IPDA Coronavirus Health Policy

Effective July 13th, 2020.

At Irish Pole Dance Academy we take all staff and student’s health and wellbeing seriously and have taken action to inform and advise our members of updated guidelines to the current health situation. All information below has been taken from our current Public Health Advice with HSE, Government of Ireland (Rialtas na hEireann) and Sport Eireann guidelines. Please read carefully and fully understand the information below.

Signs and Symptoms:
It can take up to 14 days for symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) to appear. They can be similar to the symptoms of cold and flu. You may display one, some or all of these symptoms.

Common symptoms of coronavirus include:
• Cough: This can be any kind of cough, usually dry but not always
• Fever: High temperature over 38 degrees Celsius
• Breathing Difficulties: Shortness of Breath or Breathing Difficulties
• Loss or Change to your sense of Smell and Taste: This means you’ve noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal.

Generally, these infections can cause more severe symptoms in people with weakened immune systems, older people, and those with long-term conditions like diabetes, cancer and chronic lung disease.

If you have travelled from over seas:
People who have travelled abroad recently or will be travelling abroad while signed up to classes must inform Irish Pole Dance Academy in advance (not when you come to class, you can call and email to let us know beforehand) as that could determine whether you need to quarantine for 2 weeks, you may have to avoid coming to classes for 2 weeks as a result.

Irish Pole Dance Academy classes and services will be different than before the lockdown in the following ways:

• There will be a maximum of 6 members per class (one person per pole).
• We can also offer a very limited amount of private training (by appointment only).
• We will continue to offer our amazing and tried-and-tested online classes as well as our pre-recorded lessons on Patreon to offer you as much training as possible and to accommodate for the reduced number of real-life classes. We also want to keep these online classes available if you prefer not to attend the studio after we reopen.
• Our classes will have no physical contact and will have social distancing of at least 2 meters. For this reason, you will be split into two groups at your poles to ensure maximum safety, ie: alternating turns to ensure that the 2 meter distance is not compromised.
• Of course, we have adapted our curriculum in order to offer you the safest possible lessons with the same level of fun without physical spotting. All classes will have a degree of mixed levels and we will be offering highly individualized teaching given that we will have one person per pole. We’re very excited as this will allow for amazing training that’s personal to you after such a long break!
• All memberships will reactivate on July 13th. All of your old, frozen class credits have already been extended by 4 months to allow for the time that we were closed (no payments were taken during that time).
• As we are working at an extremely reduced capacity, we are able to offer all members 1 physical class at the studio per week, which MUST be pre-booked using TeamUp. If your membership includes 2, 3 or unlimited classes per week, you may use your credits to take our online classes. 
• As our class sizes are extremely limited and in order to ensure fairness, we will temporarily change the cancellation deadline for our real-life classes to 24 hours prior to the class start time. This will only be in place until restrictions are lifted. We hope you understand this. Our cancellation deadline for our online classes will remain at 4 hours prior to the class start time.
• As class sizes are extremely limited, please do not panic if you cannot get a spot in your preferred time slot. We are providing more than enough classes, including weekends, to ensure that every member has access to a minimum of one real-life class at the studio per week. We will also be monitoring attendance to ensure that our members are being fair to one another and to ensure that no one abuses our good-will system. (Remember our core values poster in the studio: ‘Please be sound to one another!’)
• As always, our schedule of real-life and online classes is subject to change and we may add more classes or remove classes based on attendance. 
• We do not know when restrictions will be lifted or when we will be allowed to revert back to our old system of classes. Thanks for your patience and understanding on this and please know that we are doing everything possible to maintain a high-quality service and a fair system for our members and our staff.

When Irish Pole Dance Academy reopens the following points must be adhered to by both staff and clients:

Before class:

• You must bring your own cleaning cloth and yoga mat for use during the class, until further notice.
• Masks: We request that all members wear masks when coming to the studio. Please wear your mask in the waiting area, on the stairs, upstairs and in the toilets. You may remove your mask during class if it causes issues. If you forget to bring a mask, we will be providing eco-friendly reusable masks that you can keep forever at just €3 per mask. We will not be providing single-use masks as these are unfriendly to the environment and we want to minimize waste where possible. We also have hand sanitizer available for purchase at €4.60 per 50ml bottle.
• When arriving, please always keep the minimum 2-meter distance in the waiting area, on the stairs and upstairs in the building!
• Normal hygiene habits such as coughing / sneezing into your elbow still apply while you are in the studio and in the building.
• Please appear no more than 10 minutes before your class starts. Unfortunately, we cannot grant you admission to the building earlier than 10 minutes before your class starts. Please wait in the ‘front yard’ space (through the door on the left as soon as you enter the building) and maintain social distancing.
• Please arrive as prepared as possible: Wear your shorts and pole gear underneath warm layers so that you don’t need to spend ages changing and potentially causing congestion in the building.
• Do not bring anything with you to the studio that you don’t need. Remember, you NEED to bring your own yoga mat and cleaning towel until further notice.
• Please understand that we can no longer accommodate late arrivals due to compliance with these requirements. So please make every effort to arrive on time.
• It may happen that the studio door is locked between the classes. Please wait patiently and we will come get you!
• Unfortunately you are no longer allowed to use the communal spaces upstairs in DLight Studios. The couches, armchairs and kitchen areas cannot be used until the pandemic is over. Please bring your own drinks so that you do not have to use the kitchen.

