This music practice undertakes to provide
- Tuition via weekly offline / online lessons or a combination of both
- A room which is adequate in size and heated, ventilated and properly lit
- A fully functioning tuned piano with adjustable stool in each studio.
- Easy access to suitable toilet / bathroom facilities
- Experienced / vetted tutor for the lesson being taught
- Information updates via our social media platforms.
- Up to date public liability insurance policy
These lessons from the outset are time tabled with the consent of the student or parent / guardian of the student to indicate the day, time and duration of the lesson. The relevant fees and number of lessons per term and terms per year are also indicated. Tutor / lesson times and durations may be subject to change in accordance with the development of this practice and or the individual student’s progress. Lessons operate as normal on Bank Holiday only days i.e. Good Friday etc..
All lessons with the exception of Masterclasses are of 30 minutes in duration and time tabled weekly at an agreed day and time. This duration also includes any time needed to chat with the teacher regarding progress / practice and homework advice. The lesson at all times will be monitored and directed by the appointed teacher in conjunction with the school. Both the practical and written theory are taught hand in hand in the one 30 minute lesson. However owing to this time constraint senior theory levels (grades 7 / 8) may warrant separate / extra classes. A student will be mentored through all grades in practical and theory and harmony and prepared for in house assessments / recitals or external examinations with the RIAM. Each student must possess his / her own original Piano Album and theory book for class and homework. Students will generally advance at a grade per year and skipping of grades is not permitted for in house assessments. Homework must be completed as instructed by a teacher. Parents do not sit in on lessons but a parent / guardian or teacher in training may be asked to sit in on part of a lesson from time to time for parental guidance on homework or for in house teacher trainng purposes.
New incoming students are inducted into the school via an eight week (8 lessons) introductory course. Once the commencement date and time has been agreed and the deposit paid the time slot will be held for the new student to start. A new student will not be awarded a credit / refund for any missed lesson or considered for any exam during this probationary period and should a new student decide not to commence the deposit is forfeited.
Lesson fees are charged by the term. There are 3 terms in each academic year which may be viewed on our terms and fees page. Each individual term must be paid for in full whether all lessons have been taken or not. Fees can be paid in cash by cheque or through electronic fund transfer. A payment will be expected on the 1st lesson of a new term. A receipt will be issued if the full tuition fee has been paid. Any lesson/s which qualify for a credit /s will be reconciled at the end of a term by the office and credited to the individual students account in the following term. A deposit may be sought / taken in order to hold a students specific place and time slot for entry into term 1. Playpiano reserves the right to increase fees at any given point throughout the academic year and in any such case students will always be notified of this increase prior to a request for payment.
A student is obliged to attend lessons regularly. Lessons are not scheduled on Public Holidays. Allowance to reschedule a lesson/s on behalf of a student may be made if the reason for the absence falls under our “missed lesson policy.” In all cases when a student will not be attending a lesson on a particular day/evening please make a courtesy phone call or text to the teacher / office. Where a student misses 3 or more consecutive lessons of a given term or does not return at the commencement of a new term nor provide absolute confirmation of intention to return he / she will be deemed to have quit and the said time slot will be terminated immediately without notice to the student / parent concerned. A refund will not be offered for the missed lessons.
A time tabled lesson missed by a student for whatever reason is forfeited. Exemption to this rule will only be considered in the three cases outlined below of Hospitalisation, Family Bereavement or Educational Leave
- A lesson or lessons missed by a Student due to illness will be rearranged at a suitable time to both the student and the teacher on the production of a hospital certificate to support the time of absence from the lesson or lessons. The certificate must outline the duration of hospitalisation for any credit to be considered. For any uncertified sickness please see note four.
- In the case of a direct family bereavement i.e parent / grand parent / sibling and the funeral coinciding with a scheduled lesson a student upon producing evidence of same will be given an option of either rearranging the missed lesson or being awarded a credit of one lesson to their next music term. This courtesy credit does not extend to any other family relations.
- Students seeking leave outside of the standard Play Piano scheduled holiday period for the purpose of education must apply for the leave at least 4 weeks in advance of the leave date required. Applications must be made to the office of Play Piano by emailing [email protected] The leave is subject to the following conditions to ensure that the students place with current day, and time is retained during this non-attendance period:
- The Educational leave must be for a minimum of three consecutive weeks and not exceed a six week period. Educational leave is solely for educational trips for example, Gaeltacht scholarship. Proof of your trip to the Gaeltacht will be sought by the office. Family reunion holidays back home may be included under this heading.
