I'm wondering what kind of mishaps pupils have had during lessons or on arriving and leaving the studio/house. The worst I can think of is when an enthusiastic pupil rushed up to the door and stubbed his toe on the step. It was summer and he had open toe sandals on. It was bad enough that he ended up in casualty some weeks later when the problem flared up and had to be dealt with.

Other less serious but could have been so, was when a pupil went to sit down on the piano stool and missed! Another time a loose piano lid (at someone elses house) nearly came down on the pupil's fingers.

I'm very conscious now in today's climate that we as teachers are responsible for the safety of our pupils, and we have Public Liability insurance. I just wondered if anyone has other experiences to share and potential hazards to be aware of

Years ago i taught a lovely little lad whose mother was a real "some mothers do 'ave 'em" character. One day she came into the studio and admired a vase in the corner. She picked it up and before I could warn her that it was still full of water as I had just taked some rather wilted flowers from it, she up-ended it to look at the maker's mark. There was a wet patch on the carpet for the next two days!
The only other disasters that I can think of happened to my poor keyboard, twice. I used to take it into school to accompany the recorders and the singing groups, and I never let any of the children walk over the lead. I would always tell them to go around to the other side. The headmaster was above such things though, and twice he walked over the power lead very carefully, and then forgot on the return journey and tripped over it, pulling it out of place. Now, these leads are designed to break if pulled rather than pull the entire keyboard off the stand and that is what happened. TWICE!

The lid of my grand piano used to fall rather easily because it opens flat against the case, with its top bending forward towards the player rather than sloping back as some do. I followed someone else's example (I think it was probably my piano teacher's) and had tiny ball catches let into the sides of the lid and the corresponding part of the case, so that the lid is quite firmly caught when it's open.

But of the three examples you gave, two were clearly the fault of the student or of their parents, and the third was in someone else's house.

Most accidents happen in the home. Their own home!

If my son's piano lid fell on his fingers, I would regard it as an accident, nothing else.

Steve

Luckily the parent of the child who ran to the front door wouldn't dream of making a claim against me as we know each other well but as it was my step I could have been in trouble. As it was me teaching I consider myself responsible for the piano lid. Thankfully there was no injury. Amazingly it was the same family involved in the stubbed toe!

I think most parents would be reasonable like you and see it as an accident. Then again some might not! As far as I know anything that happens on your own property makes you potentailly liable even if its the visitors' fault. I probably worry too much but better safe than sorry I think.

BB

Not exactly a mishap ......

I was letting my last pupil of the afternoon out of the house the other Monday at 6.20. It was a few weeks ago and was dusk, the light going but not quite gone.

I noticed there was a toad sitting in the drive and commented ....... we wandered over to have a look - and I realised it was two toads

Making baby toads?

toads or toes?

yep. It was a large toad and a much smaller one that was almost invisible from a few feet away, so they kind of - merged .

This was at home but my daughter went to sit down on her cello stool and missed. The problem was she was holding the cello when she missed the stool and both she and the cello fell to the floor. Fortunately there was no real damage, she just knocked one of the pegs completely out of tune.

Another instrument mishap (which I posted on another thread) concerns the girl who has her oboe lesson just after me. On two occasions she forgot to do the zip up on her oboe case at the end of her lesson, picked up the case and the oboe fell out. Both times it resulted in several hundred pounds worth of damage to the keys.

A friend of mine, who's a professional cellist, tripped over in his music room & landed very heavily on his cello (worth tens of thousands) & smashed it to pieces. It was repaired, taking about 18 months, but it's never been the same since.

Ahh..... - have you prepared a pond for the offspring?

There is a pond just opposite our house so it may be why we see them from time to time.

How do you know the one underneath wasn't just giving the one on top a piggyback? And maybe they had just stopped for a minute because it was getting tired?

ROFL

The little one may have been blind and the bigger one helping it to St Dunstan's?

clearly I needed to use a bit more imagination, rather than jump to the first conclusion that popped into my mind .......

Apparently when I was about 7 or 8 at a local wildlife centre we saw a tankful of insects - I think they were stick insects - and my dad said to me, "Look, they're giving one another piggybacks", to which I loudly replied, "Don't be silly, daddy, they're mating!"

Yep - children will always state the obvious! It's just we adults that are embarrassed......

When I was at Primary School we had some ring doves in our classroom that were always giving each other piggy backs - no one knew what they were really up to....

I was told by a flute teacher that she had a pupil found her little brother taking her flute apart with a screw driver.

And that, m'lud, is the case for the defence.

Other way around - when I was learning violin in middle school, my stepmum chucked my violin (in its case) onto my bed - and the bridge broke - the orchestra conductor was NOT pleased!

Also I sometimes hit myself in the teeth with my flute!

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Other way around - when I was learning violin in middle school, my stepmum chucked my violin (in its case) onto my bed - and the bridge broke - the orchestra conductor was NOT pleased!

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I have a stepson who plays the cello. He inherited his late Mum's instrument to learn on, so as well as being a lovely instrument it also has sentimental value. He had a 'stand-up' type cello case for it and got into the habit of leaving the cello upright in the case while he sorted out his chair etc. I was upstairs one day and heard the most almighty crash followed by cries of 'oh no what have I done'?!!! The cello had fallen forward and it was split down the middle. Luckily, we were insured and managed to get it repaired. He now has two cellos just in case!