Totting up how many lessons had been missed this year, I was rather startled to discover that in one academic year at the secondary school where I teach, 18 students had between them managed to miss 47 lessons.

Thats nearly 24 hours of wasted time, and upwards of ?650 of money wasted on me sitting around in the coffee room, twiddling my thumbs.

Needless to say, some of the worst offenders have either shuffled off or been given the boot, and I don't expect to lose as much time next year, as this was the first year for me with a completely unselected group who I hadn't yet got to know. Even so, that's a heck of a lot of time and money down the Swanee.

I'm instituting a "3 strikes and you're out" rule from next term for no-shows!

I get paid in my schools when they don't show, as the school bills the students and pays me by the hour. You haven't said if you have the same arrangement. Nothing worse than sitting around waiting for students. And it's only a few who do it. I do feel bad taking their parents' money when they constantly don't turn up. And seeing all that talent going to waste. Although one managed to pass grade four this year, and another got a merit at grade one. (Would have been a distinction at grade two had she bothered to come for lessons though, I haven't told her that.)

Perhaps you should tell her. I wish that my teachers had shown an interest in me when I was young.

I would have told her - I have told other students similar things. Gone through their exam results in detail and said what was good and what would have been better if they had put more effort in. Unfortunately she left the school and I am no longer teaching her.

A visible register can do wonders. Not a chart on the wall, just a regular tick-box chart. Get into the habit of positioning it somewhere convenient for you and therefore easily examined by the curious, reinforced by ticking pupils off on it as they enter the room. The less-regular attendees do start to notice the lines of '/' for the reliable ones, and of course the latter tend to be those who are more advanced and/or improving faster.

Many secondary school pupils really struggle to cope with schedules outside of those imposed by the school day. However, I don't feel it's right to blame them. They're stuck in institutions which almost without exception rely on the Victorian procedure of deafening bells announcing the change of shift lesson.

They're actively prevented from relying on the clocks they all carry in their pockets and which are synchronised to the second: "Miss, it's two minutes past!!" "Yes, but the bell hasn't rung yet". If they use the solution an adult would choose, of setting a reminder on their phone for their piano lesson, it'll be confiscated...

I'm paid, so no worries on that score, it's just the frustration of the loss of continuity for the pupils, and the boredom that get to me!

I think it comes down to individual motivation and interest really, whether they can be bothered to make the effort. I don't seem to have issues with pupils arriving late or missing lessons because staff won't let them go, it's just that they "forget". And mobiles with alarms seem to be allowed, as long as they are on silent, so that's not a problem either.

I have a very visible register and I regularly point out the gaps to the miscreants, but it doesn't seem to have any effect. If a pupil just isn't interested, no amount of nagging will persuade them.

Anyhow, I've now made a poster with the numbers on and I will show it to any who seem to need a reminder about the amount of money they are chucking away! I drafted a letter to the parents, but I've decided to sit on it and only send if the rot starts next term.

Those genuinely disinterested, sure, forget them.

However, some feel very intimidated by having to ask to leave a lesson. They have to interrupt everything to ask, breaking the normal routine, and then pack their stuff up and leave, while possibly overhearing snide comments from the less pleasant members of the class. 'Forget' is, in some cases, a euphemism for 'too scared'

How about a sign like we now get at the local surgery? Something along the lines of:

Last month X number of lessons were missed
This amounts to X number of wasted teaching hours which could have been offered to other pupils

SG, love it, much more elegantly worded than my effort



I like to think that I know my pupils well enough that I would have picked this up if it was actually the case. I remember the traumas of having to leave lessons myself...We have a rolling timetable so that they don't have to come out of the same lesson every week, and I specifically ask them if there are any lessons that they really don't want to miss, so I do give them every opportunity to make life easy for themselves. The PE department are notorious for making life difficult for pupils, so I avoid those lessons like the plague.

I'm just stunned at the amount of wasted time and money that can accrue in just a year. Imagine that multiplied over all the peri teachers in the school (and yes, the others are hanging around too...) I'm sending a copy of the register with reports at the end of the term, so that should lead to a few interesting conversations!

Sadly, it's not always so easy, because things which seem trivial to us, for example having to walk through a Year 9 class to get to the practice room, can be horrifying for the younger ones. What's worse is that they know it's irrational, so will make up any excuse other than the reality!