- Play Piano will offer compensation to the student for the missed lessons in the form of a one hour courtesy lesson. In the event that the normal teacher is not available then an alternative teacher of the school will be appointed to provide this hour tutition.
- If the student cannot / does not wish to avail of the one hour compensation lesson they can take advantage of a retention fee which is charged for each non attended scheduled music lesson. This fee is outlined in our Terms and Fees Section
4. All other time tabled lessons missed by a student will be considered forfeited and will not be rescheduled for another time. Exceptions to the rule are outlined above – Hospitalisation, Family Bereavement or Educational Leave.
As part of our missed lesson policy if your lesson qualifies for re arrangement then a specific time and date will be agreed with your teacher. If this re arranged lesson is missed the lesson is then forfeited by you and a credit / refund will not be awarded.
If your lesson is cancelled due to an episode outside of our control i.e power outage, inclement weather you will be given the opportunity to have your lesson made up at an alternative agreed time. If the school is not in a position to offer a re arranged lesson then you will be given a refund / credit for this lesson in the following term.
If you are missing lessons you may request an additional lesson which can be booked in via the office. An additional leson will only be considered in a situation where a student may miss his / her pre booked lesson on account of going on holidays or school trips etc and may have an exam / performance pending .A discount of 25% will be applied if booking in for an extra lesson. Please be advised that the day and time given for an additional lesson will depend on teacher and room availability.
It is the policy of the school to always try to keep a student with the one teacher, However If for any period of time your usual teacher cannot make a lesson/s owing to being away / illness then the school will cover this period with either another senior / junior teacher from the school or an external substitute teacher who is known to the school and who also has the relevant experience. In this instance all lessons will continue as normal until the teacher returns. However please be aware that in extreme circumstances of teacher absences due to illness etc there may need to be a reshuffle of teachers for a short period of time until we have our full compliment back. In this instance students will be expected to attend lessons during the re shuffle period. In the event where the school cannot provide cover for teacher absences then your lesson/s will either be re arranged to another agreed time or a credit / refund given.
In the interest of child safety any parent / guardian who changes his / her contact details must also notify the relevant tutor at the school. Children are expected to be collected on time after the lesson. A parent must notify a tutor at the beginning of a lesson if they will be late collecting a child. Children standing outside the school waiting to be collected after a lesson is not allowed and so must remain in the waiting room until a parent / guardian has arrived to collect them.
Lessons conducted in your home are agreed and set out time wise from the beginning of a term. The term must be paid for in full prior to commencement. Any lessons missed by the school will be refunded or credited and similarly any lesson cancelled by a student for any reason will be charged. The playpiano tutor will guide you on the set up needed in your home to conduct your lesson. For further information on this service please contact the office.
Notice of withdrawal from a term must be made via text / email as verbal notification will not be accepted. In order for a partial refund to take place notification must be made prior to the third lesson of the term. Access to ones online account will also cease for this period of time. A new account will be set up after a certain period of return to classes has been served and a new enrolment form completed. Notice of withdrawal from an agreed eight week introductory course must be made via text or email. Once an eight week course has commenced a refund will not be issued should a student decide to quit.
Students as they progress will be requested to enter for exams with playpiano under our own in house mentoring programme. Students above a certain level may enter themselves for an external assessment with the RIAM. Students taking exams with an external examining Board deal directly with that board themselves. In house assessments are examined by the students individual teacher and the head of school. It is not a given that a student will be entered every year for an exam by the school. In order to sit an exam and receive said result or self enter with permission from the school you must be a current student of the school, have been attending lessons for a minimum of 6 months, be validated as having acquired the standard in both practical / theory requirements in order to perform well in the intended exam and have attended and paid for all lessons up until the said exam date.
Any student intent on sitting an external recital performance thereby representing the school maybe asked to present his / her programme to the head of school for overall comment / feedback. At this sitting if the student hasn’t reached a standard of performance deemed by Play Piano to succeed in the exam he / she may be asked to withdraw from the process.
Exam results from the RIAM will be sent directly to the individual applicant. In house assessment results will be given out throughout the term and those who receive 80% and above will be approved for their next grade. Certificates will not be forwarded to a student/s home address for fear of loss /damage to the certificate and any result/s not collected within 3 months of the in house exam date will be discarded.
