No, we don't offer an option to suspend lessons that will allow a student to hold their same time and instructor to return to. With our month-to-month enrollment, students can withdraw from lessons and reregister when they are ready to return, but the lesson time is made available to other students after withdrawal. Here's a quick explanation of why and the options that are available if a student needs to miss multiple, consecutive lessons.
Why Not?
While we do our best to provide flexibility for our students via month-to-month enrollment, quarterly absence credits, format changes, and rescheduling options, we have to find a balance between that flexibility and what is required for us to retain high quality instructors. One key thing that allows us to work with such a great team of instructors is providing them with consistent schedules. The large gaps in schedules that would be created by suspending lessons would lead to instructor retention issues.
What Options Are Available?
There are some options for how to handle an extended break from lessons if you want to retain your spot. By using a combination of quarterly absence credits, rescheduled lessons, and/or format changes, a student can minimize the number of paid absences (a lesson that is paid for but not attended). The exact situation will vary based on each student's situation. Feel free to reach out to us at support@villagemusicschool.com and we'll look for the best possible combination to help minimize (or eliminate) paid absences.
A few tips to keep in mind about getting the best outcome if you want to stay enrolled during an extended break:
- For the lessons at the beginning of a break, contact us starting two weeks prior to the first impacted lesson. Since rescheduling options are offered in two-week blocks from the current date, notifying us of an extended absence two weeks before the first missed lesson will give us the most flexibility for rescheduling the missed lessons at the beginning of the break.
- For lessons at the end of the break, contact us starting a few days before the second to last missed lesson. Again, this increases the success of getting lessons rescheduled because it leads to the largest block of times that can be offered.
- If there are missed lessons that fall between the first two and last two lessons (meaning they won't be able to be rescheduled), any accrued absence credits can be used to get refunds for some or all of those lessons.
Finally, there is always the option of withdrawing from lessons and reregistering. When you're ready to reregister, you can check the instructor availability page to determine what spots are available. According to the situation, this may be the best option.