I teach piano/keyboard privately and at various schools through a Music Service. One of my secondary schools has just informed me that in September I am to teach pupils in pairs not 1:1 as before, and they have cut my time by 30 minutes to teach the same number of pupils. Now I am quite used to teaching pairs or small groups at primary level, where there are enough beginners to group children by similar ability. However, at this secondary school the pupils are all at different stages working towards graded exams. I've told the School that I could not deliver quality lessons in this way, and tried to compromise on the time available, but I've just been told the budget will not stretch any more. I feel really unhappy about this - in effect I'm expected to teach 4 exam pupils in 1 hour - and put in all the extra planning and administration in my own time. I feel like quitting this school but I don't want to let the children down. I have a waiting list for my private lessons so could easily take on extra work Am I being inflexible or are they expecting too much?? Help!

I'd quit and take on more private pupils. You shouldn't to succumb to those pressure tactics.

No, you are not being inflexible. They have absolutely no idea of what's involved in teaching for exams.
I wouldn't feel able to do this either.

If they won't budge on this, I would consider deferring the exam dates by a term, if I were you.

I think you should leave and concentrate on your private teaching. The pupils are being let down by the school, not by you.

something a bit similar happened to one of my friends. She left the school but ended up teaching mostly the same students because they came for private lessons instead.

Go for it. They are being unreasonable.

I agree that it's not an ideal situation and in terms of your own interest etc you are probably better off leaving. However, some need to understand that schools are currently in quite a difficult situation, particularly regarding music with so much funding being cut. I'm still waiting on news of whether the instrumental/vocal tuition I have increased this year (to the immense benefit of the pupils) will continue in September. The school may have had to make a hard decision in cutting the time (I don't know the school so am guessing).

It's a difficult situation for everyone and unfortunately its the pupils that ultimately lose out, which is not exactly what education means to me.

Have you had any feedback from your pupils or their parents about this? I would imagine that they won't be very happy either - particularly those working towards exams - you may find you have some support from them in this very difficult situation.

Most of my teaching is private but I had been teaching at the local secondary (13-18 here) until last year. I'm afraid I quit over a similar thing. I was expected to get complete beginners in year 10 (piano and flute) to grade 3 standard for GCSE in 30 minute shared lessons. After a term of getting nowhere, as I had expected, I gave up...

One wonders how people that are supposed to be experts in education and learning can know so little about the development of musical skills.

I understand the frustration - but music services are struggling - and I fear will soon be no more.


So quit while you're ahead and build up private pupils. I got a phone call from a school asking if I was available to teach at their school from September (I'm not...I'm having a baby instead!), because the local music service had increased their fees from a heavily subsidised ?11 an hour to ?25 an hour. It's not the music services fault - they've lost about ?800,000 from the council

Many years ago at the beginning of my career I would have stayed and kidded myself I could do the impossible. But experience does bring some wisdom and a bit more humility. My advice now would be to leave the school.

However, I would contact all the families and give them your reasons and if possible take on the pupils privately. Can you do it charging the same as they paid the school? That might not be possible and if not and you might lose some pupils whose parents can't or won't pay more. So those pupils will lose out - but then they do anyway under the new system at the school.

I agree with Aquarelle, having struggled in an unreasonable position in a school for a term before calling an end to it.

I just wonder whether schools are cutting back on other activities, such as sport etc as well as music. I have no info on such things, but it would be interesting to know.

It would indeed.

The school I work in has lost its funding for the school sports coordinator who used to provide lots of extra curricular activities for all our students. and that's on top of all the careers advisers, youth workers and others who have lost their jobs.

Ditto

Another example where the ability to read books, learn complex facts and do exam papers is given precedence over activities that give you skills for life.

I'd be unhappy about agreeing to this, it's short changing the students and putting you under pressure to deliver something totally unrealistic. I wonder how aware the parents are about this happening? If I was a parent I wouldn't be very pleased about it!

Have you spoken to the Music Service about this and if so what is their take on it? If you haven't done so I'd talk to them urgently before they disappear for the summer break. I do remember when I did Music service work we weren't allowed to withdraw from one school without talking to them and giving half a term's notice. Having this situation imposed on everyone in the last week of term is very unreasonable as it's not giving anybody a chance to make alternative arrangements. I'd check on notice periods and go for it as soon as possible regarding expanding your private teaching. I left peri work a couple of years ago and haven't looked back, the extra time has allowed me to offer a better and more flexible service to adults wanting to learn during the daytime as well as children. You're very lucky in having a waiting list as well so I'd take advantage of the situation there.

Thanks all of you for your comments which have been so supportive and helped me to come to a decision, which is to drop the school - after all I would not even consider trying to teach 4 pupils in 1 hour at home. My Music Service were not exactly helpful, just listened and said yes that's not ideal, speak to the head of music at your school, which is the result of yesterdays thread. I'll have to speak to Music Service again today to let them know the bad news. As for teaching the school pupils privately, that is a complete no go area as far as my Music Service is concerned, in fact I know that if I did that they would take away my work at the other 4 schools I do. One final complication, I didn't mention, this is my Son's school , he will be in year 11 in September and yes he is doing GCSE music so could be embarrassing talking to music teacher at parents evening !

Same at our school, plus 7 full time teachers and 5 TAs. Music isn't being unfairly targeted in schools, it's just that, in the current climate, everything is being cut back. Sadly there are really undesirable outcomes for lots of areas of school life.