private music school teaching

lolo62

hi,

looking for a bit of advice here. i work in a private music school. this week at a meeting i wasnt at the director told staff (according to the minutes) vacancies not filled can not be claimed for which means I will be down €120 month indefinitely

also if/when the snow comes he will decide to close the school if he thinks there is an insurance risk or its too dangerous etc and staff will be told not to come in but will be obliged to make up the lessons another day or loose the pay for those hours

is there anyone else on here who is in a similar position? i am already on the poverty line and feel as though i am being pushed around and exploited.

i have had a conversation with the director in which i stated that its the schools responsibility to reimburse parents if the school decides to close not the teachers, and that i am employed by the school for set hours which they are obliged to fill...i was told this is just the nature of the job and that was that...

would appreciate any thoughts/advice on my rights here as am feeling very vulnerable with this..

thanks

evolving_doors

I've worked in music schools in a previous existence, and the policy sounds pretty run of the mill...

Student misses the class that's their bad, teacher is still paid (at the discretion of the teacher of course you can offer to give the student extra lesson if you think the student works hard and genuinely deserves it etc)..

Class cancelled due to teacher- then teacher has to make up the lesson in a future date or refund the amt..

I'm a bit confused by what you mean 'vacancies not filled' for me you only got paid the hours you actually teach.. even if you're in from 1pm - 10pm and you only teach for 4 hours then you only get paid for 4 hours.

It seems as if you are referring to a contract situation where you were guaranteed a certain amount of hours, if this is the case then you may have a legal case!!! Although you may find if ou can stay in the school long enough then you'll get thrown more hours if you're liked.. (stay on the secretary's good side)

Teaching music is a really tough gig, most of the teachers I knew who stayed in it usually had a lot of gigs at night or did workshops elsewhere. have you thought about going it alone for 1 or 2 days yourself to build up your own regular students. Also maybe consider teaching music for leaving/junior cert if you're familiar with the curriculum, from my experience there are alot of secondary students doing it otside the school as an extra subject so the demand is there. Maybe you could approach the boss about running a course. You'd really need to know your stuff though.

Hope that helps (although it probably doesn't)

lolo62

thanks so much for your reply!

i might have to suck it up on the gaps even though my original contract (it was seven years ago and there has been none since) it said hours are agreed at the start of the year......my hours were full this year at the beginning and two dropped out, now im down which is completely unfair but with the way things are i think i just have to accept it

the thing with the snow is that the director can just decide to tell us not to come in on a day we are due to work as a health and safety measure, then to keep the pay we have to schedule 'make-up' lessons even though we didnt cancel...
you probably know yourself theres no pay for sick days etc so i think this is just a step too far..

im trying to change careers completely so am doing courses etc so have given up gigging, but am finding now that i cant afford to continue with them because im being hit with pay cuts..

sounds like you did the right thing getting out as its soul destroying

thanks for the tips...i will definitely look into grinds etc!

evolving_doors

lolo62 wrote: »

the thing with the snow is that the director can just decide to tell us not to come in on a day we are due to work as a health and safety measure, then to keep the pay we have to schedule 'make-up' lessons even though we didnt cancel...

Same happened in secondary schools as we have to make up the snow days,,,the thing is though you could look at it from the point of view that you will still get paid but have to work up the lessons another time, parents could potentially ask for a refund for the lesson if the school is closed without giving you the chance to make up the lesson...

In a way I can understand the directors motives also as I knew a director who was finding it difficult to actually stay open due to falling numbers, staff were giving out about hours being cut but alas, the year after the school closed altogether...

PM me if you ever need an LCert notes..(It'll take me a while to dig em up though)