opinions please. school music lessons

[KathySeldon]

I am a self employed instrumental music teacher. I have a very tight schedule visiting several different schools.
I have a full day at a prep school, only having 1 x 30min break during the day.
The children have a morning break, a lunch break and an afternoon break.
There are certain lessons which I cannot take pupils out of, and they go off site for swimming and games. So it is tricky to timetable the pupils each week.
Now, the school have said I cannot teach during the morning break as the pupils "have a human right to a break time", and that legally they need a 30min break of fresh air every day.

This makes things very difficult, as I will now not be able to fit all my pupils into one whole day.

I think it is silly that a pupil cannot miss morning break twice during each full term. (due to the lesson times rotation, that is all it amounts to.)
Please can I have peoples opinions as to whether the school is being unreasonable, or I am bu thinking it's ok for the kids to miss 2 out of 65 morning break times per term?
Thank you

My kids had music lessons at school when they were young.

They did struggle when they lost breaks or worse lunch. Some days they did not get any food at lunch.

Most prep schools have a staggered break and lunch - which means you can (if you want) teach over the break as (for example) you teach a y3 kid when r-y2 are in their break and then a y2 kid when y3-8 are in their break.

I wouldn't have a problem with my child missing their break for their music lesson once in a while, or even every week. (In secondaries, older pupils sometimes have all their lessons scheduled for breaktimes, so that they don't miss lessons.)

Perhaps you should explain to the school that you'll need to write to all the parents explaining the situation and that in future they will each have two weeks each term when they don't get a lesson. Oh, and you'll need to keep the price per term the same, so that you are not out of pocket. That might generate letters from the parents to the school telling them it's over the top!

I would ask the school to supply and slot the kids into the timetable they want you to teach to

Can they not have their 30 mins of air at lunch time?

That's a good idea

It doesn't really matter what we think - if that's what the school have said then I guess however frustrating it is, it's up to them.

But of course YWNBU to tell the school that because of this it's no longer possible for you to fit all the children in, and which one(s) do they suggest you don't teach any more? Are you engaged by the school, or do the children's parents pay you direct?

My ds would refuse to go to his instrument lesson if it was during a break time. Some of them really do need the time to run around and have a break from learning in order to be able to cope with the next few lessons.

I preferred it when my child missed break rather than a lesson, she never saw it as a problem either. Her piano teacher actually gave her a regular slot at 8am before the school started in the end - no one else wanted it apparently, but we liked it because she didn’t have to miss any lessons or breaks.