Policy Statements
INDEX:
1. Mission Statement
2. Code of Conduct
3. Child Protection
4. Health and Safety
1. Mission Statement
Virtuoso Dance Company is a community dance company that is open to all. Our mission is to inspire strength, creativity, and confidence through joyful movement. We provide a fun, supportive environment where dancers of all levels can develop their skills, express themselves freely, and feel part of a safe, welcoming dance family.
It is our aim that students with Virtuoso Dance Company will have increased self-confidence, fitness and most importantly have fun and find new friends.
2. Code of Conduct
Virtuoso Dance Company’s commitment to Students and Parents.
1. Integrity:
Virtuoso Dance Company will act in all matters with the utmost integrity allowing students and their families to expect to be treated with honesty, consideration and respect.
2. Competence:
Virtuoso Dance Company will operate within the limits of the teachers’ qualifications, experience and expertise. All classes will be planned to an appropriate level to facilitate the needs of the students providing feedback in a positive and encouraging way to aid development always adhering to the highest possible standards.
3. Professionalism:
Virtuoso Dance Company will ensure safety is always paramount and the facilities used for practice are adequate to meet the needs of the students. Virtuoso Dance Company will also strive to give students the maximum opportunity to perform by building relationships with other organisations and assisting students and parents with advice and guidance for those who may wish to follow a career in the arts.
Student and Parents commitment to Virtuoso Dance Company
1. Respect for Others:
Students and Parents are requested to treat others as they would expect to be treated themselves. Negative comments about others appearance or ability are not welcomed. Positivity and encouragement are, Virtuoso Dance Company is a happy place for children and all members and their families are requested to invest in that.
2. Commitment:
Virtuoso Dance Company is a performing school that regularly exhibits its work, to this end every member is a member of a team. Choreography doesn’t just happen, it is planned. Absence from class means students catching up when they return resulting in wasted time and slowing down the advancement of the team. Sporadic attendance may result in students being banned from partaking in public performances. Whilst it is appreciated that absence is sometimes unavoidable students and parents are asked to make every effort to attend and if it really is not possible, just make a courtesy call. For performances this is especially important, if you will not be available come the time of a public performance (dates of performances are published well in advance) please inform me as soon as possible, students can still be part of the class building up to the performance if I know they are not going to be there as I can plan around this, however someone dropping out in the weeks preceding a performance can have a catastrophic effect on the outcome, denting the morale of the team and not fulfilling the full joy potential that the children deserve as a return for their efforts and hard work.
3. Appearance and Uniform:
Virtuoso Dance Company does have a uniform that must be adhered to. Students are to wear the correct attire and footwear to each lesson. Should a child turn up in incorrect uniform that is considered inappropriate or unsafe to dance in they will be asked to sit out. Hair should be tied up and off the face and no excessive jewellery should be warn. If further advice is required, please ask for a uniform list.
Students are reminded that they are ambassadors for Virtuoso Dance Company and their families so please act in a manner befitting.
4. Payment
Our class fees are worked out on a yearly basis and spread across 11 (No August) equal monthly payments to cover all scheduled classes for the registered year NOT including any extra rehearsals that may be arranged for shows, or other events.
All class fees are due on or before the 3rd of each month, in ADVANCE of the month’s lessons taking place.
The class fees have been worked out over the schools “open weeks” and take into consideration Christmas, Easter and a few other pre-cancelled classes which have already been factored in and removed from the “active” weeks calculated.
Any missed classes due to your own holidays/ sickness or other outside commitments, not dissimilar to nursery fees or swimming lessons, should still be paid for at the usual monthly rate, this is to hold your child's place open within their chosen class for their active registered time with us.
New Starters are entitled to one free trial lesson.
Students participating in both Dance and Acrobatic classes with Virtuoso Dance Company are entitled to a £5 discount per month for Acrobatics.
The annual costume hire payment of £30 for Dance and £10 for Acro is to be paid in full by the end of April
5. Safety
Virtuoso Dance Company has a Child Protection Policy and Health and Safety Policy and parents are requested to be aware of these policies in the interest of serving the wellbeing of the children. Parents are asked to disclose any medical information, allergies or injuries that students may have on the registration form and to provide any amendments to this information if necessary. Parents are also asked to recognize that as with any physical activity there can be a risk of injury and therefore release Virtuoso Dance Company and its teachers from any liability.
6. Interruptions:
Parents are requested to drop off and collect their children in a timely manner, firstly for their safety and secondly to minimise disturbances to the class. Parents are also politely asked to recognise that sitting in on class is not permitted. It is appreciated that parents like to see the progress their children are making, however the presence of an adult within the classroom usually has a debilitating effect on the students, making them more self-conscious and causing a general distraction. Parents will get the opportunity to see their children perform at Virtuoso Dance Company’s annual show and this is the arena in which parents are requested to view their Childs progress.
