I'm currently updating my T & Cs and was wondering if teachers have a policy to cover students who want to miss lessons during school exams in school, both end of year exams and GCSEs etc. In my experience, it's only a few students who want to cancel - and they are the ones who will do well in the exams anyway! Most want to continue and some choose to do a music exam at the same time as GCSEs etc so need to be at lessons. I think my policy will be that students are welcome to stop lessons for a term as long as they give notice but they will have to go on the waiting list if they wish to return. It's generally the skivers who want to cancel and seems to me to be an excuse. Some of them would get excellent results without revising and others do so little practice it won't make any difference to their revision time!

This may sound harsh, but I don't think I'd vary my T&Cs to take any of that into account : it's a licence for some to stretch the rules further than you can stretch plasticene...

No, I wouldn't either but I do try to make ajdustments and exchanges if pupils have a big exam the next day. but it remains "one off" and I wouldn't put it into T's and C's and certainly wouldn't let them take a term off. I will lighten the load but I won't give up my salary for their revision which should be well in hand anyway.

Some of my students have arranged with me to stop lessons completely about a term before their GCSEs and then started again in September which is fair enough but I wouldn't put anything in the terms and conditions for missing lessons due to exams.

I'm with you Aquarelle - otherwise it will get stretched into coursework, homework and anything else else that hasn't been done due to lack of planning. Don't they get study leave for GCSEs and A Levels anyway?

My policy is that if someone takes 4 or more weeks off for whatever reason they lose their place in my weekly schedule. It hardly ever happens - this term I've had a GCSE and an A level age student who have attended every week: they have hardly practised, (one is leaving me anyway at the end of term) but attendance has been excellent. Usually school exams are so spaced out in time, eg 2 or 3 exams per week and nothing else apart from revision, that it shouldn't be too hard to attend a weekly music lesson too.

It depends on the school - where I lived all but one school had study leave but some around here don't.

I've tended to find that most want to continue, and for most it's only about 30 minutes out of their week - most look like they could do with the break from school work! In that respect, I don't have a specific policy for this - I think it would just come under the usual one for missed lessons. If anyone was adament they wanted an extended period of time off, then I think they'd probably have to stop and start again. I certainly couldn't guarantee to keep a slot open for them. To be honest, so many courses are modular these days, there don't seem to be so many exams all crammed into the summer.

Interestingly, one girl I teach did her Grade 4 (merit) at the same time as her GCSEs (for which she got 11 As or A*s) and will be doing Grade 5 just after her AS Levels. She didn't miss a single lesson. In contrast, a boy I teach had to miss two lessons because he had an exam on those days (a mock GCSE) and didn't do any practice during the weeks leading up to them because apparently it was all too much

I don't cover this in Ts and Cs either. In fact I encourage students to regard their music as relaxation during exam periods. Some don't buy it, of course: I have one giving up (or possibly having a term off, but I don't hold my breath!) next term to do gcses. I'm not keeping his place open .

As others have mentioned, I try to be flexible in individual cases, and would maybe offer a replacement lesson at the end of term or similar.

The odd one I've had who missed lessons for even school exams were the ones who weren't interested enough to practice much anyway. The pressure to miss lessons generally comes from parents.
It seems a shame when a child who is a little low in confidence is getting the message from parents that the exams are going to be so stressful that they won't have time to continue with out of school activities they enjoy. (this goes for KS2 SATs too)

Parents also stress that school exams are "far more important than piano lessons." My hope that they continue with lessons as a break from study falls on deaf ears in the majority of cases.

I have a student taking grade four piano in the winter. He's 16 so has officially finished school, and is just going in for his exams. The weeks he misses his piano lesson are the weeks he takes exams. Currently he's missing about two weeks, then having a lesson. He's good at practising, and genuinely wants to pass grade four, so despite his GCSE's, he's maintaining steady progress.

I have some that would forget everything if they had a break during exams though. The opportunity not to touch the piano is too tempting for them!

[quote name='primrose.piano' date='Jun 28 2012, 01:01 PM' post='1156696']
[quote name='sbhoa' post='1156687' date='Jun 28 2012, 11:51 AM']
Parents also stress that school exams are "far more important than piano lessons." My hope that they continue with lessons as a break from study falls on deaf ears in the majority of cases.

Yes - if someone can't turn up for one 30 minute lesson per week, then their work-life balance is seriously wrong! I also think that some people over-estimate how much effect getting 10 GCSEs at grade A instead of 9 at grade B is really going to make in life. I got a modest number of O levels and I can't say that the grades have made much difference to my life at all - they seem all-important at the time, but in the long run how many people actually care?!

What is particularly annoying is when you have got a keen pupil to a really good standard where they have alot to offer as a player and could start teaching, and the parents see playing as a childhood activity, to be tossed aside like an unwanted toy and replaced by "more important" things. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!