Any student taking part in a competition i.e SYMY (Swords Young Musician of the Year) Sutton Park, Newpark, etc must be validated by his /her music tutor beforehand. Your tutor will inform you of the procedure to be followed regarding your participation in any of these competitions where you represent the school. If in doubt you may email the office for further clarification. Please take note when you enter into an official music competition you also represent Play Piano and failure to recognise and comply with this protocol will result in dismissal from tuition at the school.
All new students at Play Piano may sign up / be signed up for our quarterly Newsletter with consent. This is one of our social media platforms we use to disseminate information in order to keep you informed of updates / information relating to school events, term / deadline dates and any amendments to our rules and regulations in general. Please check to make sure that you are / have subscribed in order to keep yourself informed of the afore mentioned.
At Play Piano we actively advertise and promote the school through uploading photos and videos of events / achievements to our social media platforms. If for any reason you do not wish either yourself or your child included in this process please make it known to the office via text / email. You may keep yourself informed by following / liking us.
Please note that all personal data given at the time of enrolment of your own volition i.e name, address email etc is stored securely on the Play Piano data base. This information will only ever be used either by the school or your teacher to contact you personally regarding your own lessons or to enter you for an impending exam which you would have agreed to. Upon leaving the school and under GDPR rules your personal data will be deleted from the schools data base immediately.
Any issue of discontentment with either a teacher of this school or a third party connected to the school must firstly be made in writing or by email / text to the office in order for the matter to be considered / call to action enacted. Verbal communication will not be considered as notification. The issue will then be responded to firstly via the relevant teacher and then head of school if needed. For further advice on this issue please ask in the office.
This Practice reserves the right to dismiss / suspend lessons for a period of time for any student due to frequent absences, not returning at the commencement of a new term, over due payments, inappropriate comments made towards / against another member at the school or posted on any of our social media platforms, privately entering an exam after being refused by the school and non compliance with our rules and regulations in general.
The student undertakes to provide the school with their most up to date point of contact information and the primary contact person. Also whilst a member of this school a student undertakes to abide by the rules in force, be aware of and attend all scheduled lessons on time, to have the required official books (texts and notebook) for the lesson, to have practised with homework completed as asked by the teacher and to be attired appropriately, generally no hats gloves or coats worn during lessons and fingernails trimmed if / as recommended by the teacher for their instrument.
Property / items of clothing left on the premises by a student will be held in the lost property area for 1 month. Items not collected after one month will be discarded without further notice and Play Piano will not offer compensation for any items discarded.
This Practice at all times has an up to date public liability insurance policy.
Smoking and the chewing of gum is prohibited while on the premises and during lessons
In the interest of everyones health, safety and well being when attending a lesson at Play Piano please note that the following measuares are in force:-
1. If unwell or showing flu like symptoms please DO not attend at the school. In this instance please advise before attending and your lesson may be delivered online / homework given via mail. Any student who attends with flu like symptoms etc will be asked to return home and the lesson will not be completed on site.
2 The wearing of shoes with wheels attached is prohibited from being worn as is the use of skate boards while on the campus
3 Make sure to watch out carefully for on coming traffice when either entering or leaving the school
4 Please do not leave your child un supervised in your car or in the waiting area for any period of time
As a result of this new virus and school closures from the 13th of March 2020 lessons at Play Piano will be delivered in person with new restricted times, in blended form or delivered completely online for the period of this world wide Covid 19 pandemic. Students will have the option to continue with the new lesson formats or opt to take time out and re enrol at a later stage. As with all breaks there is no guarantee of original times / days being available upon re enrolment. The schools Rules and Regulations must be complied with during this period. Any changes to this new format of delivery of lessons post the summer break of 2022 will be made known through your individual teacher / our social media platforms and encorporated into our rules and regulations in general.
While waiting on / attending a lesson please make sure to adopt the following protocols in relation to parking. If you are unsure please ask at the office as breaking these rules may result in suspension of lessons.
