My flat is unsuitable for a piano so until I am in a better financial position I'm teaching at my parents' house. This isn't too inconvineant but as my pupil base is still quite small some days it does mean travelling there solely to teach one or two pupils.

There is one girl I teach who is often late and has recently on occasion not turned up at all completely wasting my trip and leaving me clueless as to her lack of attendence until I get a sob-story down the phone a few hours later. I understand things occasionally crop up to make someone late or absent, but when it's this frequent I really don't know how to deal with it. Any advice?

I think you need to politely make it clear that you make a special journey to teach them and that if they do not give notice of a cancelled lesson you must charge for it. It is perfectly reasonable and most of us charge for no shows even if we teach at home. It is your time they pay for! If she is the only pupil that day perhaps you could also charge for your fuel?
With regard to lateness, it is not yopur fault if a student arrives late. They must pay for the whole slot. Is it that you don't have anyone afterwards and so feel you have to give the whole or most of the lesson anyway? If so, make it clear when the pupil arrives late that you have an appointment elsewhere and you are very sorry, but the lesson must end on time. If you do that a couple of times they will soon get the message.
Good luck!

I agree, if my students turn up late, they are very aware that their lesson will still finish at the scheduled time as I refuse to make anyone else late because of them. If I am ever late (which has only happened once through no fault of mine) they still finish on time but I don't charge.

One student who transferred to me not long after I started teaching said frequently he would be waiting for 45 minutes for his lesson as his teacher was always behind schedule.

That is not acceptable! 10 mins is understandable, but 45 is bad time management.

As a pupil I expect to be charged for my lesson if I do not give adequate notice that I can't be there. If I'm late I expect my lesson to finish on time and be charged for the full lesson even if I missed half of it.

If I have been delayed (has sometimes happened when I get stuck in traffic) I try to call my teacher to let him know.

In actuality if it's possible then my teacher will accomodate, but if he has another pupil or something else planned after my lesson then we must finish on time.

His time is money, as is mine.

Mine pay in advance for five or ten lessons. I ask for 24 hours notice to cancel a lesson and charge if they don't turn up. I rarely run over by more than five minutes..... as a parent myself I know how finally tuned times of lessons and so on can be. I have one pupil paying weekly...but the rule applies to them too. At the moment I hire a venue so it costs me anyway...and I want to use what I am paying for to the full. I am about to go back to a relatives home...for similar reasons to you I can't teach from my home... but I will continue to do the same...it is my time.

Thanks for all your advice. I'm considering charging in advance for a months worth of lesson - there people have a financial incentive to turn up at least, and I'll definitely have to get into the habit of ending lessons when they should end regardless of how long we've actually been playing for.

Good idea. I'm going to have to say something to the parents of a girl who, when they drop her off late (10-15mins sometimes), just come back after half an hour regardless... Unfortunately than runs into my tea time!

....which of course you'll describe as preparation time for your next batch of pupils!!!
(I do agree with you. - I've just been reading the other thread about early pupils!!)

When that happens, I look at my watch as the parents leave and say "See you at half past" (or whenever the lesson was due to finish).

There have been threads before about how to charge for lessons. I think most of us agree that charging for a month in advance works really well. It's not too much for most people to pay and you're covered if students don't turn up.

most of us charge for no shows even if we teach at home.
Yes !

I agree - start charging in advance. I do half-termly for most of mine, but a month may work fine too.


JulieCSM - I do the same ! and hope they take it on board.

I have had problems with both early and late pupils, but as my teaching is as much for my enjoyment as it is for the income and the pupils' education, I'm pretty relaxed when it comes to times.

However, to relay a story from a few years ago, when I began teaching it was from my parents home. I had a young pupil whose dad would arrive early to pick her up at the end of the lesson and would spend 15 minutes chatting to my own dad who was too polite to say anything!

Anyway, as the years went on, I moved out and took my teaching with me. The pupil continued to come but would occasionally not turn up at all. Again, being fairly relaxed about things, I let it go, until on one occasion they failed to turn up to two lessons in a row, with no explanatory phone call.

I decided to phone them and chat to dad - I explained that whilst I understood that things sometimes do 'come up' I would have liked a phonecall. I also explained that I would appreciate payment for the missed lesson to cover my time (my pupils pay weekly). He was a little quiet but agreed and we said our 'see you next weeks'. I'd never asked for this before, so perhaps I should have expected what happened next...

