be careful re booking up paid for lessons in school

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mum23*
Posts: 417
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:28 pm

be careful re booking up paid for lessons in school

Post by mum23* »

This might be useful for those of you heading off in September. Don't rush in to signing up for paid for lessons within school, they are not always great and you end up having to cancel risking annoying people. The instrument ones are fine, usually well organised and reliable but things like singing etc think twice and find out other people's experience of them first. It might be better to do these outside of school time - you know what you are paying for and whether lessons have taken place.
Snowdrops
Posts: 4667
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2007 5:20 pm

Re: be careful re booking up paid for lessons in school

Post by Snowdrops »

From our experience of paid for music lessons at primary school, I wouldn't be in too much of a rush there either!

DD had a dreadful teacher, and we put up with it for two (or maybe even three :shock: ) years, before realising how rubbish she was. I put my hands up and admit it was my own fault for not listening to dd when she kept telling me how horrible she was, but the lack of progress was only brought home to us when we moved dd to a private tutor. She shot through the levels in no time, and I now wish I'd used the private tutor all these years instead of wasting so much time :cry: :cry:

The obvious thing (well, not even obvious really, all the other parents were doing it too :roll: ) is check the teacher/tutor out. Take on board what the pupils are saying and try to have, maybe half a dozen lessons (a half-term) - but don't commit yourself to longer until you're absolutely sure the teacher is a good one!
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mum23*
Posts: 417
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:28 pm

Re: be careful re booking up paid for lessons in school

Post by mum23* »

I agree Snowdrops, it is easy to just blithely trust the school has someone good doing these sessions and as parents we get all enthusiastic about our DC's taking up an activity/interest. The not so good teacher can a. put children off for good or b. be a waste of money esp in these harder times or both! we have had experience of both and I have to say very good experiences too. I posted because I have just had an awkward incident involving cancelling lessons I didn't think that good.
KB
Posts: 3030
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:28 pm

Re: be careful re booking up paid for lessons in school

Post by KB »

Also be aware that having lessons in school usually means missing lesson time which can add to the stress in having to catch up missed work & deal with stroppy class teachers who dont like pupils going out of lessons.
Do check how long they are getting - sometimes it is only 15 mins which isnt long enough to put some instruments together & warm up before they need tostart dismantling!
mum23*
Posts: 417
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:28 pm

Re: be careful re booking up paid for lessons in school

Post by mum23* »

Yes and if teacher misses the lesson and tries to make it up the following week that is an ANOTHER lesson disrupted and more work to catch up on, more possible stroppy teachers etc So imagine how annoying it might be if this happens several times in a term and lessons start having to be rolled over to following term and you lose track of how many lessons have actually been had or not had. Maybe you can guess some of why I have posted about this!!! :roll:
scary mum
Posts: 8841
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:45 pm

Re: be careful re booking up paid for lessons in school

Post by scary mum »

Hear hear. DS played an instrument for two years at primary school without ever learning anything at all. Not even how to tune it! DD played for a term and missed mental arithmetic EVERY week. I put a stop to it when I realized they were missing the same thing every week & that it was maths which was her weak point.
scary mum
push-pull-mum
Posts: 737
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:52 pm

Re: be careful re booking up paid for lessons in school

Post by push-pull-mum »

Oh no! More 'music lessons at primary school' horror stories! My kids must be leading charmed lives as we have never has any trouble with any of the 3 different music teachers we've employed over the years. The kids make average progress (a grade a year?) and have they never been aware of any conflict with their class teachers or their schoolwork. I did talk to music teacher 3 about possible music/academic clash when some missed lessons had to be made up after the teacher was ill. She told me, in confidence, that she had been warned which children she was allowed to take out of academic subjects and which ones had to be taught during 'soft' subjects or playtime.
"And when are you allowed to take DD?" ask I.
"Oh, the teacher's happy for me to take her out of class for as long as I like - whenever I like. Oh dear - I'm sure she didn't mean it like that..."
Hmm...

Re tuning - I think many teachers discourage young children from tuning their own instruments - in case they break them. ABRSM do not require candidates to tune their own violins until Grade 5 (DD's next grade - so she's finally having to 'do it herself' - decent strings cost £32 a set so it was an expensive learning curve.)
KS10
Posts: 2516
Joined: Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:39 am

Re: be careful re booking up paid for lessons in school

Post by KS10 »

It must be difficult for music teachers to get much done in the time that they have (although I did think that 3 years before doing Grade 1 was a bit slow). DS said that it would take 10 mins at least to get started and having 4 students of varying ability in the group slowed things further. I guess, you get what you pay for. Having said that, he enjoyed his lessons because of the teacher, the group gelled well and he loved being a part of the school orchestra. So money well spent in our case.
Waiting_For_Godot
Posts: 1446
Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:57 pm

Re: be careful re booking up paid for lessons in school

Post by Waiting_For_Godot »

I would generally avoid music lessons at school too but not because they are not good but because children are taken out of academic lessons. I also find it irritating having to go through the Director of Music in order to speak to the instrumental tutor. Every DoM is different, some wonderful and some plain difficult! Then there is the problem of practice stopping for long independent school holidays, whereas a private tutor may continue lessons during these periods. In saying that, we have no choice because of the instruments that DS plays. They would be too pricey to buy or rent as the ones at DS school are very good quality.

TBH, it depends what you want out of an activity. If DC's were going to end up in afterschool care then better to have them in an activity but if you want them to be the next Nureyev then school ballet classes are not going to cut the mustard!
kentsussexborder
Posts: 247
Joined: Mon Sep 21, 2009 8:01 pm

Re: be careful re booking up paid for lessons in school

Post by kentsussexborder »

I'm going to add my perspective from the "other" side, having worked as a peripatetic teacher and now in private practice.

Yes, there are poor teachers, as there are people in every profession who do not work to expectations. But there are also some fabulous teachers. And, as a peri, working in schools you are often at conflict with what the school expects, what the parents expect, and what the funding will pay for. You rarely get direct contact with the parents - despite providing written reports each term I had little feedback, either positive or negative, even when asking for parents to call to discuss progress.

You frequently have to teach in groups with widely differing abilities which is difficult at the best of times but even worse when the time you are allotted is small compared to private lessons - 15-20 minutes for a class of 4 compared to 30-40 minutes for one private student. Within this time you have to prepare for setting up and packing away and if, as often happens, the child is late being released from lessons, actual teaching time is reduced even further. And then, of course, there are times when the child just forgets to turn up, or has left their instrument or music at home, or school activities have been organised which the child can't miss, or the school has arranged a trip away and neglected to tell you. It is just as frustrating for the teacher as for the parent!

Don't forget too, that many peri teachers are employed through county music organisations, so what the parent pays in fees is considerably less than what the teacher gets paid.
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