The mother of two of tomorrow's exam candidates arrived on my doorstep this afternoon half an hour earlier than I was expecting her, but that was just the start! One of the pair had been off school today with a sore throat, and I discovered later had also had an upset tummy yesterday though that might have been down to nerves associated with playing at a local Festival. Knowing that there's been a really nasty virus infection around in the last couple of weeks with sore throat and high temperature I wasn't prepared to take the risk of picking it up, so mother and ailing child sat in the car while I rehearsed with the other one (fingers crossed she isn't hatching it too). It's a good job it's so warm! I was also not happy with the idea of risking passing anything on to the examiner, so the exam is now rescheduled for a fortnight's time. We were lucky to have a couple of weeks in hand rather than having to cancel outright. Thanks ABRSM!

You could also ask people to be kind to teachers!!! Almost all of my students were ill at some point or another between January and February and continued to take all of their lessons. By the time mid-term break rolled around, i was sick as a dog! Today is the first day since that I feel ok, although my throat is still not totally better...and I have a singing audition tomorrow!

It would be great if students would take the one lesson off to get better...so I'm not bringing the germs round to everyone for weeks afterwards!!!!

But wouldn't teachers soon be back on this very forum complaining about the number of cancelled lessons due to "illness"?

When I am under the weather I contact my schools, let them know what i am suffering with and offer to complete the lesson as normal unless they would rather I didn't come in. 9 times out of 10 they want me to come in as "half the school are off with it anyway"

Someone once told me that you're only contagous with the likes of a cold, before you actually develop any symptoms, so there's little that can be done to avoid passing it on?

Don't know whether that's true or not, but I've been struck down a few times recently... Maybe I'll start building up some immunity from all these nasties soon!

Yes, ad libitum, what we need is a good old freeze-up to get rid of these germs doing the rounds once and for all this winter! In N. Ireland - your part and mine in particular, we rarely get snow. Nearly every other possible weather (usually in the same day) but sea and snow don't mix. Pity in a way!

LR

So true,

It's that time of year when I can't decide whether to light the fire or not!

If I light it, the sun comes out, and if I don't, the temperature drops

Maybe I am unusual, but I would rather have to make up a few lessons than be dragging about feeling rotten!!!

I'm pretty flexible with my students and officially while I tell them I don't make up lessons they miss, they may get extra time when someone else cancels or an extra lesson before an exam. It works out ok!

My situation may be different to yours though KixMusic, I don't teach in a school, I go to people's homes. We don't have peris in Ireland!

Given I'm recovering from ulcers at the moment whilst still preparing exam candidates, anyone coming into the house with a tummy bug would not be welcome.

Coughs and colds I take as standard run of the mill and part of life but stomach viruses are another thing entirely.

I wish parents would realise that teachers have private lives too. We don't want to be ill as a result of teaching their child.

I'm with you on this one but I suppose if a teacher is likely to be badly affected by any visiting germs they can let their students know that they won't charge for lessons missed through illness.
I'd have to be pretty well unable to stand before I cancel my piano lesson and always have been like that even if the teacher wasn't going to charge for the missed lesson.

Yes, the good thing about teaching at home is I can just go straight up to bed after a pupil leaves if I'm not feeling the best!

Most of my pupils know there is only one thing that will cause me to cancel a lesson and that's migraine. I've been trying to control attacks for years, but when it happens, there's little that can be done. Even if I start to feel better during the day, the tablets I need to take to keep it under control make me so dopey I couldn't focus on the music anyway.

Not a ideal thing for a piano teacher to suffer from, but luckily they are few and far between these days, and parents are very understanding when it does occur. One mum who lives nearby even offered to call in with anything I needed from the shop, (her husband takes migraine so she obviously knew how I felt!) I thought that was so kind

I don't think I've ever taken time off with anything else - it would have to be pretty severe if I did. When I didn't work for myself, I'd probably have been far less concerned about the odd sick day than I would be now. I'll always offer an alternative lesson time though.

The parents of my private students simply phone to say their child has been suffering from x,y or z and do I still want them to attend as they haven't been able to do much practice/are still coughing/still got a bit of a sore throat etc and I get to decide, which is great. I wouldn't have wnated any of them coming with coughs, colds, tummy bugs etc the week before I went into hospital for my elbow op though!

Well like a trouper the only days I took off were the days I was in Hospital and the day I was discharged. I may not like pupils missing lessons for every little thing, but I have two exams to accompany on 19th March, and the one thing I don't want is a dodgy tummy.

