Music lessons in school or out when starting new senior school?

DS1&2 have lessons in school. DS1's violin is at lunchtime as he has 45 minutes. Piano for him and for DS2 is during lessons but they rotate so it's not always missing the same lesson.

DS2 has trumpet outside school, purely because he already had a really good teacher, but as they both have a long day, reducing the number of out of school commitments is a big factor for us.

Downside is you don't get to choose the teacher, so it can be hit and miss.

If it's an orchestral instrument, once they have grade 1 or 2, look at the county groups which are far better than school based orchestras - junior strings was grade 1 and at least 7 years old when my dd started (she went all the way through to the symphony orchestra and even played at the schools prom once)

We had violin through school and piano privately. Though all teachers are self employed here it's just they arrange to use rooms at schools (changed 5 years ago)

Like a PP said, I think it can depend on the DC and what kind activities they take up. We've still have/had lessons in and out of school for different instruments. I think for value for money, out of school is better, less distractions, over-running of others eating into your lesson time etc.

However, if the out of school life is active, it's tricky to schedule music lessons on top, and in our experience, we've had difficulties moving private tuition slots when needed, so they can get missed (for drama, concerts, fixtures, training, whatever it is your DC do etc etc), reducing the 10 x average sessions to less actually taken.

The juggling of missing subject lessons early in Y7 can be tricky, but DC do get used to it and teachers understand how easy it is to miss leaving class for their music lesson...it's so easily done. But, the upside of doing lessons at school means you are at least on the radar (rightly or wrongly) and can get included in the wider music stuff more easily.

All schools are different, we've been fortunate that when there was the odd roster clash with the same subject, when flagged it didn't reoccur. And in the higher years the older DC tend to gain the before school/lunch slots more easily to accommodate the workload.

We've mainly had gymnatsics and swimmimg at club level here so school terms are pretty irrelevant. Both at several sessions a week regardless of term time and sometimes additional in holidays.

But as I said I'm aware other sports can ve different!

That's very true, Comefromaway. But some sports/clubs run quite mad schedule during holiday seasons. Glad DS stopped that...

For instance, when DS was doing sports pretty seriously, he did more training during holiday as it tended to be everyday/all day.

Some sports on a decent level is definitely all year here - you'd lose strength club swimming/gymnastics etc if you just stopped for 6 weeks!!! I know others are seasonal.

Dd is at vocational dance school (she started age 11) and they advise their students to take a break during the school holidays. They get 2 months off in summer so do advise the students to either do an authorised summer school for a week or two or visit the gym/do strength and conditioning excercises but the importance of taking some time off for the body to rest and recuperate is stressed.

Yes, they run holiday training. But their schedule is different from school term ones so not weekly lesson/training all year. Besides I'm talking about primary school age so it may be different from the experience for older kids.

Especially once you are doing your sport several hours a week it wouldnt make sense to stop and change.

We do struggle to keep music practice up outside term time... but do try!

Some sports on a decent level is definitely all year here - you'd lose strength club swimming/gymnastics etc if you just stopped for 6 weeks!!! I know others are seasonal.

KneelJustKneel, thanks for explaining. I didn't know weekly lesson through a year was available. All the activities I know including sports, music, drama etc, run only school term. Agree it's a huge gap but not complaining like you as we need holiday too...

Neleus - private out of school lessons here are often either weekly (do for example a few friends do piano lessons 50/52 weeks a year) or properly school terms (38 weeks a year).

With only 10 a term there's very long gaps between terms and the odd one gets missed with school events. Not complaining as its working for us but suspect more progress is made with weekly lessons?

At DD's school they rotate the lessons so they miss a different lesson each week. There are loads of pupils having lessons so the missing a lesson is no big deal. She is in Y7 but I think they try and schedule the older girls lessons before school/ lunch etc so they don't miss lessons ( I think the numbers having music lessons drop off a lot as they get older).
The trouble with after school lessons is that there seem to be lots of extra ad hoc rehearsals etc for concerts after school so it may be hard to work out best times for any external lessons.
I'd try and have them in school.

Which instrument is it?

Good schools will arrange music lessons for a different time each week, so that hte same teaching slot is not being missed all the time. Also, older students are given preferred slots eg break/lunch/after school so that lessons are not missed.

Yes, students will have to catch up on missed work and check for homework, but that isn't too hard a task (especially if the school uses online/app for homework tasks).

I would opt for in school lessons.

KneelJustKneel, most extra curricular activities including instrumental lessons run during school term only anyway? When DS joined jd, the number of the lessons per term decreased as they run similar to private school's schedule (longer holidays)! For instance, ds would have lesson till mid July at school but end June/early July at jd...

I learned three instruments in school and didn’t have a problem with the schedules in the first three years, but when I started O levels (yes I am that old) my lessons were scheduled for lunchtime and after school.

If your DD is playing an unusual instrument- bassoon or trombone - they will be sought out anyway to fill the spots. And of course if DD is very good they will be fighting over her and you’ll be able to pick and choose.

A group music school at the weekend/after school may be cheaper, outside school it tends to be 1-1 which is way more expensive.

We pay £10 a week for a 1-1 20min lesson.

Downside is there's only 10 a term

Grass - 93% of people are not at independent schools!

I think ours must be subsidised - we dont have a saturday music school on our area so maybe its organised centrally?

We've done both approaches and IMO it totally depends on the child and the popularity of their instrument.
In school works well for kids who are doing well academically and have the organisational skills to sort out any missed work independently.
It can also depend on the instrument. DS1 learns a very popular instrument so the teacher is able to cycle their lesson order around each week so they miss different lessons. For DS2 there were so few pupils for his teacher that he'd have missed the same lesson each week.

I'm surprised how many people suggest lessons in school are cheaper than outside school. Not the case if at independent schools from what I've seen.

I am not a big fan of lessons at school. DS did it at primary school. The school always said DCs who had instrument lessons during school time wouldn't miss much as they would make sure catch-up would be arranged. It's never arranged. I didn't know no follow-up had been arranged at all until DS was Y5 or so. It was not just academic subjects, but DS couldn't finish artwork, couldn't take part of scientific experiments, or missed his beloved break time, etc. He joined jd at year 6 so he stopped having lessons at school for the last year of the school.

It was okay as what he missed wasn't that great (not too demanding academically yet at primary school and it was only 30 mins each week). But no, I wouldn't like him to miss any class work at secondary school.

Lots people seem to find it's fine though.

We've done both and both have had their pros and cons at different times.

Dh began lessons at year 7 of high school but he has asd and the system in high school was they had to remember their lessons wheras at junior school they were collected. This led to him missing more lessons than he took and he found the disruption of coming out of class difficult.

So we arranged to have lessons with the same teacher priavtely out of school. This worked well for about a year but then he had to change school after year 8 and the tutor lived a distance away from his new school plus it was difficult to fit it in with his other after school stuff.

So we gave notice and he began to have lessons at school half way through year 9. He missed a few at first but he is doing quite well at remembering to go. We did have complaints from one of his subject teachers that he was missing work and not catching up but we came to an arrangment whereby he stayed behind at homework club one day a fortnight to do so.

The lessons in school are much cheaper than outside of school and its one less thing to worry about after school.