To ask opinions of parents who have primary Dc taking instrumental lessons

[Saltypeanuts]

Just after opinions

I work as a peripatetic instrumental teacher in primary schools and have recently been informed by several schools that I can no longer visit in the morning as it conflicts with literacy and numeracy lessons therefore afternoons only or no visit at all.

In effect this means I can only work in the afternoons which is not feasible as I have 24 hours tuition to fulfil.

Schools aren’t willing to budge on this policy and I doubt when parents find out instrumental lessons are no longer offered at their child’s school the real reason will be disclosed.

Just wondered how parents feel about their child missing 20 minutes out of the morning for their instrumental lesson? If a teacher wasn’t able to come in the afternoon would you be willing to compromise if it was your decision?

I don’t mind at all - but both my kids are doing well academically. I might mind if they were struggling to catch up after each music lesson.

Absolutely, its 20 minutes a week FFS! My local county council just had a consultation to stop instrument lessons all together. This was sugar coated with how this could be navigated in terms of children still having music lessons. I had a much more honest email from my son's guitar teacher with link to petition. Enough parent power meant plans were dropped. Of course it was to do with money and TBF the council acknowledged this but their claims of how lessons would be still possible didn't really stack up. Can you put info on local facebook pages/local news/twitter etc?

Personally I don’t think I’d have a strong personal opinion, but from my experience of my specific primary school I think people would lean towards trying to schedule these lessons before or after school or on breaks.

Maybe it’s unique to my primary and the parents I speak to, but the perception is the school are already struggling to cover all the areas they need to sufficiently in the hours they’ve got, creating a few extra 20 min blocks to catch up will worsen that.

I think the general tone would be apathy, with pockets of parents who oppose it, I sympathise with you but think support would be limited.

That’s ridiculous! Where are you op? I’m a peri too.

And my son is dyslexic but I still want him to have a well rounded education. I think missing 20 minutes a week of literacy/numeracy is worth it for him to have other opportunities.

If you can't fulfill your hours you need to take it up with your bosses and let them address it with the schools.

Personally I wouldn't have an issue with it, but equally I can slightly understand the schools' point.

At our school the lesson time changes every week so you'll only miss any one lesson once or max twice a term. Could you suggest that?

Tbh no I wouldn’t give up literacy or maths for instrumental lessons. I would cancel if that happened

I think it’s ridiculous. My third of four children is in year 2 and misses an hour and a half of core lessons a week for extra activities. I’m paying for these because our school is so SATS focussed that they do increasingly more maths and English over the years until there’s virtually nothing else in years 5 and 6. I’m not exaggerating. They have ‘days’ for various subjects but no music or art. She’s academic but I still want her to experience and find a love of all sorts.

Apparently some of the parents and teachers were complaining about the lengths of these lessons so they are probably all going to go down to 20 minutes. Just enough time to unpack, get started and pack up again.

Our education system has gone nuts.

My kids had lessons right through to year 9, didn't do them any harm. After year 9 the lesson was before school

And my point was that the curriculum should be encouraging all of these things so there’s no conflict. And perhaps not ploughing on at such a rate that it’s imperative you’re there for every lesson. Poor teachers and poor kids.

At secondary school level a child/student can miss 20 minutes of the lesson and catch up by themselves relatively easily. The onus is on them to find out what they've missed.

At primary school level I imagine it will mean that the teacher may need to work individually with the child to explain whatever new concept they've missed. That would be much more disruptive.

I personally wouldn't have a problem with my DD missing some of her maths or literacy lesson but I can see why schools might be against the idea.

I wouldn't mind at all. I objected more (to myself not the school) last year when my DS missed 20 minutes of his PE, this year he misses 20 minutes of French so he is delighted, although it is in the afternoon to be fair.

Mine have had lessons right through primary and secondary - now both 6th form. Never been a problem with them missing "real" work. In fact it has been a blessing as they would otherwise be bored stiff with the degree of repetition in the core curriculum. Lessons rotate in any case so no-one misses the same time period continually.

This attitude, especially in a primary would annoy me intensely.

I would happily let DS miss some of English or maths so he could have his instrument lesson during school hours. Sadly the peripatetic teacher at his school is fully booked and we've had to find another teacher to take him in the evening.

Yeah - as I’d expected most parents (so far) don’t see at as a biggie - doodlejump I’m in South Wales

My son's trumpet teacher had lessons that went through the afternoon up until 6.00 pm. This sometimes meant having to go back to school later, but if school's local, that's not a problem.

I also wouldn't mind at all, but then my DC is excelling academically. I'm not sure if I would feel different if they were struggling.

Like a previous poster, my children's instrument lessons rotate times each week, so that they're never missing the same lesson. In previous years, they have tried ensuring no-one misses English, or no-one misses maths, but this only works if you have a good spread across the year groups, obviously.