I know what you mean. PE is soooooo special, and it's absolutely impossible for pupils to miss part of a lesson and catch up with the hit-ball-with-stick exercise....of course, if they have to leave school half-an-hour early to get to their football tournament, everything else jumps to attention.


Only their own register, I hope? You could get in hot water if you actively share information about other pupils in this way...



These are typical in surgeries now, but I doubt they have any effect. We all know that 10-minute surgery slots are impossible, and the no-shows are the chance they have to catch up (while castigating the public). I suppose my life as a peri was similar at times...

Nah, I wouldn't be so daft (re register)!


Some of them were genuinely shocked when I showed them how many lessons they had missed.

It might be useful to say to the pupils to try to approach Mrs So and So on entry to the classroom to let her know that they will be going to a piano lesson part way through. Then it doesn't come as a complete surprise and frustration, the teacher may help them to remember to leave on time, the pupil will not be told to put their hand down as the teacher remembers and just gives the pupil the nod to leave. It makes it much less horrifying to have to ask and the teacher is generally less cross than when something is just sprung on them 10 seconds before it happens.

I missed a few lessons by genuinely forgetting, realising 20 minutes into a 1/2 hour lesson and not wanting to go over and face the wrath of the teacher who'd tell me off for my late arrival (if a pupil shows up late it's probably not worth getting cross or next time they may decide not to show up at all), etc. But other reasons did also come up - I forgot my music and didn't want to admit it so I didn't go. I was enjoying the lesson (yes, it happens!), the teacher was awful to me about leaving, I had not practiced and didn't fancy being nagged about it...

It's a hard balance to strike, when pupils turn up but are late, not carrying music and have done no practice you have to say something or it's not worth their while coming. But if you nag them when they turn up they decide next time it's better just not to turn up at all. You can't win!

I have put on so much weight due to people cancelling. There's a coffee takeaway across the road from the place i teach, and anytime i get a cancellation i end up going getting a coffee. Oh, and a big slice of cake too of course. They also do lovely organic chocolate that you can't seem to get anywhere else. I often get a cheese and onion toastie too. See the pattern here?

You are so lucky. I sit in a freezing cold practice room and do some guitar or piano practice.

Some children need more support. My son needs a number of strategies in place to help him remember when to get to a lesson and even with these strategies he can often forget. He gets very upset with himself when he remembers that he missed a lesson. My other child would never forget and, ironically, isn't as talented, has little interest and rarely practices.

I always found that the primary school 'in school' instrumental lessons were well supported by the school staff, and because the kids weren't wandering around school every hour to different lessons, they always remembered their music lesson. Either a TA, the class teacher, or even classmates would always be able to remind a child that they had a music lesson at a certain time if it seemed they had forgotten. I don't think either of my kids ever forgot to go to a music lesson when under the age of 11.

However, secondary school was a whole different kettle of fish. The music service was asked by the school to rotate lesson times so the child didn't miss parts of the same lesson each week. In theory great, in practice impossible for the child to remember their lesson time. We found cover teachers refusing to let my kids out of lessons, they'd get detentions for not doing homework that was set during part of the lesson that was missed, PE teachers refusing to let them leave lesson early(the playing field was 10 mins away from the music room), food tech lessons where they simply couldn't leave their work station mid recipe, and worst of all the rest of the class making jibes about child going off to a 'girly' music lesson. Then on top of that, they'd leave a lesson, and the instrumental teacher moaned at them for being late. Then on a couple of occasions they found music store locked (where child had left their instrument for safe keeping)and the school music teacher with the key had gone home. Then it was a game of hunt the caretaker. This meant the day they had the music lesson was the most stressful, dreaded day of the week.

This led to both my children wanting to quit during year 7. Fortunately, I saw sense and got them taught out of school hours, and both still happily continue with their instrument, but the secondary school missing lesson situation is often not due to the child, but due to the impossible circumstance they find themselves in.
It wouldn't surprise me, if a high percentage of those that drop out of local authority music lessons once they get to secondary school, do it, not because they've lost interest in the instrument, but because lessons in school are too stressful.

Yes, I've taught in secondary schools like this, but it doesn't have to be like that. I've also taught in ones where there's proper support for music throughout the school, and (almost) all of these problems disappear.

Yes, it sounds familiar! and I agree with Owain - it doesn't have to be like that.