We hope you all had a great Christmas and summer holiday. An especially warm welcome to all of our new students joining us this year. This newsletter contains information about the upcoming term and year, as well as some general information about Shore Dance specially for our new students and families. We hope you have a fantastic year at Shore Dance!

Welcome to our New Staff Members:

We would like to welcome our new members of staff this year: Tegan Sievwright, who will be teaching AJDA jazz, and also Abigail McDonald who will be teaching our youngest tap classes. We are very excited to have you join our team at Shore Dance and I know they are looking forward to working with our wonderful students! I would also like to welcome back Josie Heenan who many of you will know. She has had a year off teaching while she has had her baby Heidi. Miss Josie will be back teaching some RAD ballet classes this year, as will Miss Whitney! Some of you will also know Miss Amber who will be working in the uniform shop and doing some assistant and relief teaching this year while she begins working on her teaching qualifications. We are very lucky to have such a fabulous team of quality teachers!

2018 Exams:
Students have the opportunity to enter examinations for ballet, jazz, tap, and contemporary. Hip Hop students will also have the opportunity to enter NZAMD medal awards. These will all be held during Term 3 of 2018. More information will be given out about entering exams at the end of term 1, as the exam entries are due at the start of term 2. Please note that students must attend two syllabus classes per week from Grade 1 upwards from the start of term 1 if they wish to enter an RAD ballet exam. Students must attend two syllabus classes from Elementary Level 1 upwards from the start of term 1 if they wish to enter an AJDA jazz exam.

2017 Show DVDs/ Photos:
If you have ordered a copy of the 2017 show DVD, you can collect this from the shop during open hours. Please note you can not collect your DVD until you have made payment.
Capture Photography will be launching the galleries of our show photos shortly and you will be sent the links to these where you can view and purchase copies of the photos taken at our shows. This photos in this newsletter are a wee taster of the amazing photos they have taken!

Easter Weekend:
Easter weekend is from Friday 30th March to Monday 2nd April. Please note there will be no classes held on the Friday, Saturday or Monday of this weekend. Classes will resume as normal on the Tuesday.

Term Fees:
You should have received an invoice for your term fees via email (please let us know if you have not received this). Please make sure that you have paid your fees within the first two weeks of the term (by the 24th of February at the very latest). Our account details are: Shore Dance / 38-9008-0704687-00 / Kiwibank. Please make sure you write your child’s name as the reference when making online payments. Any cheques or cash payments must be given to your teacher in a named envelope. Please note that you will receive a separate invoice later in the term for your show costume hire fee.

Watching Classes:
Due to limited space, we do not allow family members to watch classes from inside the studios. You may watch through the windows from the waiting room at our Enterprise Street studios, however we do ask that you please keep noise levels to a minimum as this can be very distracting for our students. At the All Saints Hall we have a waiting room also where we ask students and family members to wait while classes are on, as there is not enough room in the hall for family members to sit and watch. 

Attendance & Absences:
If your child is unable to attend class due to illness or any other reason, please let us know by either emailing contact@shoredance.co.nz or sending us a text message to 027 563 0883. If your child has an injury, they can still come along and watch the classes so they do not miss out on anything.  

Private Lessons:

If you would like to book a private lesson with one of our teachers, please email us to arrange this: contact@ shoredance.co.nz. Private lessons cost $30.00 per half hour lesson and are open to all students. Please note private lesson times are subject to studio space and staff availability.

Parking:
We would like to ask that parents and family members please do not park in front of the garage door or in the driveway area as this area is reserved for our staff to park in. If there are no parks available in front of our studio, there is plenty of free parking on Hinemoa Street, as well as the Rawene Street carpark within a short walking distance. 

Housekeeping:

Please ensure that you place all rubbish in the rubbish bins provided. If you have take away coffee cups to dispose of, please can you take them down to the kitchen and empty out any left over liquid into the sink before placing in the rubbish bags. Please push the chairs back up against the wall once you are finished with them, and place books/magazines back on the shelf when you are finished with them. We ask everyone to please respect our studios and waiting areas by keeping them tidy so everyone can enjoy the space.