I started teaching piano in schools in September and need some advice. One girl I have keeps forgetting to come to her lesson even though I gave her a timetable and it's also on a notice board. It has happened almost every week since September and every week I go looking for her. Is this the norm or if she doesn't turn up should I just presume she's not coming? In a way I feel I should do the latter to show her that if she forgets that she will miss the lesson. The same girl forgets either her book or her copy every week and this is getting on my nerves!!!!!! I can't do anything as she has no music so should I give her a lesson? Again I'd love to say, look, we can't do anything today because you have forgottn your music, but is this a bit mean? I know some people will say that it looks like she doesn't want to go to the lesson but she is very scattered and immature and I genuinely think that she is just extremely forgetful. I have tried being compassionate as she is in 1st year but it's starting to really annoy me now as all the others remember their lesson.

If my piano pupils in school miss 3 consecutive lessons without letting me know, or without a very good reason I assume they are no longer continuing and either delete them from the timetable, or write to the parents to say I assume their child no longer wants lessons as they are not attending. I also let the H of M know. Mind, I teach on a private basis in school, not employed by school or county music service. My advice would be to tell the Head of Music about this girl and ask him/her to have a quiet word with her. I assume you have had a serious chat with her yourself - and have told her how discourteous her behaviour is ? If you invoice the parents directly I would also let them know - after all it's a waste of their money to pay for lessons their child is not attending. On the other hand she may be having problems being able to come out of lessons to come to you, in which case the H of M needs to know so they can help sort it out.


Yes. Make sure you have something you can do with any pupil who forgets their books - some aural work, sight reading, music games, theory - there are lots of things you can do.

Perhaps you could get hold of a copy of her timetable and ask the teacher out of whose lesson she is coming to send her to her lesson with you. This is actually asking a lot of a busy teacher who has lots of classes and lots of pupils to deal with but if you do it tactfully it might help. Otherwise go and fetch her from the classroom, again being sure to be very polite to the teacher concerned - best to have him/her on your side.

If not, can you write a note to or have a word with her parents? At least they could see that when she packs her school bag her music is in it.

Can you have a copy of her book with you so that she can play from that in the lesson - not ideal but it might eventually prompt her memory.

Some children do find the change to secondary school quite difficult to manage because it requires much more organisation than primary school so it might be worth persevering.

I bought my son a watch with an alarm on it and each week we set it to 5 minutes before his lesson. Worked like a charm.
A parent really needs to know this is happening so they can ensure music is in the bag for the next day.
I doubt my daughter will forget the day she forgot her flute music and spent nearly an hour on scales. Fantastic.
Dora

I had this problem when I first started teaching in a school. I got round it in a couple of ways:

1) I have regular contact with parents via telephone, even though I have no direct financial involvement with them (the school deals with that). If a pupil misses the lesson, I phone home and say 'I'm very sorry but I'm afraid you've paid for nothing today... etc' That message usually gets passed to the pupil!

Speaking to the parent allows me to make sure everything's ok, that the student still wants to continue, that the respective teacher doesn't have a problem letting a student come off-timetable for a 30 min piano lesson, etc. A good rapport with both pupil and parents is crucial.

2) Each half term, I email all the parents, the music teacher and office of the school with the timetable. The music teacher puts it on the notice board. The office sends out a reminder to each child in the register every Thursday. The parents print out the timetable.

I make a policy of never going to fetch a student. As far as I can see, it makes me look unprofessional to be traipsing round a school I don't know! If they're not going to make the effort to remember, I'm not going to bend over backwards. I do enough already!

I always have one or two who are forgetful and approach it different ways. I write the time of the next lesson on the piece they are currently playing. Also I have a deal with a couple of the parents, I email or text them with the next lesson so they can remind from the other side.
It may be she feels awkward or shy to ask to come out of her academic lesson, sometimes a best friend can help with that. Most cope in their first year but there are always one or two who could do with the extra term, sometimes extra year to settle in first. Talk to the parents and see if you can come up with a plan between you. Also, bring a copy of her book on that day so that if she does come it's never a wasted lesson and you can at least see if she's doing any practice inbetween and therefore if she really wants to learn at all or is finding the first term at a new school hard.