Need advice re music tuition

[EvilTwinsAteRudolph]

I'm coming at this from the POV of a teacher, and would like to hear some POV from parents please.

I'm Head of Performing Arts at a secondary school - newly returned to post after 4 yrs off as SAHM. Same school though (lucky coincidence) One of my jobs is sorting out peripatetic music tuition. We had a really slow (and small) take up this year - rural area, low income families, credit cruch etc. We always say that unless 2 or more students want to learn the same instrument, we can't offer it, as single lessons are expensive - the county music service bills us, and we pass the cost on to parents, splitting it into termly amounts, and dividing by the number of students in the lesson (usually group lesson of between 2 and 4 (not ideal, IMO, but the way it seems to have been done for years). About 3 weeks into term, it came to my notice that one student - a lovely Yr 8 boy, was having an individual lesson with one of the peri teachers, which I had no idea about - it wasn't arranged via me or school - the boy's mum had (I think) sorted it out directly with the teacher, as he taught the boy last year too. I spoke to the mother about this - just let her know that it wasn't the usual way to sort it, and that school had to arrange it with County. Thing is, he's the only one learning this instrument, and so when we got the bill from county, we've had no option but to pass on the whole thing to her. She's livid - our letter (which she did not wait for before arranging her son's lesson, and hasn't signed and returned the slip anyway) states a certain amount per lesson, and of course she's been landed with a bill for double that.

I need to contact her to sort this out, but would value some opinions from wise MNers as to how to handle it - how would you feel in her position?

TIA

I think I need to speak to County Music Services first. Our bursar has already done that, but they just took the line that their costs needed to be covered.

I would say in this instance that the parent and the music teacher have a private arrangement. They went outside of the school booking system. Let County know that the school were not involved in arranging this and that the school will not be collecting or distributing the fees. If the teacher wants to make private arrangements, they can arrange the billing too. They shouldn't really be using your premises, but you'll let it slide

In another life, I was a peri teacher and worked on a self employed basis outside of County. I never understood why other teachers wanted to work in that system. I paid a very small rent for my teaching room per day and collected money myself up front for the term at the end of the preceding one. Wasn't the school problem if I wasn't paid (it never happened).

thetasigmamum -how can you accuse the OP of actively discouraging pupils
bitchy and unnecessary comment

Actually I agree with toddlerama, the peri teacher herself is somewhat at fault her in making this arrangement outside of the normal boundaries.

My sil is a peri music teacher in private school. She has to do all her own invoicing, collecting of monies and timetabling of lessons!

Of course the peri teacher will travel for just one lesson, if they are employed by the county music service they will be paid an hourly salary rate regardless plus travel expenses(which does not necessarily correspond to what the school are billed as the county rate to the school includes admin/county bands etc.) It is only if they are self employed that comes into play.

Of course not all county music services employ their teachers, some treat the peri's as self employed.

The peri teacher has been totally out of order arranging this with the parent and the school should refuse to pay. In fact the school could bill the peri for rent of the classroom!

The TA you are totally out of order, the OP is doing her level best. Ultimately f parents wpon't pay, they won't pay so the OP is trying to at least give some musical opportunities.

It isn't easy being a 1 person department.

As far as I can see this is a private arrangement.

Teacher was not asked to provide this service by school. He was asked and chose to provide it with agreement to do so with the Mum.

The problem lies with him and the music service. School should not have been billed for it. He should have billed, either privately or via the music service, the parent.

AFA I can see the parent didn't want the school lessons - she didn't send the signed letter back. She arranged private lessons with the teacher which just happened to be on school premises.

We pay £200 per term for individual piano lessons.

you have to nail down that teacher and not allow him to fob you off/avoid you. You need to know how this came about and if the teacher is just going to set something up, contrary to his knowledge of how these things are done and then avoid you when you want to speak to him, him having to bill the mother directly, might be quite a good solution.

In this situation I feel that it is the peri's and parent's responsibility. I would inform the music service that the lessons were not set up by the school and that the parent had not returned a signed slip to you. If you did not inform the music service that this peri was needed, they shouldn't be billing you for it. They should know what you asked them for. If the peri decided to make a private arrangement with a parent then it should be billed privately IMO. Schools have hardly enough money to buy the basics at the moment, so can't be expected to come from the budget. Do what DanZZZen suggests and don't let the teacher off the hook.