I'm curious how many teaching hours people actually have each week. As someone who will only ever work part time I can find it very hard to break even - once you invest in the necessary maintenance of an instrument, liability insurance, professional development, books, equipment, there is nothing left. I am curious how many teaching hours people actually manage, what with the restrictions of children and their school hours, adult availability after work, etc. Is teaching your only job or do you do some performing/composing too, or something totally different to make up the other hours?

I only teach part time. My husband is retired so wouldn't want me tied to more. I'm also limited not only by needing to stay under the tax threshold but also by the fact that he is claiming for me as a dependent which gives me a maximum earning limit.
I end up making a little more than my own lesson costs.

While I had a full time classroom teaching job I just had a couple of pupils after school - I went to them as I lived in a bedsit. There were also quite long periods when I didn't do any piano teaching outside my full time job, but I did do accompanying - I did rehearsal pianist jobs for various organisations and choirs. In our present house I have a study so I was able to offer piano lessons at home, and for years I did piano teaching, accompanying, was musical director for a choir and had a "proper" part time job. All these were paid positions. Since semi retiring I now work about 8 hours teaching and about 1.5 hours accompanying each week. I'm sure if I worked it out I would not break even.

Here's my "part time" schedule

Monday
morning - 2 adults
after school - 3 kids
evening - 2 choirs

Tuesday
lunchtime - choir
after school - 3 kids
evening - 1 choir

Wednesday - Mummy day with my youngest who is 3

Thursday
daytime - 18 kids as a peri at a local school
evening - occasional adult

Friday - another Mummy day

Some weekends have choir concerts, soloist concerts and social events.

My free time in the week is spent arranging music for the choirs, preparing my lessons and improving my own skills. Including the evenings in which I'm not choiring.

I think my week is very full, even though I'm only part time! I get about a third of my income from the private lessons. Most is from choirs and choir events. When ds goes to school I'm going to really try not to take on more work, just move my evening prep into the day time and hopefully get involved in the school as a governor or something.

I have a massive waiting list and could definitely fill every day after school but I want to collect my son from school as much as I can. He only goes to after school club on Mondays and Tuesdays and I'm ok with that. The boys are in bed by the time I go to the choirs so they don't suffer then.

I teach the following:

Monday evening - 7 students between 5 and 8.45

Tuesday daytime - 5 adults between 11 and 1.45

Tuesday evening - 8 students between 4.30 and 9

Wednesday evening - 8 students between 4.15 and 9 (although the first one only comes once a fortnight)

Thursday morning - baby singing groups x 2 sessions

Thursday evening - band practise night from 7 til whenever we feel like finishing (usually very late in my opinion!)

Saturday - 8 currently but expanding to 9 in September between 9 and 1.30.

Total is 36 students currently.

So, I guess you could say that I'm part time but it feels very full time with all the prep. I have so many enquiries I could easily fill every evening if I wanted to but with gigs as well as wanting to see my husband occasionally I can't do this! What I'm looking at for the future is more home schooled ones and more adults for other daytime slots.

I have two children of my own - one at infant school and the other at pre-school so am limited in starting earlier in the afternoon as I also want to be able to pick them up from school and the pre-schooler only goes for half days so we have quality time most afternoons on Wednesday to Friday.

Catherine x

During term time I average about 29-30 hours teaching a week (over 6 days) and that has been pretty consistent over the past 20 years. In school holidays it can drop down to about 15 to 20 hours. I take 6 weeks holiday a year. I seem to make a good living out of it, thankfully.

Yes, it is my only job, although I also do some arranging work freelance, and accompanying. I teach adults mostly in the afternoons and children mostly after school time.

Monday: 11 kids at primary school in the morning.
Private teaching 4-7.30, 7 pupils.

Tuesday: All day accompanying hymns and nursery rhymes/ hearing readers at school (same one as Monday). (I get paid for this but not as much as teaching - but i love it!)
5 private pupils after school.
Eve: operatic society rehearsal where I sing in the chorus. (Not work but kind of work related as it's music!)

Weds: Normally 8.30 to 3.45 teaching 25 pupils at comprehensive school.
(But not today as whole school out on trips!)
4 private ones after school.

Thurs: One adult at 9.30
12.15-3: 9 kids at a primary school.
3.30 - 7: 6 private pupils.

Fri: One adult fortnightly at 9.30
12.15-3 11 kids at same primary as Thursday
3.30 - 7: 6 private pupils
Total probably about 35 hours work although it varies from week to week - summer term tends to be quieter due to more cancellations.
Sat/Sun: Spend time with partner and cat, catch up on housework, practise, prepare for next week's lessons and SLEEP!

Yes I earn a good living but I'm lucky to have very few outgoings (no mortgage, kids or car). I do rent a studio for my private lessons though. I take the whole of the school hols off and am lucky to be able to afford to!

How did you manage to find home schooled pupils? Did you contact any organisation or did they find you?

Average 28 hours actual teaching time but you have to add prep time, which I find varies a lot between different pupils, time doing admin and time spent maintaining your own skills, [maybe 50% of your personal practice time ?] so that would bring it up to somewhere near a full-time job. I currently have 48 pupils but they don't all have the same length lesson.

I currently have 26 'on the books' with about 20 attending on a weekly basis. That means that actual teaching time is anywhere between about 11-15 hours a week, spread over three days, mostly between 2pm and 8:30pm. I've always reckoned that for each hour's lesson, there's about half an hour's prep and admin a week, so although the actualy teaching time might not be that great, it soon begins to add up, particularly when you add in workshops etc. on top of the weekly lessons.

Of course, that's only teaching...

