Music lessons within the school day

[LIZS]

Wondering what the policy is of other schools where time is taken out of a lesson for a music lesson. ds' music lesson is timetabled in a different slot each week so he doesn't miss the same lesson all the time. Some teachers seem to accept this, others (one in particualr) are insisting he makes up the missed work even if homework isn't due to be set that week. It seems a bit of a heavy penalty and he struggles to finish the work in lesson time anyway. What do others do ?

when I was at school I used to swap with others so I didn't miss english as the english teacher was very stroppy about it and none of the others minded. The music teacher didn't mind as long as we sorted it out and all turned up for our lessons on time. I used to regularly make sure I missed French as I hated it so much

My DD (8) has her violin lesson every Weds, just within diff periods - including breaktimes, which I am not that impressed about!

Her day starts at 8.30, with a 35 min snack/play break am. lessons, lunch (which involves just eating and no playing), reading for 35 mins, then playtime during which my dd has compulsory choir. No afternoon break, finishes at 3.45.

So sometimes she gets NO playtime at all, if violin falls during morning break. Violin does not fall within core subjects, so have not had so many catch up problems.

Friends DD has just given up piano as she found leaving lessons and catching up too stressful.

If it's something like topic or RE it's probably not so important if he's not there when they do one particular aspect, but if he's missed a lesson in a core subject, he pretty well has to make up the work - how else will he keep up with the class? If that's the case, then I think if you want him to learn an instrument you have to accept he may have to do some extra work.

This particular lesson is not a core subject. She's given him a worksheet to fill out, look references up and so on. He only missed 25 minutes or so and it will take him a lot longer to make this up ! When we saw this teacher for parents' evening last term her opening comment was that he'd missed a lot of her lessons - it was parts of 2 at most tbh we find her teaching questionable anyway and she obviously has her own issues about the timetabling.

She may well have isssues with the timetabling - if the lessons are 25 minutes long, she may actually be being interrupted 3 times in a hour-long lesson - two of which would be in the first & last 5 minutes, of the lesson which are vital times. Perhaps she thinks that giving children work to make up may lead to parents complaining & make the school think about changing it.

I think poor teaching problem rather than missed lesson problem.

Some teachers should just get a grip, my DD has a particularly grim history teacher (who will be her form tutor next year - thinks of moving schools )

DD was ill and missed her lesson, was apparently given a worksheet to catch up (although DD can't actually remeber) it cannot be found anywhere.

Teacher now won't give her another one (has run out )and is threatening her with a demerit if she dosen't hand it in. DD in a complete state!

I think she does have an issue with the timetabling but I don't think it is fair to take it out on the kids. There are only 2 kids in the class(of 20) who have music lessons that day afaik so it isn't every lesson she takes them for by any means. We're going to time how long it takes for ds to make this up and raise it with the Head of Music as an issue. No other teachers , including core subjects, have done this to ds with missed classwork thus far.

I think timeing the 'catch up' is very sensible. Good luck!

At our school the lesson missed rotates about in the same way. At primary they didn't seem to have to catch up the work missed, but at secondary they do. At primary there was a rumour that they weren't supposed to miss maths or english lessons but that didn't happen in practise. I actually wrote and asked if ds could always miss maths (as he was very good at it and found the lessons dull) but that request was either ignored or too difficult to accomodate.

It's pretty standard to rotate the lessons, avoid core subjects, and to expect work to be caught up, when possible.

If you lot all find it such a problem for your dcs to have music lessons in class time or at school, why not organise a private tutor outside school and do it that way. I am a music co ordinator in a junior school and IME lessons given within school time are often not great, 2 of the tutors we have had in recent years are simply dire,and they don't tend to be any cheaper than private tuition. (Our kids pay £60 for 10x 15 min lessons which works out at £24 an hour)

School lessons are MUCH more convenient in my opinion, so if you can work out an acceptable way of catching up work/not missing the wrong lessons and there is a reasonable teacher it's well worth it.

It's finding a balance though isn't it? A headmaster I spoke with once said he felt if a child learned 2 instruments it often worked best to learn one in school and one outside, that way you didn't miss too many lessons a week and you didn't have too much time in the evenings taken up either.

DD has violin at same time (Thurs 2:30-3pm) every week (school out at 3pm).
Usually her class are finishing up a longer lesson, tidying up, then sitting listening to a story, gathering up their stuff to go home, for most of that time, so she really doesn't miss much.
I struggle with her only afterschool activity (swimming) as it is, so glad she can do the violin in school time!

Agree with snorkle. If he couldn't do it within school time, he probably wouldn't play at all as the earliest he finishes is 4.15. The teacher is patient and encouraging and ds is making steady progress so have no reason to change.

Took him 15-20 minutes to do the worksheet , not sure how much he got out of it tbh. It actually took less time than last week when he had to finish his classwork before doing the homework even though he'd been at the lesson the whole time. Homework alternates non core subjects so he would n't otherwise have had this subject this week.

I just think they should be consistent, with less moaning to us about school timetabling policy, and I'm particularly conscious that ds should not become overloaded with extra work to the detriment of core subjects.

Pass on the info that having music lesson during the school day actually improves their academic ability even in subjects which they miss from time to time for their music lesson - pamphlet called the fourth "R", by the Music Education Council, which gives a great deal of research about benefits of music. Dh is a music peri (during the day; at other times he's a musician) and gets fed up with timetabling - people only wanting to miss certain subjects - gets incredibly complicated.

My dd takes piano, violin and singing lessons during school time. The only lesson I insist that she can't take time out form is maths.

Dd has two lessons a week in school time. One of them overlaps with assembly and a small amount of classroom time, but she often has to catch up things like spelling for the other one. She hasn't really complained though, so I don't think she has a huge amount to do.

ds3's clarinet teacher has recently moved his lesson to the first part of the lunch break which is working really well - he doesn't miss any lessons (he's dyslexic so finds the catch up really hard), and he gets to go to late lunch, when they are preparing for the seniors so apparently you get more food , he still has time for a play after he's eaten. DS4 is still on the rotational out of different lessons thing.

my DS has 3 music lessons a week but his lessons are at the same time every week. He is rarely given work to complete at home but we have offered!

Update: dh spoke to Head of Music about this particular teacher and she agreed it is an accepted policy in the school to rota lessons but it should only affect 2 of her lessons per term at most and she will have a word. He may still need to make up missed class work.