes. If a student arrives late for a lesson, the lesson cannot be extended to its full length, as that would encroach on the following lesson.

The New School offers a tuition assistance programme to help defray the cost of tuition with the school for those who would be unable to afford it without support.. Although there are a limited number of tuition assistance awards each year, every effort will be made to assist those students who, because of financial circumstances, would otherwise be unable to study here. The range of awards is between 10% and 40% of the total anticipated tuition fees for those who qualify. All tuition assistance applications are treated confidentially. See our Tuition Assistance Application for more information.

10% tuition discounts, which cannot be compounded, are for 30-minute private lessons only and apply to:

• Students over 65
• Students who are unemployed
• Dependent children (under 18) of unemployed persons
• Third-level students with valid identification
• Lunchtime Lessons: 30-minute lessons taken between 10 am and 2 pm, Monday – Friday
• Additional 30-minute lessons taken by a single student or lessons taken by additional students from the same immediate family

Tuition discounts do not apply to partner lessons, small group lessons or group courses.

The New School has public Wi-Fi available in the front and main foyer waiting areas only. Please ask the school office for our Wi-Fi code.

Notice of withdrawal from private lessons and requests for refunds or tuition deferrals must be made in writing, through our Contact Form, by email or brought/posted to the school office. Please include the reason for your withdrawal in your message. And please understand that verbal notice from students, parents or faculty is not an acceptable form of notification.

Tuition fee refunds are made as follows:

• Withdrawal notice received at least one week before the first scheduled lesson: full refund less €25.
• Withdrawal notice received at least two days before the second or third scheduled lesson: student charged for lesson(s) taken, plus one additional lesson.
• No refund can be made after the third lesson.

No refunds will be made for group courses and partner or small group lessons, although in exceptional circumstances deferral of a group course may be possible. Tuition discounts for a second private lesson or for additional family members (see Tuition Discounts above) will be adjusted if a student withdraws.

Students or parents who wish to record online lessons or classes to review them later must receive permission from their teachers to do so.

Questions about our Regulations?

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