The 'PJC Practice Champion' Rewards Scheme
Saturday, April 30, 2022 | News
The 'PJC Practice Champion' Rewards Scheme.
Our Practice Champion Rewards Scheme encourages all students to not only practice the piano at home, but also to do the theory games, exercises and singing tasks that improve our students' overall musicianship. By collecting stamps on their chart, students can earn increasingly exciting prizes.
How Can They Earn Stamps?
All students can earn their stamps through the practice and theory exercises that they do at home, receiving a keyboard stamp for every day they practice the minimum recommended time, a clock stamp for every day they practice double the minimum recommended time, and a stave stamp for every day they do one of the suggested theory exercises. They therefore Young Beginners have the potential to earn up to 21 stamps per week!
Intermediates can also earn additional Sight Reading Stamps, by doing one sight reading per day. This only takes a few minutes and is an easy way to earn an additional 7 sight reading stamps per week (which is especially useful for those higher grade students who will find it harder to earn those clock stamps!)
What are the Recommended Practice Times for each grade?
Our recommended practice times start small and gradually increase until Grade 2 to 8, when you just 'add a zero' to the grade you're studying (i.e. Grade 3= 30 minutes, Grade 5= 50 minutes). The clock stamps (for double the practice time) do get harder to achieve in the higher grades, which is where students might focus more on the achieving the theory and sight reading stamps to bump up their numbers!
How do I log the practice each week?
Each booklet will have a white sheet stapled into it. The starting date of each week of the year are down the left hand side, with each day across the top. If a student on their pink book does their recommended 3 minutes, tick the little keyboard on that day, if they do 6 minutes, they can tick the clock too. If they complete a theory task from the special PDF, they can tick the little stave column. The final column with the adorable little man reading a book is only for Intermediates who complete a sight reading exercise. Students can do this themselves if you wish- we will leave this to you as parents to judge whether your child is old enough (and trustworthy!). Once we have stamped their practice chart for the week, we will highlight that row in lesson time to show that this week has been stamped.
|
How do you know the student is being truthful about their practice? |
This is all honesty based, and we ask parents to do their best to make sure that students are truthful about their practice time in order to inspire them properly.
What prizes can my child earn?
As well as the 25, 50 and 75 stickers, students can earn certificates sweets, musical stationary, certificates, musical jewellery, manuscript books to write their own music, and even a trophy.
When does the Practice Champion run?
Our PJC Practice Champion runs from September to September. This is to ensure that students continue to be inspired over the August Holiday to keep up their practise, knowing that prizes and awards await them in September when they return to us! In September each year they will receive a brand new card ready to start again. The Practice Log Booklets change each year in order to avoid confusion.
.jpeg)
What should my child be practising?
In order to make practising at home as exciting and easy as possible, I have also produced a Piano Practice Sheet and a Theory Exercises Sheet for The Pink Book, The Orange Book, The Blue Book, and The Intermediates Stage of our PJC Programmes. Feel free to print these out if that is easier for you and your child but bear in mind that the PDFs contain lots of hyperlinks to our PJC Piano Practice Guide for Parents Videos, and many online quizzes in order to make our students' practice more interactive.
Where can I find the theory exercises/games?
You can find these PDFs on our Facebook Parents Community Group, as well as being available on our online portal under 'Online Resources'.
What if my child doesn't do their recommended amount but still practices?
We want to encourage and reward all forms of practice, so if your child does half their recommended time, they can still achieve their keyboard stamp if they complete their recommended time another day that week (i.e. a Grade 3 student has a recommended time of 30 minutes. If they do 15 on Monday and 15 on Tuesday then they can achieve one keyboard stamp for both days!)
If my child does triple the amount of practice- do they get two clock stamps?
Only one clock stamp can be achieved per day- we're trying to encourage our students to practice little and often (so for an Initial Grade student, 10 minutes per day is miles better than 70 minutes on Sunday!)
If you have any questions about this PJC Practice Champion Reward Scheme not covered in this blog post do please ask me and I can update this as necessary!
Take care,
Phillippa ♪
Our Biggest Ever Announcement...
Monday, October 18, 2021 | News
Dear Parents,
I am writing with some exciting news...
Probably THE most exciting news I have ever shared in my whole 16 years of teaching!
.png)
I am officially opening my own PJC Music School Premises!
Where is this new premises?
It is in Yeadon- 36 Kirk Lane, LS19 7ET, and we finally signed the lease today!
This picture is a mock-up of what the front of the school could look like!
Which lessons will be moving there?
The plan is to move all our Horsforth lessons on MONDAYS and WEDNESDAYS to this premises (it is less than a 10 minute car journey from The Old Ball at Horsforth Roundabout).
We will also be moving the Baildon lessons on TUESDAYS to the new premises
(14 minute drive from The Malt Shovel at Baildon Roundabout).
