School Policies

Registration and payments
Our school year is divided into THREE sessions. The school year sessions are split into two, five month (approx. 17-20 weeks each) sessions: The first runs from September to the end of January, and the second runs from February to the end of June. The full school year program runs for 10 months. The third Summer session runs in July and August for 6 weeks.

School year registration: Parents register their children or teens for an entire session and provide a deposit, plus pay the full balance by EMT, credit card or by providing personal cheques, each one post-dated for the first day of each month for either session. There is a $10/month admin fee for all post-dated cheques. FULL payment (or ALL post-dated cheques) must be received at U-Rock two months prior to your child's lesson start date. Your lesson time will be confirmed on receipt of payment. You can also pay for the FULL school year session in one payment - this is always the least expensive option. Monthly EMT payments for lessons are NOT accepted.

Fall/Winter Session (Sept-Jan) registration begins in May.

Winter/Spring Session (Feb-June) registration begins in November.

Summer Session registration begins in February.

Payments for all summer lessons and groups are paid in ONE fee for the full session at registration and are non-refundable. We do our best to accommodate lesson time changes in the summer but our programs fill up quickly, so please ensure that your selected lesson times will work for you, as it may not be possible to switch times once the programs are full. All summer payments can be made immediately by EMT, credit card,  or personal cheque as they are a one-time payment.

ALL summer programs are non refundable.

Deposits paid for all lessons (private and groups) at any time of the year are non-refundable. Deposits cannot be used as credit for other family members in our program. If you cancel your lessons before the session starts, you lose your deposit. There are no exceptions.

Incomplete payments (deposit paid but no other fees delivered): We must have delivery of all completed payments, including all post-dated cheques, ONE MONTH before lessons begin. Failure to provide the FULL balance of payment by EMT or cheques 30 days prior to any new session starting will result in the loss of your deposit and your child's lesson time will be made available to other families on our waiting list.

NSF cheques will be subject to a $50-dollar fee and the full payment to replace the NSF cheque must be remitted in cash only, along with the $50 NSF charge, within 24 hours of notification.

Lesson credits cannot be carried over from one session to the next under any circumstances. If you do not use any lessons credited to you during your current session you cannot get a credit towards the next session. It is up to each family/student to follow up with your teacher and make arrangements to book a new lesson time for any lesson credits you may have.

Concerts
U-Rock Music School hosts several concerts and events throughout the school year. Most free. We apply a nominal fee only to our end-of-year concert, which is payable in advance. Concerts are held on a professional music stage with sound engineer and a light show. Families are encouraged to bring guests to support their rock stars.

U-Rock also hosts FREE Open Mic events at various locations 3-4 times throughout the school year to allow our students as many opportunities to perform as possible. We also frequently participate, along with our students, in many wonderful community events like Canada Day, Arts in the Park, the Kiwanis K4K Fundraiser, and various local fundraisers.

Our students are also encouraged to audition for other musical events, outside our school, as opportunities arise.

What to bring to lessons

Guitar/Bass/Ukulele/Drums/Keyboard: All students must supply their own notebooks/binder and instrument (except for drums & keyboard, we have that covered) for lessons. Capo, tuner, medium weight picks and a strap are also recommended for all guitarists, just picks and a tuner for ukulele students, all drummers must bring their own sticks (Los Cabos 5A). All students will be given material to work on and are encouraged to find songs/chords/tabs online to enhance their learning and practice time.

Vocals: Water bottles are a must. Please always bring your set list of songs to every lesson (you can list your songs on your phone if you have one). Additional learning tools will sometimes be provided, such as sheet music or lyrics, as needed. All students are encouraged to bring along their own selection of favourite songs/music so that we can work on the kind of music they like best. Vocal students should also develop their own custom song lists for practicing at home. Students should come to every lesson prepared to work on 2-3 songs.

At the annual end-of-school-year concert, U-Rock presents students who excel in our programs with our coveted MARS Awards, in a variety of categories. These are framed achievement certificates for our "Most Awesome Rock Stars". We also have a very special 5 year Achievement Award and special gift for every student who remains in our music program for five years. Many stay even longer and that's an achievement that often leads to greatness! Did you know that all our part-time teachers are former U-Rock students who achieved their 5 year excellence awards?

