Parents asked to pay up for pupils' music lessons (From Western Telegraph)

Parents asked to pay up for pupils' music lessons

Parents of pupils at a Pembrokeshire secondary school are being asked to help to finance a possible £25,000 overspend.

Tenby's Greenhill School, which has a £4 million annual budget, is requesting families to contribute towards the cost of peripatetic music lessons in an attempt to balance its books.

Around 300 children in the school benefit from free instrumental tuition, which costs Greenhill around £40,000 a year. Parents of these pupils are now being requested to pay £25 per family per term to meet the current bill.

Explained headteacher Chris Noble: "Despite an increase in student numbers and growth in the budget of more than the headline inflation rate, the costs of providing the high educational standards described in our recent inspection report has threatened to exceed the funds we have available.

"We are therefore investigating very carefully where savings can be made and where income can be improved, and are taking a long, hard look at the non-curricular items in our school budget."

One of the largest of these is peripatetic music teaching, taken up by one in four of Greenhill pupils. The school has an enviable reputation throughout Wales for its high musical standards, with its orchestra winning this year's Urdd Eisteddfod.

Already, £6,000 - 14% - has been shaved off the peripatetic music teaching budget and the school is now hoping that voluntary contributions from parents could bring in enough money to restore the cut.

It is emphasised that no child whose parent is unable or unwilling to pay will lose their musical tuition.

Added Mr Noble: "We are sorry to have to ask for this contribution from such a committed group of parents, but hope that this will only be a temporary measure, and that free tuition will be restored by the next school year."

He emphasised that he had no criticism of the budget delivered to Greenhill by Pembrokeshire County Council. "It is an excellent unitary authority in terms of education provision, and we are very appreciative of the support received from education director Gerson Davies and his staff," he commented.

"But education is an increasingly expensive business, and we have recently had to spend a lot of money on our buildings and our rolling programme of redecoration.

"It is not an option for our school to go into the red, which is why we have worked hard to identify potential savings."