Terms and Conditions

Booking Residential Workshops

We have been very reluctant over the years to introduce booking terms and conditions, but our increased use of residential accommodation now makes this necessary. Once booked, residential accommodation must be paid for, and we have to cover these costs. We also budget expected fees into our financial calculations, and it can sometimes cause difficulty if people cancel at the last minute.

We want to make sure that these booking terms – while supporting us in our work - do not prevent anyone from attending courses, so we are very happy to discuss payment plans with anyone who needs one, spreading payments over longer periods. At the same time we want to be clear about amounts we need to receive from you. We can spread deposits and balances over several months as long as we have cheques in advance and you understand that we will need to cash them.

Residential course deposits are not refundable. Balances must be dated at least 5 weeks before the course start date, or the date given by us int he course information, so that we can pay the accommodation balance and other advance costs. Residential course balances are not refundable after booking unless we find another suitable participant to take your place. If your place is filled, you will receive a balance refund, although we may need to charge an administrative fee to cover costs. For some courses, for example Master Classes, group composition is very important and it may not be possible to fill your place even if there are people on the waiting list.

When you register for a course and we accept your application/registration, you are agreeing to attend the course and we are agreeing to accept you as a participant. When you send your deposit (or any other payments requested at the time of booking), or for Master Classes when we confirm your acceptance having already received your deposit, we are entering into a formal agreement with you. If we cannot run the course for any reason we will of course refund your payments.

Please consider taking out cancellation insurance to cover the course costs for yourself if you are unable to attend. We have done everything possible to help people out in the past, but over the years we have sometimes had unexpected last-minute cancellations and been left with extra costs to pay and unplanned income gaps. Bless you for understanding these practicalities!

To cancel a booking, you must please contact us by telephone or mobile text at the earliest opportunity. You must either speak to us in person or receive a text reply from us to confirm we have received your cancellation. Otherwise we will not know to look for someone to take your place and you will not have the potential option of a balance refund. Email is not an acceptable medium for cancellation, as we cannot always access emails on a regular basis.

Booking Non-Residential Workshops

When you book a non-residential workshop, we will normally ask you to send a deposit, which is non-refundable unless we cancel the workshop, and a balance cheque dated 4 weeks before the workshop (or a series of cheques, if we have agreed a payment plan with you). If you are unable to attend and you let us know 4 weeks before the non-residential workshop date, we will refund the balance by returning or destroying your cheque. If you cancel less than four weeks before the workshop, the balance is only refundable in exceptional circumstances. We hope you understand that in order to book halls and organise our work, we have finally succumbed to the need to introduce a level of formality for workshop attendance. If your circumstances are exceptional and unforeseen, we will of course refund your balance.