News

Back to lessons September 2022

Dear everyone

I hope you’ve had a good Summer, and are feeling relaxed, refreshed and ready to make some more music. As usual at this time of year, I’m writing to ask for your lesson preferences so I can arrange my teaching timetable going forwards.

I will be teaching both online and face-to-face students this year, so please make it clear which mode of lessons you would like when you state your preferences.

As COVID isn’t totally gone yet, please note the following precautions

1. If you are feeling at all unwell, or you test positive, please let me know straight away, and please don’t come to the house. You can always have an online lesson instead if you feel well enough, or we can look at a reschedule.

2. If I am unwell or test positive, I will move to online lessons straight away. Please make sure I have an up-to-date phone number for you so that I can let you know as soon as possible if a face-to-face lesson is going to need changing.

3. Unless I am teaching siblings in consecutive lessons, there will be a 15 minute gap between sessions to enable me to clean and ventilate my music room

Timetabling is likely to be more of a challenge than usual this year, due to the need for gaps between lessons, and I apologise in advance that I may not be able to give everyone their first choice of times. When you send me your timetabling requests, as well as telling me your preferred times, please let me know any times that will be absolutely impossible. The more flexible you can be, the easier it will be to find a suitable time for you.

My available hours will be:

Mondays 4pm to 8pm

Tuesdays 10am to 1pm and 3pm to 8pm

Wednesdays 4pm to 8pm

Thursdays 10am to 1pm and 3pm to 8pm

Fridays 11am to 1pm and 2.30pm to 8pm

Saturdays 10am to 1pm

I will be available for lessons from 1st September. Please let me know the date from which you would like to restart lessons.

As usual, this is the time of year I review my charges. I have decided not to change my fees this year, so:

Fees from 1st September will be as follows:

Half an hour £22.50 Pay As You Go or batch of 10 lessons £202.50

Three quarters of an hour £32.50 Pay As You Go or batch of 10 lessons £292.50

One hour £42.50 Pay As You Go or batch of 10 lessons £382.50

One and a quarter hours £52.50 Pay As You Go or batch of 10 lessons £472.50

Unused lessons from last term’s batches will be carried over to the start of this term. Please let me know if you need to confirm how many lessons you have carried over.

My preferred payment method remains bank transfer, but my bank account details have changed. My new account is available on request.

Just a final reminder – whether you pay by the batch or on Pay As You Go, the lesson fee is due when the lesson is booked. If I haven’t received payment by the start of the lesson, I reserve the right to cancel the session.

I think that’s it for now. If you have any queries, please let me know.

I look forward to seeing you soon.

Best wishes

Catherine


Christmas Holidays 2021/22

Hi there everyone


Just a quick note to let you know about the Christmas holidays this year. I started writing this before the Plan B announcement yesterday, but I am updating it in light of that.


I will be available for lessons up to and including Tuesday 21st December 2021. Then I will be off for my Christmas break from Wednesday 22nd December until Tuesday 4th January 2022. I will be available again for lessons from Wednesday 5th January 2022.


In line with the Plan B requirement to work from home, I shall be teaching online for the rest of this term. Hopefully this will be a short term measure and we’ll be back to face-to-face for those that wish next term.


For those who haven’t worked online with me before, my Skype account is catherine@jennawaymusic.co.uk and I encourage you to make a test connection before your usual lesson time. You will need 2 devices for the lesson – one to talk to me, and one to play any accompaniment tracks. Please make sure that whichever device you use to play tracks is loud enough for you to hear, but not so loud it drowns you out! If for some reason, Skype doesn’t work for you, I can do WhatsApp, FaceTime or Zoom instead – just let me know what you need.


Have a great Christmas!


Online lessons, what we've learned so far 21/3/20

Dear everyone

Thank you for your patience and persistence as we've moved to online lessons from in-person ones. I've been impressed at how well you've taken to the new way of working, and I've learned a lot myself in the last few days.

Going forwards, I'm happy to keep people at their usual times and days for lessons on Skype, but if school being out means you'd prefer an earlier lesson time, or to change days, I may well be able to accommodate that. Just let me know what you'd like to do.

One point that's come up a couple of times this week: If you normally pay me cash on the day, I'm afraid that's not going to work any more. These are the practical alternatives:

I can take payment by Paypal or by bank transfer. Please ask me for details.

There are a few things I've noticed about the online set-up that I'd like to share with you all:

1. If you still need to do set-up with me before your first session, please don't leave it until 5 minutes before your session is due - I am likely to be online with the person before you. Earlier in the day or even a previous day is likely to be better.

2. Please wait for me to call you - I may be finishing off something with the person before you, but I will call you as fast as I can.

3. When we go online, if you're using a phone or tablet for Skype, please use it in landscape position - it gives me a better chance of seeing you clearly. Portrait gives me a small narrow view of you.

4. Try to get the camera as high up towards eye level as you can. That way you'll feel more comfortable, and I won't have to stare up your nose. If necessary, we'll do the lesson with you sitting down, though I will still be looking at your seated posture, of course.

5. Please make sure your music is as near eye level as possible too, so that you are playing or singing with good posture. If you don't have a music stand, this may be a good time to order one from Amazon or Musicroom.

6. Please make sure you have clearly readable copies to hand of anything you are going to sing or play. Preferably printed out, or as a fall-back, if you're using a computer for the Skype transmission, up on the computer screen with the Skype window alongside.

7. Please make sure that the gadget playing tracks is further away from the camera than you are, otherwise it'll drown out your sound. This doesn't apply to flautists who are not playing tracks, of course.

8. Also please make sure that if your track-playing gadget has a screensaver, you turn it off, or the music will stop unexpectedly in mid-song....

9. And if it's a phone, please turn the phone/text notification sound to silent so we don't get random pings throughout the lesson.

10. If the internet link falls over (sorry to the person who experienced that) I will finish the lesson off by phone - assuming, of course, that you have given me your phone number.

Other than that, well done everyone, and I'll see you for your next lesson.

Best wishes

Catherine