Our Fees

Invoices go out by the 15th of the month for the following month’s sessions, and list exactly which sessions they cover. Payment is due by the 1st, in advance of those sessions. Bank transfer or cash, whichever suits you. If an invoice ever looks wrong, tell us and we will check it the same day.

If an invoice is unpaid on the 1st we send a reminder. We reserve the right to add a £50 administrative charge once payment is five days late, and to suspend tuition if an invoice is more than ten days overdue. We would always rather hear from you first — if money is tight or something has gone wrong, tell us and we will work something out.

We ask for at least 48 hours’ notice to cancel a session. With more than 48 hours’ notice there is no charge, and the fee is credited against your next invoice. With less than 48 hours’ notice the session is charged in full, because the place has been held and cannot be offered to anyone else at that notice.

The rule covers illness, appointments and other commitments — but we can and do waive the late-cancellation fee where the circumstances warrant it. That is our discretion rather than an entitlement, so we cannot set out a list of qualifying reasons in advance. Tell us what has happened and we will look at it properly. Sessions cancelled by us are never charged.

If an online session is lost to a problem at our end, it is not charged. If it cannot go ahead because of your child’s device or internet connection, it is chargeable — the time was held for them either way. As with a late cancellation, we can waive that at our discretion, so tell us what happened.

If you decide to stop, we need four weeks’ notice in writing — an email is fine — so we can offer the place to a family on the waiting list. The four weeks are payable whether or not your child attends them, and if you give us less notice than that, four weeks’ fees are payable in lieu. We can also end an arrangement, on the same four weeks’ written notice.

We keep an eye on attendance across a term. If it falls below 80% we may review the place and, in the end, withdraw it — even where the missed sessions have been paid for. That is not about the money: our groups are capped at six and we usually have a waiting list, so an unused place is one a child who would attend cannot have. We will always talk to you long before it gets that far.

If you are running behind, phone ahead. We cannot refund time missed through arriving late, because the session still ends when it ends. Late collection holds up whatever comes next, so we reserve the right to charge £20 for every 15 minutes past the agreed time — and, as with any of our charges, we can waive it at our discretion.

Pupils are expected to behave respectfully towards us and towards each other. We do not tolerate abusive behaviour, whether verbal, physical or emotional, nor deliberate damage to property. Where it occurs we may end tuition immediately, and in that situation fees already paid are not refunded. Our behaviour policy sets out the stepped warnings that come first in every case short of the most serious.

We don’t offer a sibling discount. Our groups are capped at six, so a second child takes a place that costs us exactly what the first one does — and we would rather keep the fee the same for every family than fund a discount by teaching in larger groups.