I have two dd (13 and 11) and they both have music lessons on Saturday mornings at a music school in our town - it's within walking distance of our house so they make their own way there and back. It's a family owned business, that is quite established in the town - they run summer schools and musical bands that our two dd have been going to for years.
(This is a little complicated so I'll try to explain it as clearly as I can)
Dd1 has a piano lesson from 9 until 9:45, on the 1st floor, and then a violin lesson from 9:45 to 10:30 on the 2nd floor.
Dd2 has a piano lesson with the same teacher from 9:45 until 10:15. (She also has cello lessons there, but on a different day)
The piano teacher is relatively new there, as the previous one has just moved on to a new job. They've had this new one since January.
This morning, at 10:30, after dd1 had just finished her piano lesson, she was making her way downstairs, and as she was going down past the first floor, she overheard her piano teacher talking to the secretary of the music school (who we've known for years). The gist of the conversation was "they clearly never practise, I don't know why they still have lessons, teaching them is so boring/frustrating etc etc", referring to dd1 and dd2 by name. The secretary was also apparently slagging them off.
AIBU to think this is pretty outrageous behaviour? It's bad enough that the new piano teacher is bitching about them, but I'm appalled that the longtime secretary of this business that we've probably paid thousands of pounds to over the years would talk about them like this behind our backs.
For what it's worth, I think they both do a reasonable amount of piano practice each week - dd2 does about 30 minutes every other day, dd1 does about 40 minutes four or five times a week.
Dd1 says that the piano teacher frequently says that she should do more, and that he managed to fit in 2 hours a day while he was at school - but as she says, he wanted to be a pianist for a living, they just does it as a hobby, for fun.