Private lesson, think I handled this badly. What to do?

[ZZZenAgain]

I pay for a 45 minutes lesson for dd. Often teacher gets there a bit late or has a pupil beforehand and that lessons runs over or the pupil after dd arrives early. In effect it is often closer to 30 minutes than 45 for these reasons.

Nw it isn't the end of the world and she is a good teacher but it kind of rankles. Today we got there on time for the lesson at 3.30. She had a pupil there and they kept on working together till 3.45 (so 15 minutes really into dd's lesson). Then the mother came in to pick up her child and was there chatting for 5 minutes.

So the lesson began actually 20 minutes later and I asked if she would prefer us to come a bit later but she said no, there would still be enough time to fit in dd's lesson.

She stopped after 30 min. So I asked her about that and said I would like dd to have a full 45 minute lesson because I think she needs it but the teacher said , "it was 45 minutes." And I didn't know what to say really. She looked quite angry and I realised I had handled it badly but didn't quite see what to do about it.

What should I have done? Should I just forget about the actual length of the lesson in future? Was it being a bit picky to bring that up?

I am a tutor (academic not music). When students come to me I always allow 15 minutes change-over time between them. If a child arrives late then I feel it is OK to finish at the normal time as it wasn't my fault. If a child arrives early while I'm still talking to parent of previous child ( doesn't happen too often) I ask them and parent to wait in my living room while I finish off. If I did start a lesson late for any reason to do with my previous pupil, I would always still teach for the full time.

When I travel to student's homes I allow more time between sessions and it is more difficult to be so precise about start times as it can depend on traffic, how long I need to talk to previous parent etc. However I would always still teach the full hour (in my case).

The only times I occasionally stop a little early are if I can see that the child has really had enough and starting something new for the last 5-10 minutes would be really counter-productive. Even then I would often try to do a bit of revision, play a game or whatever for those last minutes but sometimes you can just tell that the child can't/won't take any more. I feel that the times I do this are more than compensated for by the times I go a little over the hour or spend a more extended time talking to the parent(s).

I would have thought this was the norm and it would be very unrealistic to expect that you could teach without any changeover gaps!

Zen, the more you're saying the more I think you need to quietly start looking elsewhere. Don't rush it, get recommendations etc. It's not the teacher's place to be hurt because you make a perfectly valid query over the pieces. It's her place to act in a professional manner and work through with you what will make your daughter happy. Plus, the timing thing sounds very annoying.

I have to admit I do run my pupils one after the other without a break....but only about 3 at a time so that if I do happen to overrun one by 5 mins I can overrun the next too without getting too hideously late. Plus I am always generous in working in extra time in the run up to exams etc. I am always very aware not to give short lessons - you're paying for it!

I know how frustrating this is. My girls ice skate and one of the coaches spends ages chatting to all his other pupils who approach him on the rink - I always think "I'm paying for this!" But I'm too much of a chicken to say anything because it's hard to get a coach to take you on at all - they're very booked up -and he could dump her and we'd be stuck. Luckily music teachers are a bit easier to come by!

What does your DD think about a change of teacher? If she's happy to, I'd go with that. If she's keen to stay then try and bite the bullet and address the other issues, especially the short lessons. Email is a good way for cowards - I use it a lot!

arrive on time and immediatly put your head round the corner/interupt and say 'are you ready for XX, it's 3.15' The change over shoudld be quick and seemeless - lasting a couple of mins only.

I would definately ask her to make up the extra 15 mins if she has time.It seems she has poor management and time keeping planning ,so it might even be better to find another teacher.