The total number seems to change every week! I have a need to shut up shop by 7:00 ecept for rare one-offs, as I need to spend time with my husband and besides, we only have the one living room!
Currently:
Monday morning 2 adults, both fortnightly, one of whm is learning recorder
Monday afternoon from 3.30 - 5 kids (though one is on "sabbatical" with GCSEs

Tuesday afternoon 4 kids

Wednesday morning/lunchtime 2 adults, fairly reliable attenders
Wednesday afternoon 3 kids

Thursday is my "big girls' day" - in fact only one of them is out of primary school, but none is below grade 2 level (I do have lots of beginners) - 4 girls

Friday: morning, one "as-and-when" now at 6th form college, been teaching her for 8 years now, doesn't always manage to get away
5 kids from 3:30 onwards

Saturday: currently 4, but awaiting confirmation from one recorder beginner, and seeing a prospective piano beginner this week

If both of these two start that makes a total of 31. I've just lost one other who has taken his grade 1 and now gone back to his home country for the summer and will probably be going to university next year.

Last year I lost a lot in the summer, but gained even more in September. I think I was down to about 16 last September.

I now have 13 students, plus my 2 children.

I teach after school each day:
Mon 3 children 4-6
Tue 3 children 4-6
Wed 1 who comes for both violin and piano followed by my ocarina group for an hour!
Thurs 3 children 4.30-6
Fri 4.30-6.30 go to a family's house, teach 3 for piano and then joint theory.

I fit my children around these times, or on the weekend.

I only have one space left for september as far as I am aware! Although I am willing to expand to a Sat morning. I have to finish at 6 as I go to band 2 nights a week at 6.40, and I teach in my living room so not fair on my family to carry on longer.

I am working in a school as a classroom assistant for the rest of the day, but in Gib it appears that everyone has to work during the day to survive, so there are very limited opportunities for teaching during the day, and the schools do not have peri teaching.

Monday 4 to 7, mostly teens and 1 adult
Tuesday 3.45 to 5.30 children and teens plus a couple of home visits (long story, historic reasons, not something I am aiming to build up as existing visitees leave)
Wednesday usually couple of daytime adults, otherwise 4.45 to 8.30 mix of children, teens and adults
Thursday pretty similar
Friday 2 fortnightly pupils, then home visits later afternoon till 8pm
Sat teaching all day 9-5 (broken up with the drives as a few visits late morning and lunchtime, which is fine as I would now find non-stop one to one teaching all day too intensive, so if I didn't do the drives inbetween, would have a break anyway. I used to work 9-5.30 with just a half hour lunch break when I did music school work but I wouldn't want to go back to that.)

It adds up to about 24 hours per week, plus admin, prep time and so on so prob about 26-8 hours. I don't teach much in school holidays although some adults and some of the children do carry on.

35 hours at the moment:

13 hrs peripatetic + 22 hrs private, all crammed into Tuesday-Saturday.

I take 10 weeks off per year.

I don't like to add it up.

'Contact hours' is an irrelevant term. It comes from class teaching, as a way of ensuring teachers didn't have to spend every moment of the day supervising children, and as a way of calculating pro-rata pay. I could create some spurious percentage for time dedicated to planning & preparation, but it would be nonsense.

Random thoughts about pieces suitable for individuals, practicing accompaniments for exams, or an hour browsing in a music shop don't fit into such a regimented calculation, but are completely appropriate uses of one's time. Look on this as part of your self-employment, rather than casual activities.

I currently have 13 private pupils over 4 days each week plus one less frequent adult and 15 at school. I spend a fair amount of my "free time" preparing for lessons each day. I have a teaching free day so I have time to catch up with other work, my own practice and anything I need to do not related to teaching. I do practice on other days as well but it's often in quite short sessions when I have a spare 1/2 hour or so.

I teach Monday to Saturday which is currently 25 hours work.

This academic year I have had:

Monday: Sixth Form college 5 pupils + one ensemble(30 mins each); 3 private pupils(45 mins each).
Tuesday: School 9 pupils (30 mins each); 3 private pupils (45 mins each).
Wednesday: School 10 pupils (30 mins each); 2 private pupils (45 mins each).
Thursday: School 2 pupils (30 mins each); 1 private pupil @90 mins(2 instruments), 1 private pupil @60 mins, 1 private pupil @ 30 mins.

Plus one other ad hoc adult @ 30 mins.

Term time I currently do 33 hours - 12 in school, the rest private, plus a few ad hoc advanced adult students.

13 private students for me right now, which in total, works out to around 11 hours of actual teaching. Of course there is also the gazillion hours of prep and marketing work that goes into it as well.

Not enough ....

Seriously I am still building my practice! Gone from 1 a year ago to 17 (based on half hour lessons so 2x45 mins counts as 3 or one doing an hour counts as 2 etc.) from this September and hoping to double again to 30 (based on half hour lessons) in the next two years, then (hopefully) I'll go onto a waiting list system.

I would like to get more schools (currently have 2), so would like to build that up to doing Mon-Fri in schools. I can't see myself doing Saturday morning lessons unless I was to get a position in a county music centre.

That's pretty good - you should be pleased with yourself. I went from 1 to 10 from January to July 2011. I said I'd like to get to 20 by this July, and I've exceeded that. 30 by July 2013? Who knows, but it would be nice! It always takes a while to build up not least in econonic times such as these, when any form of disposable income is non-existant for many.

Have cut right down now I'm "post-partum"!!

Used to have pupils coming every day, now limit myself to Monday evenings, 4.30pm-7.30pm (5 pupils), Thursday evenings 4.30pm-7pm (5 pupils) and Saturday morning 9am-12 (5 pupils)

Thats enough for now