Re. cancelling lessons:
Myself and other instructors at my school are pushing the management to introduce cancellation charges. What some students don't seem to realise is that if you don't turn up, we don't get paid. Two days ago, 2/3 of my students either didn't turn up, or phoned on the day to cancel. That means I walked away with approximately 1/3 of the pay which I expect to get for a day's work. In any other industry, that would not be acceptable.
We all appreciate that there are some circumstances which are beyond your control. One of my students recently had a death in the family. Obviously I would not charge him for missing his lessons (but he did have the courtesy to call and cancel his lessons as soon as practical, once all the immediate arrangement for the funeral and so on had been dealt with).
On the other hand, we have another student who failed to turn up, with absolutely no explaination, for three lessons in two days - and this is not the first time he has done this, nor the second, nor the third. All of the instructors have told our manager that we do not want booking with him, because we know that we will loose money when he doesn't turn up. Last week, our manager took a phone call from him, and booked him in for another lesson (not with me, thankfully), under the understanding that "I will definitely turn up for this one." Once again, the manager has told the instructor concerned that if the student does not turn up, there will be no cancellation charge, and the instructor will not get paid.
Please, please, please do everything you can to turn up for a lesson. Us instructors get little enough pay as it is.
FFF
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