i am a newly started out singing teacher, am working for a company so i am not self employed as such. we have children who come to us for singing lessons as well as have lessons at school. one of these children came home from their lesson at school with a note telling the parents that she neednt come to our company for singing lessons anymore, saying the teachers are not qualified.
Rather than going into qualifications and stuff on here (as the teachers ARE qualified) I am writing to ask what action anyone thinks we should take? the teacher who said this about us does not even now what qualifications we have yet she is writing notes to parents telling them not to come to us!!!

Have you seen the note? If you can get hold of an original, I'd be inclined to take legal advice. Do you belong to an organisation such as ISM or MU? Advice would be free from them. However, it would probably be your company who would take action as you say you work for them. Still, it does cast a slur on your personal competence. Like I said, legal advice is the way to go if this is not just hearsay.

I would second the adive of using the MU/ISM for advice if you belong to either, but if the note was to the company then it's probably their responsibility to defend such statements. If parents say they don't want pupils having lessons there's nothing you can do about it. That's life.

Perhaps a word with the company is in order.

Oh, and welcome to the forums.

thanks for the replies.

i am not yet a member, but i am looking into it, as i said I'm a new teacher.

and yes it was the company she was bad mouthing rather than me individually, my boss is aware of the situation and is deciding what line to take.

loving these forums by the way! i have learnt a lot about being an instrumental teacher from here!

How does this company work?

Is the teacher who wrote the note a member of the school staff or just a singing teacher that visits the school?

it was a teacher who visits the school.

It is a dance studio which has a music studio as well, they have a weekend performing arts school rather like stagecoach.

They offer singing lessons....which i teach at the moment!

It's out of order to make an allegation like that.
If the teacher is not happy with the 2 teachers situation then there's nothing wrong with just letting them know that they need to decide which one they want to stay with. It's not unusual for teachers to be unhappy about tuhis sort of situation and it must be hard on the children having double practice to deal with and possibly some conflicting advice.

Which teacher was the first teacher?

i know two teachers is a recipe for disaster, but the child loves to sing and is doing it all for fun, she wants to do well at school and in our production company.

i dont want to talk abou this much further in case he/she is on these boards!!!

Shouldn't you be taking this up with the Headteacher? Does he/she know that these letters have been sent?

I think you should deal only with the Head. It's their school and it's only fair and polite that they know what's going on. Of course, the whole thing will probably fizzle out, but a letter like this from the school could potentially be very damaging.

Why not send a copy of the letter to the Head, explaining the situation, how upset you are, and that you are seeking legal advice. You'll probably receive an immediate apology (Heads will do almost anything to keep the peace!) and the teacher in question will be reprimanded.

Steve

Fair enough, but I wouldn't take a student on, knowing that they still went to another teacher. And if I found out one had started going to another teacher, I would ask them to choose. There are LOTS of reasons why I take this stance.

I do too, which is why I asked which was the first teacher. If the other teacher was on the job first, then it's understandable that they queried the situation. It's hard to comment further without knowing exactly what was in the letter, but it isn't wrong in itself to suggest that pupils choose one teacher or the other. If your organisation simply provides extra opportunities to sing and perform with a teacher coordinating this, then that wouldn't be a big problem, but two actual personal tutors is a bad idea for reasons that are too numerous to go into. If I was the first teacher, and then the child decided to go to another at the same time, I would ask for the other lssons to stop, or else I would terminate them myself. But not through 'bad mouthing', though, and you should attempt to 'put right' anything that was falsely represented.

I've had a situation in one of my schools that a child starts having lessons elsewhere. I always refer it to the head & he tells the parents they have to choose. It's strange that it only ever seems to happen in this one particular school - I teach in 4 others & 3 music centres.

One new pupil from this school came along this term saying she was already having lessons outside. It turned out to be with a 17-year-old girl who's just scraped her grade 8, with no training in teaching, & had taught the child 2 books of John Thompson's in 2 terms, although the child couldn't play any of it correctly. The head told the mother she had to choose & she came to see me & asked my advice. I said it was difficult as I wouldn't want to criticise another teacher, but I felt she was "very inexperienced" & the child hadn't been taught properly. She said the child had enjoyed her lessons, but decided to send her to me in the end. I felt bad about it, as I know who the young girl is, but felt I had to be honest with the mother.

Criticising another teacher is hard, but in my local area there is one who, when pupils say they have had lessons with him, my heart sinks.

As you are not an MU or ISM member, I would contact the school. If you are teaching within a production company, then the sort of teaching you are likely to be doing is differenct and complementary to one to one singing at school.

However, pardon the pun, you have got to "sing from the same songsheet". Are you teaching groups aka an effective choir practice, or giving individual lessons.

The thing that is missing here is communication. This scenario sounds like it could work, but only if everyone involved is communicating with each other.