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Support for Pupils and Parents

Information Explained

Problems and Solutions


About MusicTeachers.co.uk and its service.

MusicTeachers.co.uk is a free service which aims to support musicians in every aspect of education and performance. We are the leading internet service of its kind in the UK helping thousands of people every week find the right teacher for them.

We ask all those who use our service to note the following:

  • In using our service you agree to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
  • You use our service at your own risk.
  • MusicTeachers.co.uk is not an agency.
  • The teachers listed on MusicTeachers.co.uk are not employed by MusicTeachers.co.uk.
  • MusicTeachers.co.uk cannot accept responsibility for the conduct of teachers listed on its service.
  • MusicTeachers.co.uk does not offer any guarantees or recommendations in support of any teacher listed on its service.
  • All those who use MusicTeachers.co.uk are asked to familiarise themselves with our Guidelines on Choosing a Teacher in Safety and Confidence.

    See a brief explanation of the ways in which we highlight certain profile features in search results here


What can I expect from a member of the Musicians' Union?
The Musicians' Union is recognised as a highly appropriate union for musicians who teach.

All members:

  • are insured (£10 million Public Liability),
  • have access to an in-house CRB checking service,
  • have access to professional training programmes,
  • have access to and usually abide by MU contracts,
  • are well resourced for their teaching with lesson plans, reports and practice diaries,
  • are kept up-to-date with the latest news and developments in teaching.


What does 'Educare trained' mean?

All those who work regularly with children should have some form of training in child welfare and safety. Most respectable teaching qualifications will cover this in some form as a matter of course, but as this subject is important to many browsing parents we indicate clearly those teachers who have completed an online training course that was originally created specifically for music teachers by a group of leading musical and child protection organisations.

Keeping Children Safe in Music is the latest in the NSPCC's EduCare series of distance learning courses. The training programme uses short films to show a variety of good and bad practice examples, which will be available to watch online. It will help anyone teaching music to children gain a better understanding of their child protection responsibilities, and avoid situations that could lead to accusations of misconduct.

What do a teacher's qualifications mean?
Many of the teachers on our database will advertise their musical qualifications. This can often look like a confusing string of letters, such as DipABRSM or PPRNCM, so we have put together a list of the most common qualifications, together with a brief explanation of what the accronym stands for and who awards it. It should be noted that it will not always be obvious whether a qualification indicates a performance level that the holder has or achieved, or a level of teacher training. We would expect members on our list to be happy to discuss their listed qualifications with any parent or prospective pupil.

Download our current list of qualifications (PDF) here.

What is a Verified Qualification?
If a qualification is marked as verified, it means that we have received a signed reference declaration in support of the cited qualification from a referee who is a serving member of the awarding institution concerned. We run random spot checks by making independent contact with the given referee at the relevant institution.

Can I trust the testimonials on a teacher's profile?
When a teacher includes a testimonial on an account, he or she has:

  1. obtained the consent of the parent or pupil concerned to quote their statement of reference.
  2. made the relevant parent or pupil aware that they stand as referees for the testimonial statement they have provided.

All teachers sign a legal declaration that confirms the accuracy and reliability of the information that they present on MusicTeachers.co.uk.

All prospective pupils are urged to read and follow our Guidelines on choosing a Teacher in Safety and Confidence.


Are all teachers CRB checked?
The CRB system is designed for use by employers to run checks on employees. It is not intended for use by the self-employed and as such it is unreaslistic to expect all self-employed teachers on our list to hold a valid CRB disclosure certificate. That said, many teachers will state on their profile that they are CRB checked. This CRB check will usually relate to work at a particular institution where they are employed (for example, a teacher may work for a peripatetic music service). Whatever the checked status of a given teacher, our consistent advice remains to refer to and follow our Guidelines on Choosing a Teacher in Safety and Confidence.


Does MusicTeachers.co.uk have a Code of Practice?
MusicTeachers.co.uk and The Musicians' Union strongly endorse the The Music Education Code of Practice that was originally created for and by the profession through MusicLeader and Sound Sense. Whilst no teacher registered with MusicTeachers.co.uk is obligated to follow the principles of the Code, it is highly recommended that teachers, pupils and parents be well acquainted with it and adopt it when working together. Learn more here.


I am having problems contacting a teacher.We have a lot of registered accounts and it is inevitable that some members, despite our reminders, will forget to update their accounts with new telephone numbers If this has happened with an account you are interested in, then let us know. We will try to make contact on your behalf. If that fails we will delete the defunct account. We have an automatic spring cleaning system that detects defunct accounts and removes them in due course but we appreciate all the help we are given in keeping things up-to-date.


I have made an enquiry online and have received no response.
There could be several reasons for this:

  • The teacher's registered email is defunct. This will unfortunately mean that your message will not have been delivered. We encourage teachers to make sure that their details are up to date and we do have an automatic spring-cleaning system, but inevitably this problem will occasionally occur. If it does, we suggest you let us know. If you still want to contact that teacher you can of course phone them.
  • The teacher has not added MusicTeachers.co.uk to their 'safe senders' list and your enquiry has been caught by their spam filter. If you speak to the teacher by telephone we would be very grateful if you could point out that this may have occured so that they can resolve the problem.
  • The teacher has a full teaching list and is not able to take on more students at present. We would hope that in this case the teacher would have the professionalism to contact you to explain this.


I have a complaint about a teacher.
We hope that if you use MusicTeachers.co.uk to find a teacher, you or your child will have a rewarding and beneficial experience. The vast majority of feedback emails we receive are positive.

Unfortunately, with a site as large as ours, it is inevitable that the occasional problem will occur. If this happens to you, do let us know, but please be aware that we are not an agency and the teachers on our database are not our employees. As such we cannot intervene in disputes between you and the teacher. We do, however, reserve the right to withdraw teachers from our service and will do so if we think it appropriate.

We do recommend that teachers follow our recommended Code of Practice. This is an excellent and simple document that gives a clear framework for teacher and pupil that will lead to a happy and harmonious working relationship. Please note that adherence to this Code is voluntary and not a condition of membership of our service.

In the highly unlikely event that you suspect a teacher has broken the law, you should inform us and take the matter up with the relevant authority.
 

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