Open a music school

marikara

Hi all! I am writing here in a hope to get a piece of advice on how to open your own school. I am consider making a living doing what I love by establishing a music school. I am originally from a different country, but I have also been granted British citizenship. i have a degree in teaching and have also graduated from a music school. As i was growing up, in my home country, it was (and still is) a common practice for kids (up to final years of school) to be enrolled in some other school (sport, music, art,etc). Those are proper schools with a number of classes related to the relevant field (here music), so that when you finish the school you not only can play an instrument of your choice-you take away with you a massive baggage of wide knowledge and become an export in the field. I have not seen anything similar here in the UK - additional, specific education school. Pupils would have classes 3-4times a week (1-2 classes a day) as their after main school activity. I would target young pupils (6-16 yoa) and teach them specific instruments, music theory and history, vocal performance and other. The whole period of study would be 3-6years depending on specific of the chosen program.
My question is, before everything else, - Would this be of interest in the UK? Where do I start? Do I need to get any certificates/approvals etc? From the legal point of view? And a general advice on setting up a school...
Many many thanks in advance for your help and time!!!

AP007

Schools learn music here in the UK

How many 'music schools' do you think there are in the UK already?

The school will be after hours and a fee paying one?

Annisele

This doesn't sound like something you could do on your own- teaching different instruments to different age groups is going to need quite a lot of staff.

I don't know anything about whether there's a market for this, but I think you'll be unlikely to be able to get it off the ground unless you've got a lot of your own cash behind you.

marikara

Thank u. Btw I didn't mean to offend or judge.. There are music school but (from what I have seen) not of this kind. Def not doing it on my own.

AP007

marikara wrote: »

Thank u. Btw I didn't mean to offend or judge.. There are music school but (from what I have seen) not of this kind. Def not doing it on my own.

You mean a school that has children attend full time Monday to Friday?

SingleSue

As a parent of a young musician, for me, the biggest factor would be cost. Would it be affordable to actually attend something like this, especially as it would be essential to practice at home and with that comes the cost of purchasing an instrument.

Middle son received paid tuition at school as an after hours thing but he actually gained more knowledge and expertise on his own instruments at home and via the internet (we're overrun with the blooming instruments now - full size drum kit, 2 acoustic guitars, 1 electric guitar, a ukelele and a keyboard!). He is also studying A level equivalent music performance in 6th form after gaining a distinction at BTEC level 2, where he has many hours tuition during the week in a very small group of students.

marikara

AP007 wrote: »

You mean a school that has children attend full time Monday to Friday?

I would say part time. It would be 1-2 classes a day, 3-4 times a week..After school..

brendon

There is probably a market for this. Have you thought about approaching your local community/leisure centre if you have one? It would be a good opportunity to rent a room, advertise locally (shop windows, etc) and gauge the kind of response you'd get.

marybelle01

The UK has a well-structured system of proficiency examinations in music. It is not sufficient that you can teach, and that you can play a musical instrument - you must be able to teach music AND that instrument. Unless you have the specific skills in a number of instruments you could not teach them - you would need to hire others to do so, and you could not make any profit from doing that. If people want to learn and instrument well, then there is plenty of home tuition available from suitably qualified teachers of the instrument. All you are doing is adding overheads to the price - a building to teach from, staff costs, DBS checks for all your staff (and yourself - you cannot simply decide to organise or sell activities for children without being vetted), insurance. And instruments - because anyone who already has the instrument is unlikely to not also have music lessons so why would they come to you - all the evidence suggests you will be more expensive!

If there are no such schools in the UK already, then that is telling - if there is a profit to be made, someone is likely already doing it; and if there is nobody doing it that is probably because there's no money to be made in it.

justontime

There are lots of music schools in UK, you should check out what is available in your county before setting up your business.

the-mango

There are similar Saturday morning things to what I think your'e describing ie this one http://www.youthmusiccentre.org/Youth_Music_Centre/Welcome.html