As you know from the news, this is a very rapidly changing situation with regards to the coronavirus pandemic. I’m following the advice very closely, and at the moment all classes will be running as scheduled, paying particular care to infection control measures (please see below for details on this). 

If there is a point when schools and nurseries are closed in our boroughs (Southwark and Lewisham) we will then cancel ALL Beanstalk Arts classes until the schools are open again – please do keep an eye on your emails (or on our social media channels) should I announce this (although I imagine you won’t miss it on the news!).

I will still be taking bookings for future classes, as at the moment it’s very difficult for us to know just how long this situation will last, however, for any classes that are cancelled by us, please be reassured that you’ll be fully refunded for these sessions. In the event of classes cancelled by Beanstalk Arts: 

• Term bookers – you’ll be refunded the weekly cost of any individual classes that are cancelled
• PAYG bookers – you’ll be refunded the full PAYG rate you paid (if you booked via hoop I may need to get in touch with you to process this as their refund system doesn’t always seems to run smoothly – again, please keep an eye on emails and make sure you book with your correct email address)
• Flexipass bookers – your place on the class will be cancelled and the credit will be returned to your account so you can use this for a future booking.

Refunds might take 5-10 days to be processed, and will come back to the same way you paid – I’ll do this immediately after any classes cancelled.

In the event of a lock down, I’ll be doing more online sessions and thinking a little creatively about other options! You’ll notice that live streamed classes are already starting to become available in the timetable to book – you can view these to these by booking an individual live streamed pass (£2 per family watching) OR subscribe to my monthly subscription service Patreon (www.patreon.com/beanstalkarts) for about £3 a month for unlimited access to all our online content (at least two live streams a month – and likely to be much more frequent than this during any period of lock down). 

Until then, I’m going to be keeping things running and really appreciate your ongoing support in helping keep these measures implemented, these are testing times for small businesses! Our infection control policy is:

• Teachers will wash hands before each class and remind participants to do the same
• There will be a clean set for EVERY class of all items that children touch and these won’t be shared between consecutive classes. This includes shakers, scarves and lycra. You might notice there is a smaller number of scarves and shakers as a result as we’ve needed to break the kit into smaller kit bags, but there will be enough for every child, and please be assured that it will have been washed (shakers in hot soapy water, scarves and lycra in the washing machine) before your session.
• Items such as puppets can’t be washed thoroughly between each individual class, so we will make sure that these aren’t touched by children or parents – this means Boris the Bird won’t be tickling or hugging, but he’ll still be squawking and singing!
• Please try and keep physical contact between your children and teachers to a minimum – we’ll be doing ‘thumbs up’ instead of high fives. I am VERY aware of how tricky this is in early years work, but we’ll do our best, and will be working out the most friendly way of managing it too. 
• As always, our sickness policy remains the same: if you or your child are at all unwell, please don’t attend the session. We normally have a 24 hour notice period for refunds/transfers, as this gives us a chance to offer the place to someone else, but I’m going to reduce this to 12 hours given the circumstances. If you have less than 12 hours you can always send a friend in your space. Please email becky@beanstalkarts.co.uk with cancellations, as I don’t always see Facebook or Instagram messages in time.

Thanks for your support – stay safe and keep singing! Please feel free to get in touch with me should you have any questions about any of this.

Becky Dixon

Director of Beanstalk Arts – www.beanstalkarts.co.uk

This update is as of 12^th March 2020