Please find the Terms & Conditions relevant to the payment you are making and read them before continuing with your payment.
When you enrol a pupil for an activity you are accepting the applicable terms and conditions.
- Cardiff and Vale Music Education’s GDPR privacy notice tells you about the type of personal data that we collect from you in order to deliver our services, what we do with this data, if we share it and how long we will keep it. You can view our privacy notice.
- Cardiff and Vale Music Education operates as part of Cardiff City Council whose GDPR policy you can read on their website.
- If you indicate a child’s eligibility for Free School Meals in order to access bursary, funding for tuition or music centre memberships, you are agreeing to us accessing the appropriate local authority database to validate eligibility.
Music Tuition
- Lessons normally take place at school, with the school’s permission. Exceptions to this will be made at the discretion of Cardiff and Vale Music Education.
- School based lessons are subject to agreement from the school for lessons to take place on the school premises and in school time.
- School based lessons take place on the time and day of the week agreed between the music tutor and the school.
- Payment for tuition is due in advance of the commencement of lessons. You can choose to pay in full for the academic year, termly or monthly.
- If you believe you are eligible for subsidised tuition, please indicate this on your application. Tuition will not start until eligibility for the subsidy has been confirmed.
- Rates are subject to change and annual increases.
- When you enrol a pupil for tuition, their name will be placed on the tutor’s waiting list. It may not be possible to start tuition immediately. In the event that the tutor’s time at the school is full, you can choose to wait for a place to become available.
- Payment for tuition buys 34 lessons provided over the school year September to July. The number of lessons delivered in each term varies subject to the length of the term and the dates of school and bank holidays.
- Tuition will run for the full academic year, to cancel tuition we require at least one month notice, exceptions to this will be at Cardiff and Vale Music Education’s discretion.
- Group tuition is dependent on a minimum of 2 pupils enrolling and the availability of pupils of a similar standard in order to form tuition groups. Where this is not the case, it may only be possible to offer individual tuition or tuition on an alternative instrument for beginners.
- Lessons missed due to the pupil or school not being available (e.g., pupil’s absence or school closure due to staff training days, industrial action, or snow etc.) are non-refundable.
- Where advanced notice of at least 7 days of school closure has been given, the tutor will try to arrange makeup sessions where there are sufficient weeks in the term.
Online Tuition
16. Parents must agree to the terms and conditions on the enrolment for lessons.
17. Parents and guardians are assured that all online lessons carry the same safeguards for our tutors as face to face, and all aspects of our safeguarding and child protection policies apply within these lessons.
18. Tutors are advised to protect themselves from accidental inappropriate contact with students by restricting their profile and will not accept contact requests from students. Parents should ensure that this is clearly understood by the student.
19. The parent/guardian will be sent the invitation to join the lesson and must confirm that they are present in the room and are happy for the lesson to proceed. Ideally the parent should stay in the room, or close by and be on hand to be called back to speak to the teacher at any time.
20. At the end of the lesson the parent must sign off and confirm the lesson is ending and the teacher will close the session.
21. The Cardiff and Vale Music Education tutor will emphasise to students and their parents that the online platform is to be used for lessons only and not for other contact, e.g., sharing photos or general messaging. Parents must ensure that students restrict their own profiles so that they can only receive calls from known contacts. All communication will be made to the parent email, with links to the approved videoconference platforms and to download and view resources.
22. Students should not wear inappropriate attire, and the lesson must be conducted in an appropriate space e.g., living or dining room. There should be no other activities going on for example other siblings playing, TV or other devices audible. In this instance the parent will be called to the screen, the lesson will be terminated until the situation is addressed. The same applies if a student behaves inappropriately.
23. Parents must report any issues to Cardiff and Vale Music Education without delay; cfmusic@cardiff.gov.uk
Ensembles and groups
24. Payment for the term’s sessions must be made in advance in full, or by opting for 10 monthly instalments. If the instalments option is chosen two months’ notice is require to cease membership.
25. If your child starts late in the term, the full payment is still due. Payments are non-refundable.
26. The payment covers all aspects of the Ensembles and groups for the term.
27. Refunds will not be made for missed sessions.
Residential Courses, Events, Travel and Tours
28. Payments are non-refundable once the place has been confirmed.
29. For courses and tours where a payment instalment plan is offered, once the student is enrolled and the first instalment is paid, all subsequent instalments are payable on the due dates as communicated in the enrolment information.
30. It is recommended to have suitable cancellation insurance in place in case of inability to travel due to illness, bereavement etc.
31. If the full balance is not paid by the set deadlines:
a. Your child will lose their place on the course and no refund will be given.
b. Your ticket for the event, where applicable, will become invalid and no refund will be given.
c. You will lose your place on the transport and no refund will be given.
d. Any unpaid instalments must be paid in full.
32. Deposits are non-refundable.
33. You may be required to submit further information in relation to your payment e.g. completion of medical forms and provision of passport information. If this information is not submitted in a timely manner it may result in your place on the course/event/transport being cancelled. Refunds will not be given for cancellation based on non-submission of essential information.
Examination Fees
36. Payments and applications are made to Cardiff and Vale Music Education on behalf of the examining bodies (ABRSM, Trinity College London, RockSchool).
37. Cardiff and Vale Music Education is not responsible for any refunds of examination fees.
38. Examination appointments may fall at any time on any of the provisional dates advertised.
39. In the event of oversubscribed exam sessions examination appointments may fall on a date not previously advertised.
40. Partial refunds or re-entry credits are only available at the discretion of the respective examination board if a medical note is produced for a missed examination. In most cases there are no other circumstances that will result in a refund. Any refund/partial refund is at the discretion of the examination board.
Instrument Loan
41. All pupils who attend an LA maintained school and receive tuition are eligible to apply for a loan instrument, subject to availability.
42. Instrument loan may be subject to a termly charge.
43. Instruments are loaned to pupils for up to one year in the first instance. The instrument loan is subject to the pupil making satisfactory progress in their music studies and participating fully in music activities organised by the school and/or by Cardiff and Vale Music Education.
44. If the pupil discontinues lessons, the instrument must be returned to the pupil’s Music Specialist Tutor or to Cardiff and Vale Music Education immediately.
45. It is the borrower’s responsibility to maintain the instrument in good working order by replacing strings, reeds, valve springs and other instrument replaceable parts, and by undertaking routine cleaning and maintenance.
46. The borrower is responsible for the safe keeping of the instrument and is liable for the loss of the instrument or for any damage caused to the instrument, case or accessories, other than through fair wear and tear. The instrument is not insured and the borrower is advised to arrange for insurance cover against the loss of, or damage to the instrument. An application form for musical instrument insurance cover is delivered with the instrument.
47. Cardiff and Vale Music Education reserves the right to withdraw a loan instrument at any time.