Tutor Scenario QandA

What would you do if the school came to you saying they have a school concert in 2 weeks time and you weren’t required to teach – And how would you mark this on your attendance register? 

• You could ask if you can be involved in the concert so it will still count as one of your teaching weeks 

• If not then you can temporarily mark on your register as “school cancelled with notice” 

• As the school gave you more than the required 1 week notice you will then need to reschedule this week at a later date in the year to ensure you are delivering the full 33 weeks 

• You will then need to go into the scheduled lesson in your calendar 

• Double click it and open the date tab 

•  remove the blue dot for the cancelled week 

• Replace the blue dot for rescheduled week 

• You should always have 33 blue dots across the year (unless told otherwise) 

• Once the blue dots have been moved the date on your register will be greyed out.  

• At the end of each half term, there should be nothing in your attendance register that states the session is to be rescheduled.  

• You need to speak to the school to arrange when is suitable for you both to make the rescheduled lesson.   

• Please ensure this is marked correctly so we have record of this should the school contact us at a later date to query. 

What checks to you need to do to ensure invoices are submitted correctly and will not need to be returned for amendments causing potential delay to payment?  

• You should always use the invoice template that has been emailed to you 

• Invoice numbers need to updated every month without fail 

• Attendance registers must all be up to date –  

• This includes group registers, The group leader is responsible for this unless they are absent when this needs to be delegated.  

• Attendance registers should be completed after every session to ensure accuracy.  

• The amounts being claimed must be totalled correctly. Please double check this before submitting.  

• the hours you are claiming for should be the same as those on Speedadmin, if your Speedadmin is not correct to what you are teaching, please contact us as a priority so we can ensure this is changed.  

• If there are discrepancies between your SpeedAdmin and your invoice please clearly state this in the accompanying email to avoid any delays 

• All invoices have a 30 day payment term, this cannot be changed, it is council policy. If your invoice is incorrect and is in need of amendment by you, the 30 day payment term will be paused until we receive the corrected invoice from you, which will cause delays to payment.  

• Contact music@coventry.gov.uk with any questions, do not wait until invoice deadlines, or your payments will be delayed 

What should you do if a teacher asks you to extend your time teaching or teach an extra pupil who is not on your Speedadmin at that school?  

• Please contact us at music@coventry.gov.uk so we can confirm the agreement and ensure a formal agreement has been made  

• If extension of SLA is needed, this needs to be agreed with the school and payment arranged before teaching can commence. 

•  If this is a direct billed student, we need to ensure payment arrangements are in place before we can begin teaching.  

• DO NOT TEACH ANY EXTRA HOURS OR STUDENTS THAT ARE NOT ON YOUR SPEEDADMIN 

What should you do if a student who you taught last academic year who you were expecting to continue this year has not appeared on your Speedadmin register?  

• Do ask the student or parent if they would like to continue lessons  

• But DO NOT TEACH THEM until it has been added to your SpeedAdmin 

• Contact us as to let us know you are expected a student, or they have confirmed they wish to continue 

• Often there is a reason why they have not appeared on your register  

• Could  be they decided to cancel 

• or they have not arranged payment 

• Or some other complication 

•  Please do not teach them – even if the school have advised it is okay to teach, or the student has told you their parents have said it is fine to continue.  

• This leads to a lot of confusion and complications regarding payments and could mean you don’t get paid for the lessons you have taught them. 

What should you do if you receive an email advising you a new student has been assigned?  

• Go to your calendar in SpeedAdmin and schedule this as soon as possible 

• Click the red padlock 

• New students will appear on the left 

• Drag them to the calendar at the correct time and date 

• Remember your blue dots – it will schedule the next 33 weeks not necessarily the weeks you intend to teach 

• Be careful to note the number of lessons, length of lesson and frequency as not all lessons are the same! 

• contact the school if needed to arrange the most suitable time. 

• contact the parent/carer directly to introduce yourself and let them know the day and time the lessons will be so they can ensure they have their instrument with them and turn up at the right time. 

•  It is your responsibility to ensure communications with parents are kept up to date regarding any changes to scheduling/cancellations etc.  

• Arrange for an instrument to be assigned if required before the lessons start (ensuring enough notice is given) 

What should you do if you have woken up feeling ill and are unable to teach on that day? 

• Contact your schools as soon as possible- if you have a named contact at the school, please also advise them i.e. music co Ordinator, as well as the main office/sickness contact 

• Please check your schools attendance policy to make sure the right people are being made aware.  

• Please also contact us to make us aware of your absence.  

• If you are unable to contact your school for any reason, please make us aware of this when you advise us of your absence so we can contact them for you.  

• Please mark your absence temporarily as tutor absence, but then move your blue dot to reschedule this as per the example above.  

• You should also contact any one-to-one students you may teach that day so they know why you are not teaching them in case parents ask, and because schools don’t always communicate fully, especially if you teach any out of school lessons. 

What should you do if a school wants you to move your teaching which is normally scheduled for a Tuesday to a Wednesday for 1 week?  Please discuss each step needed. 

• If this works for you and your timetable then follow the steps below.  