So Sundays are staying at Baildon, then?
SUNDAYS will be staying at Baildon for at least the time being, maybe indefinitely. However, students will still get the opportunity to attend our lovely premises for make-up lessons and to perform in the recitals or workshops that we discuss below.
(If you are a Sunday parent and would rather your child have their lessons at the premises in Yeadon, please do let me know and we can discuss options for this. Conversely if you’re a Tuesday parent who would prefer to stay close to Baildon, please do let me know and we can see if there’s a space on Sundays.)
When is the moving date?
.png)
This has been a LONG time coming; we originally went to see this venue in September 2020, but with Covid delays and Brexit supply problems, it has been put back and put back continuously.
But the wait has been worth it- after all the work we've done with it, it is starting to look absolutely amazing and I'm so happy to announce that our official moving day is Monday 1st November!
As of this date, all Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday lessons will take place at our new, Yeadon premises.
.png)
We are having a celebratory grand opening party throughout the afternoon and early evening on Thursday 28th October- I hope you and your family drop in at some point to share a drink and a cake with us and have a little nosey round. Please put this date in your diary if you can make it, more details to follow soon!
What’s so great about this new premises then?
I know I should really start off by talking about all the amazing benefits it will offer to our students, however in all honesty, the best thing about this new place (in my opinion as a working mother of two!) is the benefits it will have for our parents!
Introducing... The PJC Family Room
Drum roll please……..Our new building has it’s very own WAITING ROOM for parents, grandparents, younger siblings etc.
Yes that’s right- parents can come for their 50 or 90 minutes per week and sit in a nice café-style environment. There will be a self-serve coffee station with fancy coffees, juices, cakes and confectionery (which we won’t be charging for- just asking for reasonable donations to keep this lovely luxury turning over.) We’ll be having WiFi and plug sockets so that you can get some work done, or just take the opportunity to read a book and relax, or meet up with a friend and have a catch up! As a parent, I have to say, that I’m actually very jealous that I’ll be teaching- I wish my boys’ other after school activities allowed me to do this while they were learning!
Fab Student Facilities
There will be one large room, half of which will have brand new keyboards, all upgraded to 76 key semi-weighted Yamaha beauties! These are all ordered and ready to put up when the room is finished. The other half will include a fully weighted 88 key piano for recitals and exam practice (I have yet to pick which I’m going to buy but it’s very exciting deciding!) and a more open space where singing and games will take place.
As well as this, there is a further room where our Music Theory will take place, as well as Aural and some singing. This will also have a piano, as well as tables for writing.
There is also a brand new fitted W.C. in the back which means unlike Horsforth, our students can escort themselves to the toilet. So safeguarding the welfare of our students will go hand in hand with more independence.
Our Own Performance Space 
The wall between our waiting room and the large music room is going to be a sound-insulated movable wall, which will allow us to open up the two rooms into one large L shaped room. This will allow us to host little recitals, giving us an easy way to give our students performing opportunities on a regular basis.
There will be Saturday Brunch or Afternoon Tea Recitals for our students to gain experience performing in a more relaxed nature, in front of their friends and family, while they sit at a table enjoying tea and cakes!
Once students are more confident at performing in front of an audience, they can graduate to taking part in more serious afternoon and evening recitals, where we can set the chairs out in rows and have a wider selection of students perform in a slightly more formal format.
Workshops
This new set up opens up potential for us to hold events in the future that are longer and larger than just our 50-90 minute lessons. Whether they are one-off day workshops or holiday clubs, the sky is the limit.
Convenient Location
The building we have leased is the old ‘Harland’s Music Shop’ on Kirk Lane in Yeadon.
It is less than a minute to Aldi and only 3 minutes from Morrisons, and I’m sure many parents will take advantage of the lesson time to get their weekly shop done!
It is next to Kirk Lane Park/Nunroyd Park, so if there are younger siblings who wish to play in the playground or ride their bikes during the summer months, this is ideal! For those who have never been before, it is a beautiful park to have a look around anyway!
I know that there’s a tradition from some of our parents of nipping to the pub for a quick pint during their child’s lesson- don’t worry, we’re just down the road from a really large selection of both traditional and trendy pubs and bars!
There is plenty of on street parking, both on the main road Kirk Lane, and off the several side streets.
There is a really large pavement area just in front of the building entrance. We plan to keep this area free from parking and use it as a ‘drop off’ station for parents who are not staying, allowing a safe drop off space for our students right next to the front door!
An Exciting Adventure
The opening of our new premises is another wonderful step on our successful journey. I'm so excited in its potential to increase the progress, enjoyment and opportunities for our learners, and bring all our students and their families closer together as one big PJC Family!
Love as always,
Phillippa ♪
