I started violin teaching last year and would like to learn about the Suzuki method and how to apply it to students but don't know how to go about this. I don't necessarily want to become a fully trained Suzuki teacher, at the moment I would just like to know the principles of using this method. Can anyone give me any advice?

Lots of info here:

http://www.britishsuzuki.org.uk/

I lived abroad for 2 or 3 years and my violin teacher was a suzuki teacher. I could already read music so I learnt from music but my sister learnt the suzuki method. They put on a "suzuki concert" once where the kids all lined up in ability order and it started with one person playing a difficult piece and ended with all of them playing theme and variations on twinkle twinkle little star!

My youngest son is learning the violin through the suzuki method. Parents are very involved and are expected to have some basic strings knowledge so that they can help/support their youngster with learning the instrument. They also like you to develop a musical environment at home in order to keep the kids enthusiastic about their learning.

The suzuki method favours group learning as well as individual lessons - these groups sessions are fun and designed to encourage youngsters to pick up on each others enthusiasm.

I think that 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star' must be very important because my youngster has been learning this since he first started a few weeks ago

Thanks for the information. It's already apparent there's a lot more to Suzuki than I had realised - my initial knowledge was: start them young, don't teach them to read music 'til later and have the parents sit in on lessons...