Taxidermy Schools; Policies

Attendance
We cannot stress enough, the vital importance of Regular Attendance! Even one missed day can throw you way behind the rest of the class. We realize that unforeseen circumstances can arise however, and we will do our best to help you catch up if you do need to miss a day.

Depending upon the timing though, two or more missed days can put you so far behind that it may be too difficult to help you to get caught up. Every situation is different however, and we will consider each one on an individual basis. In the event you need to miss too many days to catch up, we may advise that you finish your training at the next session which has an available opening. An available opening in this circumstance, is defined as an opening that is still available just two weeks prior to the start of that particular class. The reason for this policy, is that our goal is to fill each class with full paying students, not students who have already paid for a previous class.

For example; If you come to your regularly scheduled class, finish two weeks of the course, then find that circumstances cause you to miss a week, you will probably want to come back another time to finish the course. If we immediately reserve a spot in the next course for you, that would prevent us from having a full paying student in that spot. In other words, you would have taken an opening in the original course, as well as in the next course, while only paying for one of those courses.

To clarify again, we will allow you to finish your studies in another course if there are only two weeks left before it starts and we still have not filled every opening. This may happen with the very next scheduled course, or it may not happen until the 2nd or 3rd scheduled course.

If you need to discontinue our course without making plans to finish, our regular refund policy will apply. (See Tuition Page)

Finally, we would like to say that in over 20 years of teaching, only two students have ever found it necessary to discontinue their training.

Grading & Evaluations:

We do not implement a standard grading system. We simply use an official competition score sheet (from the National Taxidermy Association) as a guide throughout the entire mounting process. This helps you to pay attention to all the important details that need to be completed. We do not implement official progress records, as your finished mounts speak for themselves!

We have never implemented a policy for probation, suspension, or dismissal for unsatisfactory progress, as we have never had a student in over 20 years who could not produce satisfactory work. In fact, the huge majority of our students produce work that is far above average!

Conduct:

As part of our orientation discussion on the first day of class, we simply ask that you conduct yourselves with an attitude of mutual respect, and try to curb tendencies of excessive foul language. Our students are mature adults who range from 18, up to retirement age and we have been very fortunate regarding student conduct. Although there is always an atmosphere of mutual camaraderie in our classes, we reserve the right to take disciplinary action, including warnings, suspension, or dismissal, should the need arise.

Credit for Previous Training:

If you come to our six week course with previous experience or training, you are still required to complete all of the projects listed on our Course Descriptions page. More often than not, experienced students decide to replace many of their previous techniques with the efficient procedures we teach in our course.

If you are happy with your techniques, and wish to tailor your education just to the areas you feel you need help in, it would be better for you to consider our one-on-one training. That way we will set up your course content according to what you want to learn. More information on the one-on-one training is on our Courses page.