Rescheduling lessons
Make up lessons can be provided with 48-hours advance notice ONLY if a student cancels due to serious illness. Students may reschedule a maximum of TWO lessons per 5 month session (for serious illness only) and always with no less than 48 hrs' advance notice. There will be no exceptions made to this policy under any circumstances. Make up lessons can now be provided online instead, on request.

We also have a unique option to help your rock star never miss a lesson:

U-Rock LESSON SWAP GROUP is a members-only group linked to our school Facebook page. This group of U-Rock families on Facebook allows you to request lesson time swaps with other families, so that you can potentially NEVER have to miss a lesson. No other music schools offer this unique option, so please join the group and check out the guest posts to swap dates/times with other students. This is open to private lessons only.

ALL last-minute lesson cancellations (no matter what the cause) cannot be rescheduled or carried over to the next session.

MISSED private lessons & group lessons cannot be rescheduled at any time. We get this comment a lot: "Oops, I forgot!" No problem, we'll see your rock star next week at the usual time.

ALL other scheduling conflicts, including: family events, birthdays, school events, sports events or conflicts with any other activities will NOT be credited at any time. It's up to you to choose which event you will have to miss, but U-Rock will not consider ANY requests for lesson credits for any extracurricular conflicts. Use our SWAP GROUP and you may never have to worry about missing lessons.

Family vacations that fall outside the usual statutory holiday/March break time frames cannot be rescheduled. U-Rock observes all statutory holidays as well as all provincial holidays.

We are always OPEN on all various school board PD Days, so lessons are never cancelled at U-Rock on those days.

Bad Weather: If Mother Nature throws a hissy fit, we still go on with lessons and we cannot provide alternate lesson times if you are unable to attend your lessons due to measures beyond our control. It's your decision if you want your child/teen to attend lessons, but lessons at U-Rock go on as scheduled regardless of the weather. With notice you may ask for an online lesson instead, at the same time as your in-person lesson.

Cancellation policy
In the event that you must withdraw your child/teen from our program prior to the end of your prepaid session, please note that one month’s written notification will be required for all students in private lessons. You are responsible to pay your full lesson fees for 4 prepaid weeks (this does not include unpaid weeks for any holidays during that time). During this notice period your child may continue to attend lessons. We will write you to confirm the date of your last lesson. It is not mandatory to attend lessons during this period, but you must let us know if you aren't planning to take any lessons during the notice period.

If you withdraw from lessons in the 1st month of any session, 31 days or less from the session start date, a $50 administration fee will be charged along with our $100 cancellation fee for any students who leave their lessons before the end of any on-going session. If you must cancel your prepaid lessons before they start, a cancellation fees of $150 will be required, along with the equivalent sum of 4 weeks of lesson fees. Pre-paid, full-year lesson fees that included a promotional early bird discount are not refundable.

There are no refunds at any time for early withdrawal/cancellation of any group sessions at U-Rock. Our groups require a specific number of students to succeed, so should you need to withdraw your child/teen, you will forfeit your fees.

Trial Lessons, when available, (prepaid 3-4 week trial period) are non refundable, regardless of the reason for cancellation. Trial lessons are only available at select times during the year.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Deadline to cancel any private lessons for a partial pro-rated refund is 60 days from the official start date of any half school year session. One month's notice payment (a minimum of 4 full weeks of prepaid lessons) is required at that time. Lessons at U-Rock require a serious five month minimum commitment due to space restrictions and performance opportunities that may result from lessons. Students who are enrolled for our full school year session must give written notice no later than March 1st in order to qualify for cancellation of lessons. We cannot fill vacated lessons at the end of our sessions, so this policy is in place to ensure that all families commit to the entire session they have registered for.

Please note: if you join a session already in-progress, the official session start date (not the date your child started lessons) must be used re:the 60 day notice period. We ask that any families who want to "try out" our various lessons programs do so during our shorter summer session, then decide if a longer commitment is ideal for their rock stars.

GROUP programs - such as U-Rock's Teen Band, The Crushers, The Roxies & Pop Patrol as well as all of our summer lesson programs, including our summer and school year SHARED LESSONS and our promo seasonal 3-4 week TRIAL LESSONS are non-refundable. There are no exceptions at any time.

