“Enrolments for the 2025 After school music program have closed however, if you are looking for a place for your child please email Alex at 3110-Music@schools.vic.edu.au as there may be some availabilities or waiting lists.”

Who are we? 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, violin and voice. As well as Junior and Senior Recorder Ensembles.

The After School Music Coordinator is Alex Rindfleish. In the first instance please contact your child’s tutor directly. For less urgent issues, please Alex by email 3110-Music@schools.vic.edu.au.

Full terms and conditions for the program are on this link After School Music Program Guidelines. 

Lessons

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; be picked up from after school care or wait with a parent in the yard – but only until 3.45pm. 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

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.

Cost structure

Tutors in the program are paid at Victorian Music Teachers’ Association (VMTA) recommended rates for individual lessons and ensembles. For paired and group lessons, tutors offer a discounted VMTA 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.

Music lesson costs for 2025:

20 minute individual lesson – $31
30 minute individual lesson – $46
Paired (recorder only), 20 minute lesson – $18
Paired (recorder & beginner piano only), 30 minute lesson – $26
Group of 3 (recorder only), 20 minute lesson $12
Group of 3 (recorder only), 30 minute lesson – $18
Paired (voice), 30 minute lesson – $26
Group of 3 (voice), 30 minute lesson – $18

The cost for ensemble will be no more than $11 per session (depending on student numbers).

Annual enrolment fee

The annual enrolment fee is payable for each child in the program and covers expenses such as the Program Coordinator, utilities, maintaining the pianos, keyboards and drums, purchasing new equipment, and tutors’ time at the two school concerts. For 2025 the admin fee is $60 for all students.

Please pay the fee via Compass (Payments Centre tab) once you have received confirmation of lesson/s.

Music program coordinators

The After School Music Program Coordinator is 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 Coordinator as soon as possible.

Learning more than one instrument

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.

Instruments and specific information

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/Keyboard
Alex Rindfleish                             
Bonnie Smith

Callum Mintzis                             

Shai Martin                                        
Omid Shayan                                                  

Hamish McRae 

Guitar
Peter Sinis 

Jackson Phelan

Bonnie Smith                                                       

Recorder
Rachel Snedden                       

Flute, clarinet and saxophone – For Year 3 and above
Omid Shayan                             

Drums                    

Alexandra Czarnecki-Roper 

Andrew Doo   

Pelaya Arapakis

Voice
Ruby McLellan                             

Violin
Jackson Fumberger 

See the Music Teacher Biographies here.