A couple of days later I got home from my day-job to find an answerphone message saying that the pupil would no longer be continuing with flute lessons. No specific reason given, but I think it's obvious! Didn't even have the courtesy to speak to me in person.

It's not my intention to put people off asking for payment for missed lessons - I wholeheartedly agree with the practice, especially when teaching is your main source of income. It's just unfortunate that some parents aren't more understanding!

Whatever you decide to do, give notice of your intention to change the way you organise your teaching practice in writing ahead of starting to do this. If pupils pay termly, then a term's notice, if weekly then, to be polite, probably 3-4 weeks and so on.

It's important that there is no misunderstanding on your new stance on poor attendance or late arrivals etc. Make the policy on cancellations very clear and then stick to it.

I tell my pupils (as part of the contract I have with them) that if they fail to give me 24 hours notice of a cancellation I reserve the right to charge them for the lesson and if they don't show at all, I definitely will (emergency accidents etc are an exception). If someone were injured on the way to a lesson and didn't show up I wouldn't turn up at A&E brandishing my bill - I'm not that unreasonable!

It's your time and your professional work. I try to be accommodating to pupils as best I can but I won't have them dictating my teaching timetable and my free time because parents can't be bothered to show up and collect their children on time.

I occasionally turn up late or not at all to lessons since I come from a clinic and about 10% of the time it over-runs. Sorry, but my patients come first.

However:
First, my teacher knows this.
Second, I have made it clear that I expect to pay for the slot whether I am there or not.
Third, I have their phone numbers so I make every effort to phone and warn them if I can't make it on time (or at all).

No shows with no information are no-no's and should be the extreme exception. Sob stories are excuses.


The other side of the coin is that someone (FluteAli) said they had also had problems with early pupils. That intrigued me. I always try to be early, by a few minutes at least. If I'm lucky (Piano, unusual circumstance) they'll let me into the room to warm up before the lesson. Otherwise at least we will both be there for the time due for the lesson and can start on time. Is there a problem with this??

Edit: I see there's a whole other thread about being early: OMG!! I'll post there.

I think some of my pupils are horologically challenged

They have no concept of 24 HOURS !

Only recently I had a ibt of a fall-out with a pupil who cancelled a 9.00am Friday morning lesson at 10.00pm on Thursday night. When I mentioned the cancellation fee at our next lesson she couldn't see my point!

Next year I WILL do it - I WILL get a part-time job in Marks and Sparks

Perhaps they are from another planet, where the day is shorter!

A few minutes either way would be fine for me and is pretty normal.

Again it depends on the teacher and their circumstances. My house is very small so it's impossible to provide a place to wait inside for anyone who turns up 10 minutes early or more. I was always used to turning up on the dot for my teachers, waiting outside if necessary, as I knew they had another student in with them. To me I felt it was common courtesy not to disturb the other pupil's lesson.

I have lots of adult students like yourself who work different shifts etc... Since they mainly come to me in the mornings I can be more flexible with that time, and either re-schedule them or have double the lesson time the following week, so it's not really any trouble if they can't always stick to a regular "slot".

It's trickier trying to reschedule the children as every half hour after 3pm is precious! I usually manage it somehow, even where someone hasn't shown up. It often depends on the attitude. Someone forgot about their lesson once, and mum phoned up to apologise profusely and say of course I'd still be paid for the time I sat at the piano waiting. On that occasion I gave up a bit of my evening and told her to send the child round to me anyway and we'd make it up.

With another who failed to show up... No phone call but they turned up the following week saying "Oh yeah I forgot", and then handed me an envelope with an amended (late) payment deducting the amount I should have been paid for the previous missed lesson! On that occasion I was straight on the phone to inform them that the usual amount was still owed..

Politeness goes a long way

Still finish at scheduled time if they're late. If it's a couple of minutes, I might run over ( I do anyway though.. )

I must say, I prefer it if they're a few minutes later than earlier, I'm very rarely bang on time so if everyone is punctual or early I have no time to make a cup of tea and "make myself comfortable" as nan would say.

What I really dislike is parents moaning their childs lesson was 28 minutes.. .. as I said, I do run over sometimes, which they don't seem to notice and sometimes lessons just come to an end a few minutes earlier.