7. Photography and Filming: GDPR Photographic Consent For Use of Photographs & Digital Images
Photography and filming by parents or students during class is strictly prohibited. During events Virtuoso Dance Company may employ a photographer to take still images or video footage which is then made available for Parents and Students as keepsakes. These images may also be used to advertise Virtuoso Dance Company in differing forms of marketing including appearing on the Virtuoso Dance Company website www.virtuosodancecompany.com , their company Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/VirtuosoDanceCompany/ and the Company Instagram Page https://www.instagram.com/virtuosodancecompany/ . The use of photographs & digital/video images plays an important part in our modern society. At Virtuoso Dance Company, there may be times when photos or digital images are used for promotional purposes on the official school website or on our social media pages.
With smartphones, it is also becoming a wonderful tool for teaching and learning, where pupils and members of staff may use digital technology to record evidence of dance routines and exercises as a teaching and learning aid. These digital/video images may then be used to rehearse the dance movements at home with the dancer’s consent.
Virtuoso Dance Company will comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), We are acutely aware of the importance of e-safety in today’s society and children’s full names will never be published externally with their photographs but we may publish first name only internally (for example, to celebrate an achievement in our private closed FB group.)
N.B. Parents/carers are welcome to take videos and digital images of their children at watching days for their own personal use. To respect everyone’s privacy and in some cases protection, these images should not be published/made publicly available on social networking sites, nor should parents/carers comment on any activities involving other pupils in the digital/video images. We believe that celebrating the achievement of children within the dance school is an important part of their learning experience and personal development. Taking photographs/videos of pupils to celebrate individual and group successes is a valuable way of building a strong school community.
The children work incredibly hard to achieve their successes and at VDC, we would like to begin to celebrate this more through our website and on our social media Facebook and, Instagram pages, in the official programme for the show and very occasionally in the public media. By signing the photo and Video check box on registration, you are providing consent for Virtuoso Dance Company to use both hard-copy and digital images (including video) in the below:
all school publications, the official school Website, and on school social media pages
in newspapers as approved by the school
the taking of professional photo and video at our dance school show and at any other public performance that we may be participating in, ie school fates.
Please speak to the teacher if you have any objections to the above conditions
3. Child Protection
Virtuoso Dance Company aims to provide a happy and safe environment where children can learn to dance.
Virtuoso Dance Company believes children have the right to be safe and secure and free from threat, regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality or beliefs.
Virtuoso Dance Company will act with integrity, treating children with respect, listening to their concerns and acting upon them.
Virtuoso Dance Company’s Code of Conduct commitment to Students and Parents will ensure that students will receive professional tuition from a qualified teacher with appropriate facilities following safe practice.
Occasionally, Teachers may be required to correct or adjust alignment of a student such as an arm, back or foot.
During Acrobatic classes, teachers will be required to touch your child in regards to spotting, weight transfer and technical support.
Virtuoso Dance Company will adhere to the following Rules and Guidelines with regards to Photography and Filming:
1. Images of Children posted on www.virtuosodancecompany.com , https://www.facebook.com/VirtuosoDanceCompany/ and https://www.instagram.com/virtuosodancecompany/will be identified by their first name only.
2. To reduce the risk of inappropriate use of images only images deemed suitable will be used.
3. Anyone with any complaints about images posted on the website can speak to the Virtuoso Dance Company child protection officer, Hayley Gentry, and the images will be removed.
4. Anyone concerned about inappropriate use of images can report the matter to the Virtuoso Dance Company child protection officer and procedures will be followed to report and rectify theM
5. The Expectations for parents or spectators who wish to take photographs or film at an event are to avoid inappropriate or intrusive photography. Any child or parent who has concerns regarding inappropriate or intrusive photography must report their concerns to the Virtuoso Dance Company child protection officer who will act in the same manner as they would with any other child protection concern.
Any person teaching for Virtuoso Dance Company will be in receipt of a Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) disclosure.
Virtuoso Dance Company has procedures in place to help any child who appears to be at risk or appears to be the victim of abuse. We will provide help and support if any child tells us they are affected by these issues.
Virtuoso Dance Company’s principal Hayley Gentry is specifically responsible for children and child protection. She is the Virtuoso Dance Company Child Protection Officer and can be contacted on 07305361846.
Virtuoso Dance Company has a child protection policy as we are taking the initiative in making our organisation as safe as possible for children. In writing the policy we used STOPCHECK an NSPCC guide for organisations to safeguard children and the procedures we will follow are as laid down within these guidelines.
If it is deemed necessary to contact authorities we will seek advice and guidance from the “West Sussex Safeguarding Children Board” details on how to refer children and where to get guidance is on the website: http://www.westsussexscb.org.uk/
4) Health and Safety
Virtuoso Dance Company in conjunction with Rustington Parish Council and 5th Littlehampton Sea Scouts are committed to the Health and Safety for everyone involved in the school.