• If it doesn’t then you will have to work with the school to reschedule the lesson 

• Open timetable 

• Double click on lesson to be moved 

• Click date tab  

• Remove blue dot for lesson on the Tuesday and put blue dot onto Wednesday for that week.  

• Please be aware that this will then become a new row on your attendance register for one week only 

What would you do if you are teaching a double session on 1 day and how would you reflect this on your Speedadmin?  

• Unfortunately Speedadmin does not allow us to add double sessions on to 1 day 

• Therefore to ensure your extra teaching is reflected on Speedadmin and to allow you to claim for it on your invoice 

• add the extra session onto the same week on a different day (it doesn’t matter what day as long as you not already teaching then) 

• Mark it on your attendance register as normal.   

• When you submit your invoice please let let us know in the accompanying email 

What should you do if a child doesn’t turn up for their lessons on multiple occasions in a row – or excessive occasions throughout the academic year?  

• Please check with the school why the child isn’t turning up 

• If possible make the effort to go and find the child in their lesson or contact someone in the school at the time of the lesson to locate the child 

• Be aware this could be a safeguarding issue so follow the correct procedure if needed. 

• flag this with us so we can check with the parent as to whether this child wants to still attend or not and if there is an issue, so we can cancel payment if necessary.  

• It is important we are made aware because parents will continue to pay regardless of if they turn up and parents don’t always know their child hasn’t attend, which can cause problems.  

What would you do if a child tells you they want to cancel their lessons?  

• If possible find out why the child does not want their lessons 

• Contact the office to let us know at music@coventry.gov.uk 

• We will contact the parent to discuss and investigate 

• We will let you know if you need to stop teaching the child 

• Continue to teach the child unless told otherwise and try to encourage them to want to continue 

What should you do if a child has cancelled, you have received notice of this on your Speedadmin, but the child does not attend for their 4 week notice period?  

• The Child is welcome to attend during the 4 week notice period 

• However it is not compulsory. They will have been informed they will be charged for the next 4 weeks whether they attend or not) 

• Do not force the child to attend. 

• mark on your attendance as ‘no show no notice’  

• claim for this as normal on your invoice.  

• The child will no longer appear on your attendance register after the 4 week notice period 

• If you are unsure about a child attending then please contact us at music@coventry.gov.uk  

What should i do if i cannot mark attendance due to a greyed out box? 

• If your have a greyed out box on your SpeedAdmin register it usually means you have run out of weeks. 

• You need to check that all the weeks on your register have been taught and none need to be rescheduled. 

• If they do you need to: 

• go to the scheduled lesson in your calendar 

• Double click it and open the date tab 

• remove the blue dot for the week you didn’t teach 

• Replace the blue dot for rescheduled week 

• You should always have 33 blue dots across the year (unless told otherwise) 

• Once the blue dots have been moved the date on your register will no longer be greyed out. 

• If you believe you have taught all the weeks scheduled (should be 33 but check how many weeks it is scheduled for by double clicking the lesson on your calendar and looking at the info tab) then contact us at music@coventry.gov.uk as soon as possible so we can investigate 

• You will only be paid for lessons which have been taught that month, so please do not leave your lessons unmarked on your attendance register and remember to reschedule them as soon as possible 

What do i need to do if a student’s instrument is unplayable? 

• See if it is possible to fix it 

• Do not use elastic bands, or blue tac or similar to fix instruments! 

• See if there is spare instrument in the school to swop the instrument with 

• Notify music@coventry.gov.uk of any swops or changes immediately 

• If it can’t be swopped or fixed contact music@coventry.gov.uk to arrange a replacement instrument before the next lessons 

• You need to give ideally a weeks notice to replace an instrument (as sometimes a replacement isn’t immediately available) 

• Instruments can be returned and collected by arrangement from Lythalls Lane storage unit on a Wednesday between 8:30 and 4:30 

• If you cannot collect let us know and we will see if something can be arranged to avoid the child not having a working instrument for their next lesson.  

• If needs be you may need to reschedule the lesson until a replacement can be found 

What do i need to do if it looks like i cannot fit all my lessons into the school year? 

• Use your initiative! 

• Try to fit in additional lessons on a different day 

• Try to teach double lessons if possible to catch up 

• Get the pupil to play in a performance instead of lesson 

• Always contact Coventry Music to let us know if you think you cannot teach all your lessons even with this changes 

• Make sure you update your regsiter (blue dots) to reflect any extra lessons. Your register must match your invoice to avoid delays in payment 

• Make sure the parent/school know if you are adding extra lessons or doubling up. Do this by SpeedAdmin so we have a record of any communication and changes 

• Always keep Coventry Music informed 

How do i let parents/carers know what my student is practicing? 

• Use their practice diaries to communicate about what to practice 

• Check diaries each lesson and update regularly 

• Practice diaries can be collected from Friargate on Mondays and Lythalls Lane on Wednesdays 

• You can also email parents from SpeedAdmin if needed 

• You could send 

• Send a video to the parents of their child 

• Send a link to a piece they are practicing 

• Make a recording of the music to be practised 

• Invite the parents to watch their children perform at a school concert or sharing