Hi to everyone, as you will guess I am a new member.
I have a pupil taking grade 6 this coming Nov/Dec. One piece she choose to play is A3. Sonata in F. Now she keeps adding the pedal, I've looked in the teaching notes, and not found any referance to pedalling in this piece. Personally I think it would be best left alone, but she says it sounds better with the pedal. As I don't know the family very well ( this pupil as only been with me a short while) and find the mother to be some what of an irritation, I need to get my facts correct before starting any form of challenge.
Please can anyone adviseeeeeeeees me.

I'm playing this piece for an exam on Saturday and it doesn't require any pedal. In fact i'm not even sure that the pieces in block A were composed when pedals were used (i Look forward to being corrected on that )

I wouldn't add pedal either.

Thank you, I will now look forward to the next lesson with confidence, insisting she STOP using the pedal, and spend more time in honouring the RESTS.

I don't think it's quite as clear-cut as that. Regarding Fatar's comment, both Mozart and Beethoven show up in list A frequently and it's certainly not verboten to use pedal in their music, although of course you wouldn't use it in the same way as you would for a piece of Chopin or Brahms. Similarly, there were no marked dynamics or sustain pedal in Bach's day, but you'd use both these days - again, pedalling sensitively and appropriately.

I don't have the music in front of me, but I think dabs of pedal certainly could be used in this piece (in some of the big forte passages, for example); however, you might like to suggest that it is learned with clarity and accuracy before the introduction of pedalling. I think you're on dodgy ground to state categorically that pedal should not be used in this style of music, but I think you're quite within your rights to advise that this particular pupil, on a particular piano, playing this particular piece, on this occasion, shouldn't use pedal - at least for the time being. And yes, rests are definitely important (I remember going on about this in the manner of a stuck record last time I taught this piece).

I'd ask to hear her play it without pedal as well. I don't use any in this piece at all, but it could be she's not confident in her legato playing and thinks using the pedal will somehow cover that up?