1. Do not block or partially block a resident from entering his / her premises
2. Do not block, infringe on the foothpath or park up on the kerb
3. Do not speed either coming or going from a lesson
4. Do not sit in your car blocking a resident’s premises while waiting for a lesson for any period of time.
5. Parking is strictly forbidden accross the Play Piano entrance for safety reasons so if all available public parking places have been taken outside the premises please turn and park at the top of the cul de sac where there is ample parking on either side. Other suggested parking spots are on the long road in opposite the green or in JC’s supermarket all of which are a minute’s walk from the school. Thank you in advance for your adherence to these parking rules.
These terms govern your use of the Play Piano Service. This agreement is ongoing and therefore by using the Play Piano site and service you acknowledge that you have read and understand the terms of use and you agree to be bound by the terms herein. If you do not agree with the terms in this agreement, please discontinue your use of the Play Piano site.
Play Piano reserves the right to change these terms, without notice to you, at its own discretion.
As part of your overall tuition Play Piano provides you with state of the art step by step video lessons / tuition for the RIAM graded exam pieces, access to answered and the ability to print down and complete theory papers, songs and general instrument videos which support technique learning. These lessons are for the personal, private use of Play Piano students only and may not be reproduced, republished or distributed in any way. Play Piano reserves the right to make changes in how it operates this service, without notice to you, at its own discretion. Play Piano does not warranty song or instrument tuition videos or guarantee that they will play in your computer if it is not kept up to date.
Online lessons are delivered to your home at an agreed time and delivered through a third party platform such as Skype, Zoom or Facetime. The lessons are conducted in the same manner as lessons on campus with the same rules and regulations applicable. These online lessons are not recorded by the school and a parent / guardian has the option to sit in on a lesson but out of camera shot. if the student is under 18 years of age.. It is preferable to have broadband rather than wifi for signal quality.
Access to your Play Piano online account is free of charge and continues for as long as you remain a student of Play Piano and are enrolled and making payments for weekly lessons in either an online /offline capacity. Negative / non constructive comments made on any of our social media platforms will result in ones online account being terminated with immediate effect.
In order to provide you with ease of access to your account, Play Piano will place a cookie (a small text file) on any computer from which you access the site.
You are also responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password and for restricting access to your computer or mobile device. If you disclose your password to anyone or share your account with other people, you take full responsibility for their actions. Users of public or shared computers or unprotected mobile devices should log out at the completion of each visit to Play Piano.
If you find that you’re a victim of identity theft and it involves your Play Piano account, you should notify us immediately. Play Piano reserves the right to place any account on hold anytime with or without notification to the member in order to protect itself from what it believes to be fraudulent activity.
The Play Piano site does not guarantee, that your use of the service will be uninterrupted or error free. And you agree that Play Piano may eliminate or modify any or all aspects of the play Piano service, features or any other aspects of the play Piano Service at any time without compensation or notice to you. Without limiting the foregoing, Play Piano assumes no liability or responsibility for any of the following:
- content contained on or defects with lessons from the Play Piano service;
- errors or omissions in the content or on the Play Piano site,
- recommendations or advice of Support;
- any failures, delays, or interruptions in the Play Piano lessons;
- any failure or interruption in the availability of the Play Piano service and/or Play Piano site;
- delivery of any content contained on the Play Piano site.
- any losses or damages arising from the use of the content provided on the Play Piano site, including any losses or damages arising from watching lessons and/or downloading of related software.
All content included on the Play Piano site and delivered to members as part of the service, including lessons you can watch instantly, text, graphics, logos, designs, photographs, button icons, images, audio/video clips, digital downloads, data compilations, and software, is the property of Play Piano and is protected by Irish and international copyright laws or other intellectual property laws and treaties. The compilation of all content on this site is the exclusive property of Play Piano and protected by Irish and international copyright laws. Content shall not be reproduced or used without expressed written permission from Play Piano.ie
You agree not to decompile, reverse engineer or disassemble any software including Play Piano lessons or other products or processes accessible through the Play Piano site, not to insert any code or product or manipulate the content of the Play piano site in any way that affects the user’s experience, and not to use any data mining, data gathering or extraction method. Play Piano reserves the right to terminate your account hereunder if Play Piano in its sole and absolute discretion, believes that you are in violation of this paragraph, such violations including the copying of lessons, the unauthorized use of our lessons, the copying or other unauthorized use of our proprietary content. Play Piano does not promote, foster or condone the copying of online video or any other infringing activity. The use of the Play Piano service, including lessons is solely for your personal and non-commercial use. Please see the instructions at the end of these Terms of Use for notifying us of the presence of any allegedly infringing content on the Play Piano site.
