Music Tuition
Introduction
All pupils are welcome to receive instrumental tuition, the cost of which will be added to the end of term bill. Parents of new pupils will be sent an instrumental lesson request form to return at the beginning of their child's first term at the College. Alternatively parents may contact the music department at any time during the pupil's school career to request lessons. Requests for lessons, and notice to cancel them, must be received by the music department in writing. In order to fulfil contractual arrangements with teaching staff, a full term's (10 lessons') notice must be given for lessons to be discontinued.
Music staff are always happy to give advice about the best instruments to choose if lessons have not been taken previously. All new pupils take a test in aural aptitude when they first join the College, and if a pupil is identified as having musical ability, it will be recommended to his/her parents that he/she consider learning a musical instrument, or take singing lessons.
Lesson times
Pupils usually receive one 35 minute lesson each week, although some music scholars and pupils studying for a Grade 8 exam or higher may opt to have double lessons. For pupils in the sixth form it is usually possible to arrange lessons during their free periods. Other pupils come out of academic lessons on a rotational basis, and their teachers will endeavour to ensure that the same subject is not missed more than twice in a term. Note that academic lessons are 65 minutes long, so a pupil will only miss about half of an academic lesson to attend an instrumental lesson.
Timetables are displayed in Big Passage and the music schools. Pupils are required to check the timetables each weekend to discover their instrumental lesson times for the following week.