5th Littlehampton Sea Scouts, For Monday and Thursday’s venue and Rustington Parish Council for Saturdays venue, are responsible for the buildings maintenance, maintenance of safety appliances such as fire extinguishers, electrical safety, maintenance of toilet and kitchen areas, maintenance of heating systems and general cleaning of the facilities.
While the above responsibilities for risk assessments lie with Rustington Parish Council and the 5th Littlehampton Sea Scouts, anyone who has concerns about the safety of the building, or is aware of risk is to report it to the Virtuoso Dance Company Principal who will then inform the relevant authority at either Hall.
Virtuoso Dance Company electrical equipment will undergo Portable Appliance Testing (PAT) to conform to its responsibility for electrical safety under the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 (EAWR).
Fire procedures are prominently displayed within the building and all teachers are aware of what action to take in the event of a fire.
In the case of an accident causing injury, first aid boxes with basic supplies are available, for more serious injuries, dependant on the extent of injury, professional medical assistance will be requested either by calling the emergency services or by escorting the injured individual to a place where they can receive treatment. In all cases parents will be informed, in the case of minor injuries at the end of class, when professional medical assistance is required they will be informed immediately.
All accidents will be recorded and logged.
Virtuoso Dance Company will only allow performances to take place where Risk Assessments have been carried out on the venues and the facilities are deemed suitable to engage in performance.
Virtuoso Dance Company will only use qualified personnel and engage in safe practice.
The Principal of Virtuoso Dance Company, Hayley Gentry, has Public Liability Insurance.
General Data Protection Regulation Policy Statement
GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation and replaces the previous Data Protection
Directives that were in place. It was approved by the EU Parliament in 2016 and comes into effect on 25th May 2018.
GDPR states that personal data should be ‘processed fairly & lawfully’ and ‘collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes’ and that individuals data is not processed without their knowledge and are only processed with their ‘explicit’ consent. GDPR covers personal data relating to individuals. Virtuoso Dance Company is committed to protecting the rights and freedoms of individuals with respect to the processing of children's, parents, visitors and staff personal data.
The Data Protection Act gives individuals the right to know what information is held about them. It provides a framework to ensure that personal information is handled properly.
It is not deemed necessary for Virtuoso Dance Company to register with the ICO (Information Commissioners Office)
GDPR includes 7 rights for individuals
1) The right to be informed
Virtuoso Dance Company needs to know children’s’ full names, addresses and date of birth for chaperone licence purposes. We are requested to provide this data to West Sussex County Council & other performing council areas; this information is sent to the Local Authority via a secure electronic file transfer system.
We are required to collect certain details of visitors to our School. We need to know visitors names, telephone numbers, and where appropriate, company name. This is in respect of our Health and Safety and Safeguarding Policies.
Virtuoso use the following suppliers are their privacy policies can be found at the following;
Class Manager – invoice and online registration software – https://classmanager.com/privacy/
West Sussex County Council – https://www.westsussex.gov.uk/privacy-policy/
DropBox - https://www.dropbox.com/privacy
GoDaddy Email - https://uk.godaddy.com/Agreements/Privacy.aspx
Google email – Gmail - https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US
Co Cardless - online payments - https://gocardless.com/downloads/legal/privacy-policy-v0417-1.pdf
Squarespace - website - Privacy Policy — Squarespace
If Virtuoso Dance Company was to employ, we would be required to hold data on its Teachers; names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, date of birth, National Insurance numbers, photographic ID such as passport and driver’s license, bank details. This information is also required for Disclosure and Barring Service checks (DBS) and proof of eligibility to work in the UK. This information would be sent via a secure file transfer system to Capita for the processing of DBS checks. DBS Numbers and date of issue are also held on a central staffing record.
Virtuoso Dance Company does not use Cookies on its website to collect data for Google Analytics.
2) The right of access
At any point an individual can make a request relating to their data and Virtuoso Dance Company will need to provide a response (within 1 month). Virtuoso Dance Company can refuse a request, if we have a lawful obligation to retain data but we will inform the individual of the reasons for the rejection. The individual will have the right to complain to the ICO if they are not happy with the decision.
3) The right to erasure
You have the right to request the deletion of your data where there is no compelling reason for its continued use. However, Virtuoso Dance Company has a legal duty to keep children’s and parents details for a reasonable time*, Virtuoso Dance Company retain these records for 3 years after leaving pre-school, children's accident and injury records for 19 years (or until the child reaches 21 years), and 22 years (or until the child reaches 24 years) for Child Protection records. Staff records must be kept for 6 years after the member of leaves employment, before they can be erased. This data is archived securely in a locked filing cabinet and shredded after the legal retention period.
