Merri Creek Primary School’s After School Music is now closed.
If you have any enquiries, please contact volunteer lead coordinators by emailing 3110-Music@schools.vic.edu.au
The Merri Creek Primary School After School Music Program is for Year 1 to Year 6 students. We currently offer lessons in: clarinet, drums, flute, guitar, piano/keyboard, recorder, saxophone, trombone, trumpet, ukulele, violin and voice. As well as Junior and Senior Recorder Ensembles.
The parent volunteer coordinators in 2022 are Ineke Muir and Kirsten Hall.
Full terms and conditions for the program are on this link After School Music Program Guidelines.
Lessons are available to Merri Creek Primary School students and take place at the school. The program runs from Monday to Thursday between 3.35pm and 5.55pm. The exception is drums and piano/keyboard which run on Friday as well.
As only a relatively small number of lessons start immediately after school, parents need to consider how they will manage any gap between school finishing and a music lesson beginning. Children can be brought back to school for their lesson or wait with a parent in the yard – but only until 4.00pm. Parents are responsible for the supervision of their child before the lesson and for collecting them after the lesson. Children cannot be left unsupervised at school outside lesson times.
Students in OSHC (with parental consent) will be signed out by the music tutor to attend their music lesson, and then signed back into OSHC.
If your child (or another child in a paired or group lesson) is in OSHC, the time spent locating the child(ren) is part of the lesson time. It is up to parents and children to make it as easy for the tutor to locate the child as quickly as possible in order to minimise the time gap between classes.
Tutors in the program are paid at Victorian Music Teachers’ Association (VMTA) recommended rates for individual lessons, paired and group lessons as well as ensembles. For paired and group lessons, tutors offer a discounted rate. Parents pay tutors directly, one term in advance. An account is issued early each term. If payment is not received by the required date, the tutor is entitled to suspend lessons until payment is received.
20 minute individual lesson – $2730 minute individual lesson – $41Paired (recorder only), 20 minute lesson – $16Paired (recorder & beginner piano only), 30 minute lesson – $23Group of 3 (recorder only), 20 minute lesson $10Group of 3 (recorder only), 30 minute lesson – $16Paired (voice), 30 minute lesson – $23Group of 3 (voice), 30 minute lesson – $17
The cost for ensemble will be no more than $10 per session (depending on student numbers).
The After School Music Program is coordinated by volunteer parents but the program is still reliant on your financial support in the form of an annual administration fee. The fee is payable for each child in the program and covers expenses such as utilities, maintaining the pianos, keyboards and drums, purchasing new equipment, and tutors’ time at the two school concerts. For 2022 the admin fee is $35 for all students.
Please pay the fee at the via Compass or Qkr! once you have received confirmation of lesson/s.
It is expected that students will commit to learning their instrument for the whole year. If circumstances change, a full term’s notice is required to cancel a lesson. When less than a term’s notice is given, you may be asked to pay for the lesson until the end of the term if a replacement student cannot be allocated.
A standard individual lesson is 20 minutes. However, students studying for exams or by agreement with the tutor, an individual 30 minute lesson may be offered. For beginner piano/keyboard students, a paired 30 minute lesson is available. Recorder and voice are offered as paired or group of 3 lessons for 20 or 30 minutes.
When parents provide 24hrs notice, a catch-up lesson may be scheduled for individual lessons but not for paired or group lessons.
The After School Music Program volunteer coordinators are responsible for scheduling music lessons and for promoting and supporting the mid and end of year concerts. Any scheduling issues arising through the course of the year should be directed through the coordinators. Issues such as lesson fees or missed lessons are directed to the music tutor.
If circumstances affecting your enrolment change please notify the coordinators as soon as possible.
New students are advised to begin learning one instrument only. Current students wanting to study more than one instrument should discuss the idea with tutors and parents. In scheduling lessons, separate days for each instrument are preferable.
All students need to have their own instruments. The appropriate age for music lessons depends to some degree on each child’s strength, maturity, size, coordination, and the instrument chosen. Lessons are offered from Year 1.
Piano/KeyboardAlex Rindfleish
Delia Poon Bonnie Smith
Grace Robinson
Kirsty Morphett Omid Shayan
Jarrod Brereton
GuitarPeter Sinis
RecorderRachel Snedden
Flute, clarinet and saxophone – For Year 3 and aboveOmid Shayan
Drums
Alexandra Czarnecki-Roper
Andrew Doo
George Baker-Holland
Trumpet and trombone – For Year 3 and above
Edward Farrar
VoiceRuby McLellan
ViolinJackson Fumberger
See the Music Teacher Biographies here.
