Continuity of teaching, VERY long holiday break Options

[pitcher54]

Yesterday afternoon I was giving a piano lesson in my local Primary School when the violin peri popped her head round the door to tell me she was finished for this year and would see me in September.

There are still four weeks to go before the end of this term and, as she does not resume teaching until the second week of the autumn term, her students will not see her now for eleven weeks.

Is this common practice?

[Czerny]

Yesterday afternoon I was giving a piano lesson in my local Primary School when the violin peri popped her head round the door to tell me she was finished for this year and would see me in September.

There are still four weeks to go before the end of this term and, as she does not resume teaching until the second week of the autumn term, her students will not see her now for eleven weeks.

Is this common practice?

Yes. Surely you all teach the same number of lessons, so your break must be roughly the same length as hers? Or are you all freelance and completely free to decide how many weeks you teach per term?

[porilo]

I think it's fairly normal. I have another 2 weeks to go and finish on 6th July. Then I return on 17th September. All the music teachers, like myself, do a 10-week term at school, so they tend to finish a couple of weeks before the school officially finishes, and go back a couple of weeks after school restarts.

[Alicia Ocean]

Perfectly normal for peris to stop after the exams and start again next term.

[Susie]

We do 30 weeks a year. So some of mine have finished already, some have another 2 or 3 weeks to go.

It's hard to get the balance right, because there are outings that pop up at the last moment and may mean you miss a lesson one week, so you have to make an allowance for missed weeks. If you don't happen to miss any weeks, then you finish early.

[BerkshireMum]

As a parent, I used to dread this long break when the children were at an early stage with their instruments. There was never enough repertoire to keep them going over an 8 to 10 week gap, and as they enjoyed playing they would get into all sorts of bad habits before the next lesson. The first half-term back was spent in eliminating these. It's really bad for pre-grade 5 children, unless they are learning an instrument a parent plays.

[HelenVJ]

30 lessons in a year isn't much, is it? With half hour lessons, that amounts to 15 hours of tuition throughout the year - and that's without absence through sickness, school trips, exams, play rehearsals and so on. I aim to give my home students a mimimum of 40 lessons a year, which still gives 12 weeks for holidays - quite enough for all of us! If a lesson needs to be rearranged within the same week because of unavoidable clashes, then we make every effort to do so. The same flexibility often just isn't possible in a school situation - so I do think the school-based students don't get such a good deal.

[Seer_Green]

Yes, this is very common; some peris round here have already finished. As a private teacher, I do a minimum of 40 lessons per year, plus an optional five over the summer holidays - this seems to suit most people.

Round here, lessons in school are as if not more expensive than private lessons - I don't think a lot of people realise this, and in many cases, apart from the obvious convenience factor, those having lessons in schools are getting a pretty poor deal, not least because most are subjected to around a 10 week gap over the summer.

[Cyrilla]

This isn't quite what you were asking, but related - at Junior Guildhall we have three 10-week terms, so my students have 30 x 40 minute lessons in a year - it isn't much!

This year our last week is 30th June and we don't start back until 15th September. In my experience, it doesn't take long to get everyone back to where they were in June!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Mum2two]

In my local area the Peris also finish up around now. My sons last lesson until September will be today.

This is because next week the teachers do a 'recital' week where they travel around schools as an ensemble in order to drum up interest in new pupils next term, and in July our county music services has all it's summer schools in which their pupils can take part in a solid week of music tuition/concerts (in all that one week works out to as much teaching/experience as the whole year!).

It's something we have gotten used to over time.

[Alison]

Some peris would jump at the opportunity of giving a few private lessons over the summer if asked, but it depends on their contract whether they are allowed to do this or not. I work freelance and always give pupils the option of doing this, but few take me up on it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
Some pupils (usually the bright ones) cope well with the long break, but with others it's back to square one with note-reading, etc. Very frustrating.

[sbhoa]

As a parent, I used to dread this long break when the children were at an early stage with their instruments. There was never enough repertoire to keep them going over an 8 to 10 week gap, and as they enjoyed playing they would get into all sorts of bad habits before the next lesson. The first half-term back was spent in eliminating these. It's really bad for pre-grade 5 children, unless they are learning an instrument a parent plays.

I think that there's far more difficulty with those who only play during term time.

[Louise H]

I finish school this term on 12th July - later than usual as I had to change my teaching day to Thursday and school was closed for polling day and instrumental lessons were stopped during SATS week so my pupils had a very stop/start first half the term and the second half is 5 weeks consecutive weeks. I had to start a week teaching in the first week of term after Easter and teach a week later in July in order to fit in the 10 lessons. This actually worked better for the pupils in some ways because although they have had some gaps it has meant they have had teacher input over more time this term.

Generally I will make up lessons if they have been missed for school trips or if they haven't been in. Sometimes I will give a pupil and extra 5 minutes where another pupil arrives late or something like this. If there are a few pupils who missed out during the term, I will often go in one extra week to teach an extra lesson. This term there is absolutely no space at all to make up time so a couple who have missed lessons because of school trips will get a refund - I can't claim for a missed lesson in this case if I've known about the trip in advance - ie a week or more.

Most of my private pupils will have lessons up to 19th July and I'll start again on 3rd September or at least in that week. Not everyone will start that week but some will and I'll get going properly in the second week of term. Some will play more than others during the holiday but lots of them will be away for quite long periods - family holiday, staying with grandparents where there's no instrument for example.

[Bagpuss]

I officially finish in school on 4th July. In schools I am tied to do a minimum of 30 weeks a year so most of mine end up with 32-33. That said, many opt to ONLY have 30. I offer lessons in the holidays to all although I am aiming to get 3 weeks off this year to clear my brain. The take-up on the holiday lesson offer is pretty poor really. I think out of about 60 pupes I maybe had about 8 last year.

Oh well. I am resigned to a summer of poverty but my brain needs to zen out.

Shattered-and-Stressed-Bag x

[linda.ff]

I haven't had a pupil recital since I expanded my practice at home, and indeed I never managed to find a plce to hold one. I now have several possibilities, but it's a bit late in the year to organise one.

However, it has given me the idea of deciding to hold one in late September or thereabouts, so that I can tell all of my kids the are playing in it whether they like it or not (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) and to choose a piece with them (which can always be changed later) so that they have all summer to polish it. That will at least give them some incentive to work through the summer!

I think home teachers have an advantage over peris - my normal half term is 6 weeks and I have six half terms in the year, so I reckon to give about 36 lessons in the year. Maybe I need an incentive to persuade some of them to come at least once during the long summer holidays (free ice-cream? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) )