4) The right to restrict processing
Parents, visitors and staff can object to Virtuoso Dance Company processing their data. This means that records can be stored but must not, other than for legal requirements such as Chaperone licenses, be used in any way, for example reports or for communications.
5) The right to data portability
Virtuoso Dance Company requires data to be transferred from one IT system to another; such as from Virtuoso Dance Company to the Local Authority, for performance BOPA licences, and dance Associations for examinations. These recipients use secure file transfer systems and have their own policies and procedures in place in relation to GDPR.
6) The right to object
Parents, visitors and staff can object to their data being used for certain activities like marketing or research.
7) The right not to be subject to automated decision-making including profiling.
Automated decisions and profiling are used for marketing based organisations. Virtuoso Dance Company does not use personal data for such purposes.
Storage and use of personal information
All paper copies of children's and staff records are kept in a locked filing cabinet. Members of staff can have access to these files but information taken from the files about individual children is confidential and apart from archiving, these records remain on site at all times. These records are shredded after the retention period.
Information about individual children is used in certain documents, such as, a weekly register, medication forms, referrals to external agencies and disclosure forms. These documents include data such as children's names, date of birth and sometimes address. These records are shredded after the relevant retention period.
Hard copies of registers and emergency contacts are carried by authorised staff members. They are locked away while not in use. When they are no longer in use or out-dated, they are destroyed thoroughly.
Virtuoso Dance Company collects a large amount of personal data every year including; names and addresses of those on the waiting list. These records are shredded/deleted if the child does not attend or added to the child’s file and stored appropriately.
When someone submits an email either through the company website, Instagram or facebook page, the email will only be kept for as long as necessary and deleted if the student chooses not to enrol
Our standard retention policy (without the data subject’s right to access, rectification and erasure etc.) is THREE YEARS post final attendance. Exceptions to our retention policy:
- Financial records are kept for 6 years due to legal obligation
- First Aid records are kept for 21 years due to legal obligation
- Child Safeguarding records are kept indefinitely on a case-by-case basis, the minimum these will stored for is 6 years due to legal obligation
- Bank details are deleted after the action concerning them is complete
- Unsolicited enquiries that do not turn into bookings with current classes are deleted after they have been dealt with
Email and messenger conversations may only be kept if there may be a legal requirement for it – for example permission for their child to walk home alone, a payment agreement for settling fees, concern for a child’s welfare etc. this information may be shared if required for legal reasons such as with the police, social services, solicitor.
Virtuoso Dance Company stores personal data held visually in photographs or video clips or as sound recordings on an encrypted and password protected phone/laptop/iPad and/or memory stick. No full names are stored with images in photo albums, displays, on the website or on Virtuoso Dance Company’s social media sites.
Access to all Office computers is password protected. Any portable data storage used to store personal data, e.g. USB memory stick, are password protected and/or stored in a locked filing cabinet.
GDPR means that Virtuoso Dance Company must;
* Manage and process personal data properly
* Protect the individual’s rights to privacy
* Provide an individual with access to all personal information held on them
GDPR Photographic Consent For Use of Photographs & Digital Images
Dear Parent,
The use of photographs & digital/video images plays an important part in our modern society. At Virtuoso Dance Company, there may be times when photos or digital images are used for promotional purposes on the official school website or on our social media pages.
With smartphones, it is also becoming a wonderful tool for teaching and learning, where pupils and members of staff may use digital technology to record evidence of dance routines and exercises as a teaching and learning aid. These digital/video images may then be used to rehearse the dance movements at home with the dancer’s consent.
We believe that celebrating the achievement of children within the dance school is an important part of their learning experience and personal development. Taking photographs/videos of pupils to celebrate individual and group successes is a valuable way of building a strong school community.
The children work incredibly hard to achieve their successes and at VDC, we would like to begin to celebrate this more through our website and on our social media Facebook and, Instagram pages, in the official programme for the show and very occasionally in the public media.
Virtuoso Dance Company will comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), We are acutely aware of the importance of e-safety in today’s society and children’s full names will never be published externally with their photographs but we may publish first name only internally (for example, to celebrate an achievement in our private closed FB group.)
N.B. Parents/carers are welcome to take videos and digital images of their children at watching days for their own personal use. To respect everyone’s privacy and in some cases protection, these images should not be published/made publicly available on social networking sites, nor should parents/carers comment on any activities involving other pupils in the digital/video images.
By signing the photo and Video check box on registration, you are providing consent for Virtuoso Dance Company to use both hard-copy and digital images (including video) in the below:
all school publications, the official school Website, and on school social media pages
in newspapers as approved by the school
the taking of professional photo and video at our dance school show and at any other public performance that we may be participating in, ie school fates.
Please do speak to the teacher if you have any concerns
This Policy was reviewed April 2026 Signed on behalf of Virtuoso Dance Company
Hayley Gentry
Principle Virtuoso Dance Company
Policy review date: February 2028