Studio Policy

Updates January 19, 2022. Changes are the addition of Accessibility, Harassment, Human Rights & Anti-Discrimination and Liability sections.

Updated January 2, 2023. Further clarifications to statutory holidays with addition of publicly-available holiday closure list.

Updated Sept 26, 2023. Absence and fee policies updated.

General Policies

• All private lessons are held weekly and paid in advance unless specifically arranged with the school director
• HMA (Heritage Music Academy) does not provide music classes or instrumental lessons on statutory holidays (see Holiday Closures for details) unless explicitly arranged by student in special situations only.
• HMA, or the Teacher, may cancel classes or lessons by informing the Student or Parent before 9:00am on the day of the lesson, and such lessons will be rescheduled by mutual consent.
• HMA reserve all rights to substitute teachers due to teacher absence or unavailability, and if no suitable substitution can be done the lesson will be deferred
• HMA follows the York Regional District School Board on weather-related school cancellations for the day. Up-to-date information will be posted on our site and phone lines.
• It is the Student’s responsibility to arrive on time for each class or lesson. Lesson time that is lost due to a late arrival cannot be made up, irrespective of the reason for the late arrival. Moreover, if you are more than 15 minutes late to your lesson, and no arrangements have been made as to your arrival time for the lesson, it is considered a “no show”.
• If you fail to attend your scheduled class or lesson without giving us notice, referred to as a “no show”, the lesson will be charged as an ordinary lesson and no reschedule or make up of the class or lesson subject to the no show will be offered.
• A school semester aligns closely to the Ontario school system semester, with the fall semester starting after Labour Day in September and ends on the last day of January, the winter semester from February to last day of June, and the summer semester from July to Labour Day.

Absence Policy

Students may cancel or reschedule a lesson for any reason if at least 24-hours notice is provided prior to the start of the originally scheduled lesson time. Once a rescheduled time is set, it may not be changed again.

If you wish to cancel or reschedule within 24-hours of your scheduled lesson, you may do so 2 times per semester if due to sickness or other emergencies. If you cancel within 24-hours for any other reason, no credit or refund will be issued.

You may request rescheduling using our online form, by emailing us at [email protected], or by calling 647-478-8179 x1.

In circumstances where students are unable to come for their scheduled in-person lesson, we highly recommend switching over to online lessons rather than rescheduling.

While we try our best to reschedule lessons with the same teacher, this may not be possible. HMA will provide an equivalent substitution in this situation.

We recognize that exceptional situations can arise and we will continue to offer alternative arrangements at our discretion – to be discussed with one of the school directors – if your circumstances fall outside the policy.

Fees

All lessons are invoiced at the beginning of the month for the lessons incurred. The payment is due upon invoice receipt. We encourage all parents to pay as soon as possible (with a grace period of 14 calendar days). If you found errors in the invoice, please notify us and we will correct them. If you are unable to pay in the prescribed time period – please discuss with one of our directors as soon as possible.

Payment Methods

Heritage Music Academy accepts these payment types with no additional surcharges: cash, Interac e-Transfer, debit card, cheque. Payments made with credit card are subject to 2.4% credit surcharge (and will be retroactively adjusted if a payment using credit card on the terminal).

Signage of surcharge is cleared marked on the card machine, front desk and in the invoice.

Non-sufficient funds / rejected payments

All rejected payments due to non-sufficient funds are subject to a $40 administrative charge.

Late Payments

Late fee of 1.5% of invoice total, capped at $10 for each month the invoice is overdue starting from 30 days of invoice. The late fee is retroactive to the invoice date.

We will no longer render services to the student if there are invoices overdue for 60 days or more.

Invoices will be sent to collections if no payment arrangement is made within 6 months (180 days).

Example of late invoice fees:

Invoice Amount	Day 1-30	Day 31	Day 60
$50	$50.00	$50.75	$61.50
$200	$200.00	$203.00	$206.00
$800	$800.00	$810.00	$820.00

Withdrawals

Student(s) may withdraw from enrolled Programs by providing 4 weeks written notice. The last lesson will be the last paid lesson, or 4 lessons after the written notice of withdrawal is received by HMA, whichever is later. 

Materials

• HMA will provide a lesson notebook for the purpose of teacher logging practice information.
• Teachers will prescribe music materials such as technique books or sheet music for the purpose of the lesson.
• Students will be able to purchase all required materials directly at the school, and entitled to a purchase discount while studying at the school.
• Teachers will not be allowed to provide copies of copyrighted recordings or music scores.

Accessibility

HMA has established accessibility guidelines to accomodate and address any concerns of customers, in accordance to Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005.

Harassment

HMA is committed to providing a work environment in which all workers are treated with respect and dignity. Workplace harassment will not be tolerated from any person in the workplace including the partners of HMA, employees, contractors, students or students’ families.

Management will investigate and deal with all complaints or incidents of workplace harassment in a fair, respectful and timely manner. Information provided about an incident or about a complaint will not be disclosed except as necessary to protect workers, to investigate the complaint or incident, to take corrective action or as otherwise required by law.

Human Rights & Anti-Discrimination

HMA is committed to providing music instruction services that are free from unlawful discrimination and harassment. All faculty members and students are entitled to a learning environment where they are treated with respect. All individuals are required to conduct themselves in a professional manner and refrain from engaging in discrimination or harassment.

All faculty members and students have the right to be free from discrimination and harassment based upon characteristics protected under the Human Rights Code. Including race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, record of offences, marital status, family status and disability.

HMA will make every reasonable, practicable effort to ensure that no worker or student is subjected to unlawful discrimination or harassment. If HMA becomes aware of a potential incident of discrimination or harassment, it will investigate the complaint or incident in a fair, timely and confidential manner.

Liability

The student and/or student’s parent/guardian agree not to hold HMA employees and/or contract workers liable for any injury or accident and discharge HMA employees and/or contract workers from any actions, causes of actions, claims, damages of every nature of kind arising from enrollment in, music lessons (in-person, online or at home) or the acts, omissions or negligence of HMA.

Etiquette in Studio

• Students, parents and guests may arrive at the lounge for the purpose of waiting for the student’s lesson.
• Parents are encouraged to sit in with their children during the lesson. This is especially important for younger students. It is recommended that parents are actively involved during the lessons and take notes so that they are able to work effectively with their children at home.
• Based on studio availability, students may be able to warm-up prior to their scheduled lesson time.
• Loitering or solicitation without prior permission is not allowed on studio premises.
• We are a scent-free school to be consderate of all patrons and faculty members’ sensitivities.

Practicing and Progress

• At each lesson, the teacher will assign exercises for the student to practice during the week and these will be written in a lesson notebook or online tool.
• Students are encouraged to practice daily, with a daily duration recommended by the teacher.
• Parents are encouraged to review the lesson notebook and consult with the teacher on progress regularly.
• Students who are showing a lack of progress will be placed on a performance improvement plan. A performance improvement plan is a tool that will be collaboratively developed by the student, parents and teacher; It aims to address the issues that are contributing to the lack of progress and identifies achievable goals for the student to meet in order to ensure success in the program.