Summer Update - Damian Oxborough: Skipton Teacher of Music

Now we’re fully in the middle of our summer holidays, I thought this would be a good chance to give a quick update of the plans for the coming term. As things open up again and people feel more able to venture out of their homes, my service will get busier, but I am committed to offering the most flexible service that I am able, and one that includes everyone who would like to participate in music lessons.

ZOOM or FACE-TO-FACE

The option of taking lessons over a video link will remain in place permanently. This means that you can have music lessons with me even if you live far away from Skipton. It also allows a little bit of wiggle room for you when unexpected circumstances occur – perhaps you feel off colour the day of your lesson and would really rather stay at home, or you’re running late and just can’t make it to my house in time. It’s not a problem – just drop me a quick text and I can switch your lesson to a Zoom call in a couple of minutes.

If you prefer your lessons to be in-person, then that’s absolutely fine too – unless there’s another lockdown on the horizon then lessons at my house will continue as normal.

COVID : LET’S TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER

With all legal restrictions regarding Covid now either completely gone or very soon to be ended, we are left in a position where we just need to be considerate of one another. As far as my teaching service is concerned, there are a few things that I will be doing to try to minimise the risk to my students and their families:

My music room will continue to be as ventilated as I can make it.
I will continue to provide hand sanitiser at my front door.
Students will be asked not to attend their lessons earlier than the session start time (to avoid too many people being in my room at the same time).

There’ll be no specific mandate regarding masks, vaccines etc. But, my general policy will be this:

Please simply think of others:
- If you think you might have been in contact with Covid (or if you could be carrying any other infectious illness), please don’t attend a face-to-face session.
- If you would prefer face coverings in your lesson, that’s fine – I’ll be happy to put on a mask if it makes you more comfortable.
- If you are able to take a home Covid test ahead of your lesson, that would bring peace of mind to me and my fellow students. I know we’re all sick of having our lives interrupted by the ‘pingdemic’, so it’s better that we work together as a little community, doing our best to avoid passing illnesses on to one another.

SHOWCASING WORK

One of the biggest attractions to music for many students in the opportunity to perform. I aim to continue to put my students’ work in front of an audience. Hopefully in the near future we’ll be able to start up live concerts again, raising money for charities as we have done in the past. And, most of the music exam boards have restarted assessments, so if you would like to be entered for a grading then that’s now possible. Until we can get ourselves safely in front of a live audience, though, I will keep encouraging students to showcase their work through recordings. There have been a number of projects going on over the past 18 months in this respect, and you can keep an eye on my YouTube channel for more of the same!