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A COVID SAFE RETURN TO TEACHING

In order to resume face to face teaching, we’re introducing a number of COVID Safe and precautionary measures. This is to remain in line with Government requirements for businesses as well as keep all our staff and students safe. 

RULES

  • You MUST NOT come in to NMA if you have a cough, sore throat, shortness of breath or fever, if you have been overseas in the last month, if you are awaiting test results for COVID 19, or have been in close contact with a known or suspected case of COVID 19. This applies to staff, students and parents. Students may be refused a lesson if they answer yes to any of the above screening questions, and sent a video lesson instead. Teachers may teach online lessons from home if they are unable to attend in person lessons for these reasons. 

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  • Everyone MUST sanitise hands before and after each lesson as well as any time they enter or leave the building. Hand Sanitiser will be located in rooms as well as at all entrances to our Newcastle Campus.

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  • Wherever possible, you must maintain a 1.5 metre distance between you and all other people who are not members of your immediate household. We understand in some lessons this is not always possible, and suggest that piano, DJing and drum students consider wearing face masks as an additional precaution.

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  • Staff must wipe down all equipment that is touched in each lesson with disinfectant wipes. This includes pianos, guitar amps, DJ Decks, music stands, door handles etc. 

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  • All teaching rooms must have their doors open at all times to ventilate the rooms

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  • Wherever possible, there is to be NO SHARING OF EQUIPMENT between teachers and students. Students must come prepared with all their own equipment for each lesson. This includes: Your instrument (Guitarists, brass and woodwind students, Drumsticks for drummers), Your sheet music in a folder or any relevant books you are working out of, any additional equipment you might need (Leads, picks, capos, pencil, eraser etc). If it is not possible to teach the lesson without the sharing of equipment (e.g. if a guitarist forgets their guitar) then you will not be able to have a lesson and instead will be sent a video lesson. Drummers who forget their drumsticks will be issued a brand new set to keep, and parents will be billed for this at cost price as this is purely a safety precaution and not a way for us to make money. 

CAPACITY LIMITS

  • Capacity Limits will be in place in order to comply with Government requirements.

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  • Each teaching room can have a maximum of 2 people (one teacher and one student) at any one time. 

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  • A maximum of 4 people may be in the NMA A foyer, and a maximum of 8 people in the NMA B Foyer (4 in the front foyer, 4 in the performance area in front of the stage). Seats will be marked to indicate appropriate distancing and staff will be onsite to ensure these requirements are adhered to. 

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  • For this reason, we request that waiting rooms are reserved ONLY FOR STUDENTS who are waiting for their lesson to commence. We ask that Parents wait outside or in their cars wherever possible. We also ask that students do not enter the building until it is just before their lesson if possible. If you would like to talk to your Child’s teacher after their lesson, you may do so outside; parents are also welcome to observe their child’s lessons online using the same video conferencing link that is used for online lessons. 

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  • We ask that for any administration questions or queries, you continue to contact us by Email, or by phone if urgent. This will not only minimise the number of people in the building at any one time but also allows our admin team to manage our workload between team members working on site and remotely.  

OTHER PRECAUTIONS & CHANGES

  • Staff and students have the option to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks and gloves, and must always sanitise hands before and after putting on or taking off PPE. 

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  • Our Admin Team will continue to work partly remotely and partly at our NMA Newcastle Campus. 

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  • For our voice teachers, Perspex Shields will be installed in the teaching rooms to create a physical barrier preventing any air droplets reaching the other person when singing. The shields will be wiped down between each student.

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  • For all other instruments, we highly recommend wearing a face mask for your own safety. 

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  • There will be no cash handling on site. Payments online via stripe or direct deposit are our preferred methods of payment. You can also pay over the phone by credit card, or through Ezidebit. 

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  • We also recommend any student, parent or staff member attending face to face lessons downloads the Australian Government's COVID-SAFE app to be immediately alerted if they have come into contact with any cases of coronavirus. 

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