Playing a musical instrument in secondary school

[nutcracker]

Dd1 will be going into year 5 in Sept and has been told that she will be given the oppurtunity to play either the flute or clarinet. Now the cost is £75 a term which includes the hire of the instrument.

What I am wondering is, when she moves up into secondary school, do you still pay for the tuition ??

I really want her to have this oppurtunity, but am worried about the long term cost.

I hear what you are saying but in Britain we have excellent specialist schools for music and if your child is exceptionally gifted it is possible to gain a music scholarship at a specialist school or institution where even the poorest of families can send child for free tuition. Ofcourse you have to audition and only those children that show a special ability can gain a place.
I am one of seven and my family certainly did not have the funds to send any of us for private tuition. We all went to a local teacher at a local music school and from the age of five we all started entering local music festival competitions. We won competitions year after year and then went on to audition for a government assisted place at schools such as the Yehudi Menuhin School, Chethams school of Music, Wells Cathedral and also gained places to study free at the Royal college of music on a Saturday morning. My parents had a hard time supporting seven children but music needent be expensive at all. I was not condeming all peripatetic teachers in schools, I started off that way, but I just feel that there is not enough advice on finding a suitable teacher. If you're keen to learn an instrument, atleast find a teacher who is qualified and has a performance degree. A teacher can only teach you what he or she knows and it frustrats me wheb I see countless 'teachers' that can barely play themselves let alone teach. That is evident alone in observing pupils and also through hearing various teachers. Once I was coaching an orchestra in London and was on a lunch break...I heard what I thought was a child practising in the hall only to discover it was actually the orchestral tutor! I had to laugh, it was embarassing and this tutor had been teaching for 20 years and was registered with a music service!
I happen to be lucky and come from a very musical famlily where all of us were lucky enough to be given scholarships so music tuition was free. We won international competitions and it was only through hard work on our part and natural ability. All children should have the opportunity to learn music in some shape or form. All I advise is that parents seek careful advice if they want there child to have a teacher that can teach!

I am well aware of the proceedure that a peripatetic teacher has to follow...I work in the music profession myself! Although I now teach at the Royal Academy of Music, I have also worked as a peripatetic teacher around schools so I know what I am talking about. Peri auditions require you to play and demonstrate teaching etc, that's correct but I would hardly call it 'tough'. I am also an examiner for the associated board and frequently have to audition people so I have some idea of what you are saying...thank you.

'Music needn't be expensive at all'. Actually it is very rare to get free places even on government-assisted schemes. They are all means-tested and some of the income levels are set very low indeed.

I do know this - one of my children has been lucky enough to have been selected to attend a Centre for Advanced Training under the government's Music & Dance Scheme. Although the government grant is actually more generous than I had thought, only families with a total income of less than about £27,000 pay no fees. Over about £34-35,000 and you're paying £1320 a year. Given that families in this position will presumably already be paying for lessons in one or two instruments (possibly for several children), that soon mounts up. So yes, 'even the poorest families' might be able to afford it, but it's often families just above that level who are caught in a trap. And let's face it, the poorest families often haven't been able to afford any music lessons anyway. It's Catch 22 - your child usually needs to have had lessons and demonstrated potential in order to qualify for extra help.

As for the assisted-places scheme, that just isn't suitable for everyone. Not everyone wants their children to go to boarding school, and many live too far away to benefit from Academy Junior Dept Saturday schools. That's one of the reasons the CAT scheme was expanded, to reach more people. So, many many talented children and their families are still struggling to afford the tuition and help their children need.

I'm sure you are very highly qualified, but you do come across as very dismissive and almost arrogant. I know many people who are fairly high-up in the music industry and none of them displays the sort of attitude you do or makes such generalisations.

For example, at the 8 specialist independent schools, family income has to be below £14063 for a day place or £11312 for a boarding place if the place is to be free. Fees will be charged above this level, on a sliding scale according to income.

It seems reasonable to assume that most families will have to contribute towards fees to a lesser or greater degree. So, nice though the idea of free-ish tuition for all gifted children sounds, it doesn't work like that and I suspect that many families are still priced out of that market.