It can be difficult from a student point of view - if the teacher insists on being paid for lessons missed due to illness, then the student wants to come - if the teacher also insists that any particularly runny(!) infections are kept well away, the student is in catch 22 - they have to pay for lessons the teacher insists that they miss.

Though of course I don't condone infecting one's teacher with stomach bugs.......

Do you not end up getting immune to their illnesses?
When I first started teaching in secondary school I seemed to be permanently going down with colds, tummy bugs, conjunctivitis you name it, I got it. After an awful first year I hardly caught anything. Then when I moved from the school to teaching at a university I went throught the same process again (school pupils and students obviously don't have the same germs)!

Another thing, I had never had chicken pox as a child and everytime there was a case in one of my classes I used to wait for spots to come out but they never did. When I did go down with chicken pox there was not one single case in the whole school so it was obviously a "gift" from some complete stranger.

Better to get it over with though!

I can understand parents not wanting to miss lessons they have paid for, although sometimes I think it can go a tad far. In the last year I have had two separate incidents of students dashing off to throw up mid lesson...and in one case the Dad still thought his son was faking!!!! Poor kid!

I don't take time off unless I can completely incapacitated (its only happened twice in six years...lucky me.) I tried to keep teaching shortly after I broke my big toe a couple of years ago. I was on fairly strong painkillers and when I met my students the next time I realise I had written in all the fingering backwards!!! (right hand fingers for left and vice versa) How embarrassing!!! Needless to say I didn't remember doing it...

Hope you're feeling better, by the way jod!

The other half and I were only discussing this subject last night because I've been laid low with a nasty tummy bug (currently rife in our local schools) for the past 24 hours which I must have caught from one of my charges I think - since the bug doesn't appear to be anywhere else where I regularly go. So, no lessons given yesterday. It was all I could do to struggle to the Forums.....!

Generally my students/parents know that I don't want sick pupils to teach and they ring first if the pupil is ill to see if I want them. Usual answer, "no". I never fail to be surprised (even after years of teaching) how many parents think it's ok for their child to be off school with illness but still want the music lesson to go ahead. I don't charge for lessons missed through notified sickness because I don't want them in my house coughing and spluttering mightily (at the start of a cold) or throwing up. So they don't lose out financially but still they think they need to come. My experience suggests that they would be better at home - they rarely play well or concentrate and I quite understand that.

It must be a sign of great age I think that I'm getting more fussy about "germs". Last term I had a blitz on piano pupils who will wipe their noses on their hands and then plonk them onto my piano! It is now not permitted - they get given tissues (whether they want them or not) and I keep a pack of medicated surface wipes to clean the keys of the piano at the end of a teaching day. Other half reckons I should either ask the pianists to use an alcohol wipe on their hands before they play or clean the keys after every lesson to stop picking up surface-borne bugs. (Can't do much about the air-borne ones).

Are we getting paranoid - probably yes but unwanted illness is such a nuisance for all teachers because it drags you down from giving of your best and often takes weeks to really shift, whilst the sickly child bounces back (usually) within days.

Right, must decide whether or not to teach today - still a bit queasy...........

I think that's a very civilised way to deal with it. As the mother in the original message had had her child at home all day before landing on my doorstep I would have appreciated the chance to talk the options through before she arrived.

As a teacher myself I sympathise with teachers whose pupils infect them, but freelance accompanists and examiners don't meet a settled community of people and have a chance to get immune. We are constantly having people bring us their unknown bugs, potentially from a very wide area (especially the examiners, who can be in widely separated areas week after week). During this exam session I'm accompanying sixteen candidates from about a 12-15 mile radius, including pupils from about eight different primary and secondary schools, who all come to my house to rehearse.

I didn't have it as a child either. My children gave it to me, but we never knew where they got it from.

Yes Oboist, I keep a packet of anti-bacterial wipes near the piano too! Most often I offer them when kids come in with ink/muck all over their hands from school. I also keep a box of tissues handy for them to help themselves. If I didn't offer, some would sit with runny noses and be too shy to ask me to go and get them one.

Wait 'til you've kept your breakfast down before you decide whether or not to teach - feel better soon!

That was the case until I had the ulcers. Now Ive really got to avoid stomach bugs as my digestive and immune systems are compromised.

Sorry to hear about the ulcers jod. The medics thought I had one but the tests have said "no". Hope they can help you get rid of yours soon.

It will take up to eight weeks for them to go. Even then I'll need to be careful. My pupils know fortunately. They know I'll stagger on through most things, but this Monday I can not afford to be sick. I have pupils to accompany.