Cockburn music school singing praises as students return after re-opening

A COCKBURN Central music school temporarily forced to close and adapt to the new business environment cannot wait to welcome students back.

After six weeks of uncertainty, Castlerock Music Academy are ecstatic to re-open their doors to the public and resume face-to-face lessons.

They were one of many local businesses breathing a sigh of relief after the state government relaxed COVID-19 restrictions over the weekend.

Castlerock’s Head of Education Tzudy Weir, who co-founded the business with her husband Paul, said while the coronavirus arrived at the worst possible time for them, they had strived to remain positive throughout the past month-and-a-half.

Despite a number of issues conspiring against them, the store has emerged triumphant and Mrs Weir humbly said they are lucky to be able to open when others are in far worse situations.

When the coronavirus hit and restrictions enforced, they had just opened up their third store in Willetton, to go with their Cockburn Central and Rockingham locations.

“We signed a five-year lease in Willetton. It was open for two days and then shut,” Mrs Weir said.

“We were basically wondering how we were going to not lose everything, so we spent a lot of money getting our online teaching up and running.”

The next few weeks proved to be a mixed bag, with their new online lessons helping them reach new audiences, but they also lost a lot of students who temporarily halted their lessons.

Mr Weir estimated they had lost around 100 students and with their revenue slashed, were losing $3500 a week on average.

It could have been worse had it not been for the landlord at their new Willetton store, who graciously agreed to waive rental fees until the storm had passed.

“She initially said ‘I’ll give you 50 per cent off the rent’ which was great,” Mrs Weir said.

“Then she emailed us and said ‘look, I’ve been thinking about it, you guys have got no income, you don’t have to pay anything until this is all over.’”

With the academy now cleared to re-open, the pair were overjoyed and could not wait to see their students return – with Mrs Weir revealing almost two-thirds of those who had left had reached out, keen to resume face-to-face lessons.

She said they could not wait to welcome back their previous clients in-store, albeit with social distancing regulations in place.

“We’ve gained students online and that is continuing now so hopefully in three months we should be back to where we were,” Mrs Weir said.