Primary school pushing expensive clubs

Hi OP,
If its the same one that's peddled in our school, YADNBU.
My daughter is in Year 3 and has been with this "music school" since Reception but last month I sat back and thought about what she actually did and it was stand at a microphone and sing a few lines of a song. No teaching how to breath properly when singing, no warming up, no learning singing quietly/loudly etc and if she was in the first class, she would spend some of the class time setting up! For £40 a month. So yeh, I've cancelled that now. Should have seen what they offered as an alternative over lockdown. Christ.
I guess for kids doing the instruments, it's a bit different but still pricey for that.

How much lesson time are they actually missing? Half an hour a half term? Get over it.

Rocksteady worked in my school for a while and the little concerts the children did were in assembly time. It would be a half hour assembly instead of a twenty minute one, but the children that had to watch usually enjoyed it because they tend to use popular songs.

It’s likely to be a minority of children that do it, and maybe those children don’t have the opportunity to do as many out of school activities as yours do. It’s not like your children are being left out as the majority will be in their position, and you can help then understand how lucky they already are.

Surely your kids miss lessons to do their instrument lessons. Do you object to this? Unless they are missing a lesson once a week you are being ridiculous. I assume the children enjoy the concerts? It is just an enjoyable experience. Your kids get plenty. Tell them this and then try not to be petty.

That’s about right for peripatetic music lessons. In fact it’s quite low

DD plays French horn I pay £35 for a 30 minute lesson once per week.

I'm a bit meh about it really.

They do Rocksteady at DS's school. He gets a leaflet every so often and I see the odd concert put in school newsletters. I did ask him if he wanted to do it first time but he didn't and I can't imagine any of his friends being bothered about it either.

If I hadn't wanted him to do it or couldn't afford it I'd just say no. If there are others who want to and are happy to pay then that's up to them. It's a business...it'll only continue if there's demand for it.

Of course some families won’t be able to afford brownies/ swimming/ dance/ etc...life isn’t fair.
But those clubs are not being pushed by the school. IMO it’s great that the school offers extra clubs (ours has literally none at all). But IMO during the school day they “should” all have equal access to the educational opportunities on offer. So there should be help available to make that happen, and if the school / provider can’t offer subsidies then (a) the school shouldn’t run it during the school day, and (b) they should tell parents it exists but not actively market it.

I work f-t and dc have plenty opportunity for clubs, though mealtimes on some evenings aren’t great. So it’s not the case that mine miss out on everything because I can’t drop them off / pick them up at 4pm.

We're wondering if the school are getting a financial incentive for pushing the club.

Ask school? They should be transparent about it if they’re receiving a fee.

But in general, it’s OK to tell your children that something is too expensive. They definitely won’t be the only ones missing out.

OP, I'm a music teacher who has worked in both primary & secondary schools. I also do some instrumental teaching. I just googled Rocksteady as I haven't encountered them before. They are recruiting for someone around 25 miles away from me. The starting salary they offer is not far above NMW. Currently the lowest amount paid according to the ISM from their latest survey is £30 per hour with a median amount of £36 (£33 in state schools). From your OP, Rocksteady seems to want £10 per kid per lesson for 15 minutes; that's a lot of money for basically unqualified band musicians. Decent musicians know they can earn a lot more elsewhere.

Don't get me wrong; music is such an important part of my life and I want every child to experience it. But companies like these and Normans really annoy me. They get gullible people to sign up, charge them a lot for a very basic service and laugh all the way to the bank. Normans used to flog poor quality instruments at inflated prices because you got "free tuition". Marvellous, except I watched a pianist and singer "teach" the violin. It was appalling. The student had zero technique because the teacher was a singer and pianist, but had "watched a video" or something similar. Then my colleagues and I get the keen students, advise them to get a better instrument and spend the next several months/years undoing the terrible techniques they have acquired.

Your older kids having instrumental lessons sounds perfect. Smaller children (eg 5 year olds) need instruments of the correct size for them. My DDs started on 1/16 and 1/10th sized string instruments at 4 (with proper expert teachers chosen by me). Brass teachers like children to have their front adult teeth through before starting them. Kodaly classes for Reception and KS1 children are fantastic, but as the school is unlikely to benefit, I don't suppose they will be offered.

My daughter had an assembly session with them and then a free taster and then was given a form - she's year 2 and I said no she already does Rainbows, swimming and dancing - she can't do everything

And it's wrong to push it on the kids. My friend works in a school office and "Rocksteady" pay the school a percentage of the fees

It doesn't matter what alternative clubs OP can afford. Presumably there are kids in that school whose parents are really struggling with energy bills and food. So having this activity constantly pushed at them IS wrong. And absolutely unfair that their noses are rubbed in it by having to watch the more fortunate kids performing.

I thought they weren't allowed to charge for activities during the school day, only ask for a "voluntary contribution"?

It seems very wrong to exclude poor children from fun activities during the school day. What they do outside of school is up to parents of course. I am pretty sure they can't exclude people who can't pay from the music lessons either. Pupil premium money is sometimes used for that sort of thing.

My dc came home with loads of clubs of all prices and we chose which ones to do. As long as they're offering other clubs at a cheaper rate then I wouldn't worry. As with all things there were times when I had to say that we couldn't afford it, or I couldn't get them there or other reason.

If it's only 15 minutes then that they'll hardly notice anyway.

I don't think my children would look at kids having music lessons and think they were missing out on expensive fun. They'd heave a sigh of relief!

There's always things you can't do in life. It's a better lesson for kids to learn than additional music!

Not shaming you for having 4 children, just pointing out choices and consequences.
You wanted more children, and were happy to take the compromise of doing less clubs, value for money or otherwise.
So don’t try to restrict other people’s choices.
Especially when your principles of inclusivity were set aside for school instrument lessons.

Do complain about your child being the forced audience though!

YABU