Opinions please - rescheduling lessons

[pigsinmud]

Nothing to do with my dh, but a friend of his - trumpet player/teacher.
At one of his schools he has now been told that if a child misses a lesson due to illness or forgetting - basically not turning up to the lesson - the teacher must reschedule or refund. Dh & I, and friend of course, think this is totally unreasonable. Ok to reschedule lesson due to a school trip, but due to child not turning up to a lesson seems crazy.

What do you lot think?

This sums up what I think!

The school are being unreasonable. If your friend goes in to take a lesson, and nobody has bothered to let him know the child won't be there for a valid reason, then why should he be out of pocket?

We always had to pay for missed lessons unless we gave notice in advance, same as you do for most things where someone won't be able to make any other use of the time while waiting to see if you bother to show up.

Never known any music teachers to do this. Even with planned absence I have always thought it down to the good will of the teacher if they are able to reschedule the lesson (they always have but I certainly don't expect them too).

Is the friend in a position to refuse and just stop teaching in this school?

Never come across this. As a parent, we are made aware that if a child misses a lesson, it still has to be paid for as obviously the teacher is still there and available. I guess there might be room for some negotiation if there was a trip planned some weeks in advance and the teacher could be cancelled for the day, but even then, I can see that the teacher can't just 'pick up' some pupils to cover that time.
My assumption is the music teacher is employed for a block of 10 / 12 lessons.

Absolutely not on.

I see this from both sides of the coin (dh is singing teacher, dc have piano/violin lessons)

I'd be seriously considering my position at this school.

If my dc miss a lesson (illness/forgetting/school trip etc.) for either private or school, then I expect to pay. If the teacher rechedules the lesson, then I'm very grateful. But I don't expect it.

Totally unreasonable and i've never heard of this happening before.

Can your DH's friend refuse?

Glad you're all on the same side! Dh has another teaching friend whose school also has this policy already. He wanted to get dh teaching there too, but dh refused due to this rule. Dh is very accommodating with rescheduling lessons and will sometimes do it if the child is ill and has an exam coming up etc, but he can't always and parents don't expect him to.

At the moment friend is protesting about the introduction of this rule. MU is on the case, but the bursar is saying tough get on with it. Ultimately he could leave, but it could be a worrying trend starting.