Hi all,

I do a small amount of teaching but from September I need to cut this dramatically. Certain reasons are going to prevent me from continuing to teach as much as I am doing at the moment.

It really breaks my heart to get rid of some of my pupils as they are an absolute joy to teach - some very promising students indeed. others I won't mind seeing them move onto someone else as they are not as committed to the practice etc.

How do I go about telling them that I need to get rid of some of my students?

I will be returning to teaching in about 15 months time - do I mention this to them?

How do I decide who to keep?

Anything else that I can do to make this as easy as possible on them.

This is really worrying me and I really don't want to do this to some of them but I have to.

I thank you all for taking the time and interest in helping me with my problem.

Could you look to see if another teacher is willing to take them?

I have looked into that possibility.

The problem is that I don't know of another teacher in the area who I would feel happy recommending. I would rather not recommend one to find out that things didn't go well.

There have been many horror stories recently regarding problems with teachers in this area.

The times you will be teaching might decide things for some students at least.
I'd tell them that you plan to pick up again as they might want to go to someone else on a temporary basis.
Some of the non practisers might find that this is the thing that helps them to make the decision about stopping or reviewing their commitment to learning.

That's true.

Thanks for that.

Several years ago, I had to significantly reduce my private teaching at home. I didn't like to do it, but I had to. I did this by keeping on the students who would be doing an exam in the following 6 months as it wasn't fair to make them change teacher in the middle of their exam preparation. I told all the students/parents that I was reducing my teaching hours at home and would only be able to teach two afternoons a week - some left because the days I was available, they weren't! The other thing I did was say that the fees may increase.

organgrinder - when you know exactly how much time you have for teaching and when you intend to teach. You may find that some can't attend on the days you have spaces anyway. Make a list of the students you want to keep and try and find some plausible reason for keeping them. Could you teach some of them once a fortnight? Some of the more advanced students may find that useful. Obviously you don't want to announce your reasons for cutting back teaching for 15 months on the forum, but will you tell your students/their parents? It will be hard for some parents/children to understand why child a can continue with you, yet child b can't. That's why I decided to use some criteria which I knew would result in some of them deciding to leave without me telling them! Some of my students have so many other activites, I don't know when they practice!! I have three who can't come any day but Monday!

Good luck with this.

Sorry to butt in, but this question may be relevant to organ grinder too!

I may have to do the same (dependent on getting certain jobs that are in the works at the mo) and cut down to two afternoons from three. Did you give preference to students whose lessons were already scheduled on the days you retained? Some of mine have had the same times for a few years and I thought I would unfair on them to suddenly by thrust into uncertainty because I was cutting out a different day. (Is that about as clear as mud?!?)

Thank you for your reply Noodle. I have been trying to come up with reasons why I would keep some and not others. I don't think I will be giving my reason to the parents as to why I will be giving up some teaching - I know it will make it difficult for them to understand. I'll see - I may tell them yet.

And true - many will not be able to come due to other committments - many of them are in everything.

Hi organgrinder,

I also had to cut back on my teaching commitments a few years ago - and, like you, on a fairly temporary basis. I wrote polite letters to the students I decided to offload (the most stress-inducing ones, who were making life difficult) with the reason that it would be more disruptive to older children who had been with me longer to have them change teacher - so it was done on a kind of "last in, first out" basis, for want of a better way of putting it. I also recommended a new teacher in each case, but only because I knew of people they could go to. If you can't justifiably recommend anyone, do explain that you will be returning to teaching in 15 months. You might find that some are willing to wait and - especially the older ones - just keep themselves going to some extent in the meantime.

It does cause grief to have to do this, and it's never easy deciding who should stay and who should go. But as noodle suggested, fortnightly lessons might be an option for some of them, or perhaps slightly reducing the length of their lessons.

Hope everything works out for you.

Thank you for your very supportive response.

I will sit down over the next week or so and see what I can come up with it. I want to get it sorted in a couple of weeks so that they can organise themselves for September if needs be.

Just wondering had anyone else experience in this matter and how they dealt with it?

Thanks,

OG

This is about to happen to me..but because the other work is temporary..I don't want to drop too many...especially want to keep those I've had for three or four years...this topic has helped...good to know others are in the same boat.