Prepaid PRIVATE SUMMER LESSONS are non-refundable. Limited spaces for all our busy programs make it necessary to ensure that all families fully commit to their chosen prepaid lessons.

If you opt for our lower-rate full school year session with a ONE TIME PAYMENT and your child must unexpectedly leave our program, please note that one month's written notice/including one month of lessons fees will be required. Any amount eligible for refund will then be prorated to the full lesson fee, plus a cancellation charge of $150. This is also our policy for families who opt to pay by post-dated cheques, we reserve the right to hold an additional $150 cancellation charge, along with your final month payment during your notification period. Additional charges may apply if you give less than 31 days' notice at the start of any session. If you haven't begun your prepaid lessons yet, the same rules apply.

Families who sign up for any half-school year OR full school year session knowing they cannot attend a portion of their lessons will not be offered any lesson credits. It is up to each family to decide if they want to commit to our half year or full year sessions, regardless of each one's ability to attend all lessons in any given session. We will not make any exceptions. This policy also includes all foreign exchange students who may have to leave the program before it is over, as well as families who move away mid-session.

Drop-off / pick-up times

Please be considerate of lesson times – please drop off/pick up your children exactly on the hour/half hour. If students are dropped off too early or too late it causes disruption for others.

Family members are NOT allowed to wait inside at any time, before, during or after lessons, in order to respect the privacy of others.

ALL students MUST ALWAYS RING to get in the house, as our doors are now locked from 3-8pm for everyone's safety. Please only ring the doorbell at your EXACT lesson time, or simply go in when the student before you comes out.

Parking at U-Rock: Access to our driveway must never be blocked. You may pull in to the driveway to quickly pick up or drop off your child, but if you are waiting PLEASE use any legal parking spot on the street and consider having your child walk to and from the front door from that location. Please NEVER block the front of our driveway with your vehicles at any time, not even for a quick 10 second drop off/pick up. This is for the safety of all students at the school as well as our neighbours.

**Families who break this rule will receive written notice and any repeat offenders will be required to discontinue lessons, without a refund, for failing to follow our safety rules.** We take safety very seriously.

We respectfully ask that after you drop off and pick up your children/teens from a safe, legal parking spot on the street, that you circle around the very small block to exit. PLEASE do not turn your vehicle around in our neighbours' driveways at ANY TIME or block the entrance to any of their driveways with your vehicle. We like our neighbours and REALLY need them to stay happy while our business thrives. Thank you!

Referral program
Existing students (and their families) may receive a credit towards U-Rock merchandise when you refer a new student to the school, and that student enrols for a minimum 5-month session.

All rock (but no roll) respect, bullying & safety policy
We want your child's lessons to be productive and fun, so we insist on respectful behaviour. We don't tolerate rude, aggressive or destructive behaviour. We'll notify you if your child does not play by the rock 'n roll school rules. Our music gear is all top of the line pro quality and we expect our students to respect us and our property. Should damages ever occur, families will be notified immediately:

We have a three-strike system at U-Rock. This means any student who is not abiding by the rules or is behaving inappropriately will be given a verbal warning by their teacher, and if need be, given a second verbal warning. If a third warning is required, the student will be asked to leave their lesson immediately and sent home and an emailed note will be sent to parents. If the situation occurs again at another lesson, the student will be suspended. At that point, we reserve the right to terminate the student's lessons and parents will be notified in writing. There will be no refund in such a situation.

In 27 years of teaching at U-Rock we have only had to enforce this policy once. Terminating a student's lessons is not something we take lightly. However, if we feel any student is not respectful of our school rules, damages studio gear, disrespects a teacher, hurts or verbally offends any other students, or poses a risk to our personal or school property, we will not tolerate it. In such a situation, parents will be required to fully pay out the remainder of the session their child/teen is registered in at that time, and the student will not be allowed to return to the school under any circumstances.

Thanks for your support and understanding of our school policies. It is our practice to treat all families and students with fairness, respect and kindness and we hope you will understand that we cannot bend the U-Rock School rules for anyone.