During class:

• Please enter the studio one after the other, keeping the 2-meter distance.
• Take off your shoes and disinfect your hands with our hand sanitizer before entering the studio.
• Sign our Covid-19 Disclaimer Form.
• Inside the studio, please note our signs posted for your walking routes and access to the poles.
• The first person will take the pole at the end of the room beside the instructor pole, the next person will take the next furthest pole and so on, until the last person takes the pole nearest the door.
• Anyone who needs to leave promptly at the end of class will be required to take the pole nearest to the instructor as we will be using a ‘first in, first out’ policy’.
• You will have a cleaning bottle, blue paper towels to clean your pole at the end of class, compostable gloves and a bin in each pole ‘station’ for you to use during class.
• Your instructor will be using an x-stage to demonstrate moves and will not touch your pole.
• We have adapted our curriculum so that spotting will not be necessary, however spotting will only be done if the risk of safety is higher than the risk of Covid 19. This is to save a student from falling or injury.
• Only place your smart phones and devices for filming on the black wall (NOT on the mirrors)! If requested, you can film your friends with your own device and then share the videos; please do not handle each other’s devices.

After class:

• We require all students to do the following at the end of class:
  • Use hand sanitizer
  • Wear the gloves provided
  • Thoroughly clean the pole using the blue paper towels
  • Spray down the floor area surrounding their pole
  • Bin your gloves and blue paper towel
  • Take your belongings
  • Leave the studio immediately using the pathway closest to the mirror
• This will happen one pole at a time and in the following: order of the pole at the bottom of the room (closest to the instructor), the next adjacent pole and so on, finishing with the pole nearest to the door. We cannot have everyone leave at the same time to avoid queues and overcrowding. 
• We are very happy if you continue to maintain your chats and bants with each other outside in front of the studio building as long as social distancing is maintained, or you can exchange social media details, in order to remain social and keep up our community vibe in these weird times.

All students attending class confirm that they understand that they the following points:

• If you are displaying any of the symptoms of Covid-19 please inform us right away and DO NOT come to the studio.
• If you have tested positive for Covid-19 within the last 14 days please inform us right away and DO NOT come to the studio.
• If you have been in contact with anyone who has symptoms of Covid-19 or has been diagnosed with Covid-19 within the last 14 days please inform us right away and DO NOT come to the studio.
• If you have travelled outside of Ireland (excluding Northern Ireland) within the last 14 days, DO NOT come to the studio.
• You should only attend the studio if you are feeling physically well and observing the hygiene standards as set out above.

Covid-19 Outbreak Proceedure:

Stage 1 – Notification

If you develop symptoms within a 14 day period of being present at the studio, or if you learn that you have been in contact with anyone who has later tested positive for the virus, we ask you to call Santina immediately on 083 187 3602 or info@irishpoledanceacademy.com. Your name and personal details will be kept private at all times, as per our data protection policy.

Stage 2 – Track & Trace

If a student or instructor has notified that they have developed symptoms or been in direct contact with someone who has tested positive for covid-19, you will be notified as soon as possible and advised to isolate for 14 days. We will be using the contact details provided by you on your Team Up account; please ensure that your details are up to date.

Stage 3 – Cleaning & Closing

If we believe that there have been cases of covid-19 at the studio, we will close for a minimum of 1 day to allow our team to conduct a thorough deep clean of the premises. All students will be notified of a closure as soon as possible, using the contact details provided by you on your Team Up account. Credits from any classes cancelled due to a studio closure will be returned to your account.

Stage 4 – Recording

Any otubreaks will be recorded in full in the studio incident report book.

Stage 5 – Reopening

Once the above stages have been completed, the studio will reopen. Students will be notified of the reopening date.

We understand these are strange times, and that this is a new way of doing things at IPDA, but we have to ensure that we are doing things safely under the circumstances until further notice. If you are unhappy with any of these policies, please wait until restrictions are lifted further and contact us on info@irishpoledanceacademy.com.

We appreciate you always being there for us, so we can always be there for you.

Many thanks,

Arlene and the IPDA Team x