Any self employed music teachers here who work in schools?

[Needsomemoney]

Posting for traffic sorry
as the end of term is approaching I wondered if there are any self employed music teachers (I’m a peri) here as I’m curious how you boost your income in school holidays?

90% of my income comes from schools (parents pay me directly). I’ve saved as much as possible and have a handful of private students.

I wondered what others do in this situation- I’ve offered my current school pupils ‘top up’ lessons over the summer but this is sparse and unpredictable.

Really want to work over the summer (even if only part time) and wondering if I’m missing a trick? Don’t have any colleagues to ask.

Does your Local Authority do any summer programmes?

Holiday clubs, either doing music sessions or general activities?

Teach theory of music?

Tuition for music pupils in Year 10 or Year 12?

Thanks for replying, I’ve looked into LEA and can’t see anything going on.

maybe I should be looking on local FB pages to explore possibilities of piggybacking on other child related activities?

Theory and Y10-Y12 I’ve thought about- but generally those students already have private teachers.

maybe I should look into hiring a local venue and providing music sessions for younger children (I’m also trained in whole class instrumental ‘projects’) only thing that concerns me is you always get parents who are late collecting their child (sometimes very late) and I’m not quite sure what to do in that situation- obviously it’s different if you’re in school!

I mainly divide up the previous year of earnings by twelve, and only let myself spend that amount each month - so in September I have surplus that goes into savings to roll forwards etc. The other thing I have done some years is offer a week's intensive theory course for those who need their grade 5 theory. So maybe six students, two and a half hours a day - this has worked well and been a bit of a money spinner too.

How about a paid summer holiday taster? It’s a good opportunity for people to try it out for 6 weeks?

Link to a local dance or drama school or club and offer singing lessons through them?
Stagecoach are always after singing teachers too .

Thank you everyone- will look at local dance / drama groups now

I’m not a singing teacher - I teach strings, but can provide all instruments so maybe this can work?

I'd approach some and ask. I just knew about singing as local dance school offers it for students who do competitions.

There must be music-specialist summer camps just as there are sporty-specialist and sci/geek/tech-specialist.

If there isn't one in your area then get together with some other music teachers in a similar situation and set something up. You could charge around £500 per child per week for non-residential I guess - that's what the coding/tech ones charge.

I remember going on a music-specialist residential week when I was a young teen but my own DC's interests are elsewhere. There was a "theme" for the week with it all building up to a final show done for the parents on the Friday afternoon. I have quite vague memories of bits and bobs from a musical story that was told in a mixture of choral and instrumental pieces that we spent the week learning. Things like that must still happen and need staff!

I don’t do anything over the holidays tbh. The odd parent asks but I very rarely teach holidays. I just ensure my income is divided across the four months of each term and only put a fourth of each terms income into my current account a month.

Definitely look into summer holiday courses. We've a chamber music course that runs locally for example. Are you in range for any things like ProCorda or NCO courses? Looking at / joining ESTA might give you some contacts potentially.

Multi-activity holiday camps might also be able to use you for group activities - maybe look around at who provides holiday childcare and approach any that look like they might be able to use you as part of their provision?