Play Piano Today is a registered business name under the registration of business names act, 1963 and may not be used without prior written approval.
Play Piano is free to use any comments, information, ideas, concepts, reviews, or techniques or any other material contained in any communication you may send to Play Piano (“Content”), including, without limitation, responses to questionnaires or through postings to the Play Piano site, without further compensation, acknowledgement or payment to you for any purpose whatsoever including, but not limited to, developing, manufacturing and marketing products and creating, modifying or improving the Play Piano site. Furthermore, by posting any Content on our site, submitting Content to us, or in responding to questionnaires, you grant us a perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free irrevocable license and right to display, use, reproduce or modify the Content submitted in any media, software or technology of any kind now existing or developed in the future.
Please note Play Piano does not accept unsolicited materials or ideas for use or publication, and is not responsible for the similarity of any of its content or programming in any media to materials or ideas transmitted to Play Piano. Should you send any unsolicited materials or ideas, you do so with the understanding no additional consideration of any sort will be provided to you, and you are waiving any claim against Play Piano regarding the use of such materials and ideas, even if material or an idea is used that is substantially similar to the idea you sent.
From time to time, Play Piano may test various aspects of the service, including service levels, plans, promotions, features, lesson availability, and delivery and Play Piano reserves the right to include and / or exclude you from these tests without notice.
By using the Play Piano service, you consent to receiving electronic communications from Play Piano These communications can include a newsletter, notices about your account and other transactional information, and information concerning or related to our service. These communications are part of your relationship with Play Piano and you receive them as part of your Play Piano Account. You agree that any notice, agreements, disclosure or other communications that Play Piano sends to you electronically will satisfy any legal communication requirements, including that such communications be in writing.
If you need assistance with your account, you may check the Support FAQs at any time where you will find the answers to many frequently asked questions. However if your problem is not answered here please e-mail the office with your query.
By accessing the Play Piano site, you agree to use the Play Piano service, including all lessons and features associated with the site and its content in accordance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations. In addition, you agree not to upload, post, e-mail or otherwise send or transmit any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment associated with the Play Piano site. You also agree not to interfere with the servers or networks connected to the Play Piano site or to violate any of the procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Play Piano site. You also agree not to impersonate any other person while using the Play Piano site, conduct yourself in a vulgar or offensive manner while using our service, or use the Play Piano site for any unlawful purpose.
Unless otherwise specified, our lessons and the content on the Play Piano site, including all content, is for your personal and non-commercial use and Play Piano grant you a limited license to access the site for that purpose. You may not download (other than through page caching necessary for personal use, or as otherwise expressly permitted by these Terms of Use), modify, copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, duplicate, publish, license, create derivative works from, or offer for sale any information contained on, or obtained from, the Play Piano site without our expressed written consent. Play Piano does not promote, foster or condone the copying of DVDs, or other online digitally delivered content, or any other infringing activity. Any unauthorized use of the Play Piano site or its contents will terminate the limited license granted by us.
Play Piano reserves the right to terminate your online account, without notice, due to miss use of the terms within this agreement.
Some of the hyperlinks on the Play Piano site may lead to other sites that are not controlled by, or affiliated with, Play Piano. Play Piano has not reviewed these sites and is not responsible for the content or privacy policies of these sites.
It is the policy of Play Piano to respect the intellectual property rights of others. Play Piano does not promote, foster or condone the copying of online content or any other infringing activity. If you believe your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, are aware of any infringing material on Play Piano or know of someone who is making unauthorized use of the content of the Play Piano site, please notify us by submitting a signed written notice and containing the following:
- A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;
- Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed;
- Identification of the material on the Play Piano site that is claimed to be infringing, and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the material;
- Information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact you, such as your address, telephone number, and, if available, your e-mail address;
- A statement that you have a good belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law;
- A statement that the above information is accurate, and that you are, or are authorized to act on behalf of, the owner of the copyright that is allegedly infringed.
These Terms of Use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Ireland without regard to conflicts of laws provisions. You and Play Piano agree that Ireland Courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute between you and Play Piano relating in any way to the Play Piano service or these Terms of Use.
Play Piano is a private music practice based in Swords in Dublin Ireland All enquiries regarding tuition / online tutorials may be made by contacting us via email, or by phone at 353-1-8902171