Visiting music lessons, run properly by your school or trust

Fair rotating timetables so pupils stop missing the same class every week, teacher registers, parent sign-up and consent, and billing, with an optional share going back into your music department. We are pre-launch and looking for pilot schools and trusts.

Request a pilot See how rotation works

One teacher, one morningIllustration, not real data

TimeIn classMusic lesson

09:00Maths
09:40English
10:20Break
10:40Science
11:20Humanities

Pupil Afollow

Pupil B

Pupil C

Pupil D

Day ends 12:00, every week

Week 1. Pupil A is taken from Maths.

Classes Pupil A has missed so far: Maths

The problem with visiting lessons

Peripatetic lessons happen in school time. Put a pupil in the same slot every week and they miss the same subject every week, which means complaints from teachers, worried parents and children who quietly drop the instrument. Behind that sits a pile of admin: timetables rebuilt by hand each half-term, paper registers, chasing parents for sign-up and payment, and no clear view of where the money goes.

Timetables kept in spreadsheets and rebuilt every half-term
The same pupils pulled from the same lessons, week after week
Registers on paper, with no record of who attended or why a lesson was missed
Parent sign-up, consent and payment handled by email and cash
Little or no income reaching the school's own music provision

How rotation works

Each lesson is placed into one of the periods the school has made available for it. Every week, each lesson in a teacher's day moves along by one slot, so a pupil is not always taken from the same class. The order of the day is kept, breaks and gaps survive, and the teacher finishes when they always did. Group lessons share a slot and move together, pupils you want to keep fixed stay fixed, and holiday weeks are skipped automatically.

Fair by default: lessons move one slot each week
Gap-preserving: breaks and the end of the teacher's day stay where they were
Group lessons move together
Holidays and term boundaries are respected, with a cycle length you can cap
Pupils can be excluded from the rotation and stay fixed

Same slot every week

Pupil A misses Maths six weeks running.

Week 1Maths
Week 2Maths
Week 3Maths
Week 4Maths
Week 5Maths
Week 6Maths

Rotating

Pupil A misses a different class each week.

Week 1Maths
Week 2English
Week 3Science
Week 4Humanities
Week 5Maths
Week 6English

Illustration of one pupil over six teaching weeks, with half-term skipped. Not real data.

For schools

A single school gets its own private space to manage terms, periods, rooms, teachers and pupils. Your music lead decides who teaches, when lessons can run and how they rotate, then the system produces the timetable, the registers and the parent communications.

Set terms, holidays, timetable periods and rooms once
Invite teachers and record their availability and absences
Import pupils from a spreadsheet, then link parents by invitation
Teachers take registers and add notes, including who cancelled a lesson
Parents will see what they have signed up to and what they owe

For multi-academy trusts

A multi-academy trust is set up as one organisation with each school beneath it. Trust administrators see every school, school administrators see only their own, and a teacher who works across several sites can be given access to all of them. Every school keeps its own timetable and choices, such as whether to opt in to a school share, while the trust keeps one consistent way of running music.

One organisation, many schools, with a school switcher
Trust-wide access for trust staff, school-only access for school staff
Per-school settings, including who receives the lesson income
Teachers who cover several schools managed in one place

Example structure, not a real organisation.

Where the money goes

When a parent pays for lessons, each payment is split by percentage and every split is recorded. A platform fee funds the software. An optional school share sends a portion back to the school as a profit share. The remainder goes to whoever delivers the lessons: the tutor, or the school itself if it employs or contracts the teachers directly. The school share is opt-in, switched on school by school, and off unless the school chooses it. The exact split is agreed with each school and written down before any lesson is billed, and we will talk through it openly with pilot schools.

A parent pays for lessons

The payment is split by percentage and every split is recorded

Platform feeFunds the software
School shareOptional, opt-in, set per school
RemainderTo the tutor or to the school, as the school chooses

Proportions are agreed with each school and are not shown here.

Card payments will go through a regulated payment provider
Payment status will reflect what has actually been received

Safeguarding and data

This software holds information about children, so we are designing it around that from the start. We collect only what is needed to run a lesson. Each organisation's data is kept separate from every other organisation's at database level, so one school or trust cannot see another's. Sensitive actions are written to an audit log, and parent consent will be recorded against the exact wording they agreed to. A draft data protection impact assessment, data processing agreement and retention policy are ready to share with pilot schools, and reviewing them with you is part of the pilot checklist.

Data minimisation: only the fields needed to run lessons
Separation between organisations enforced in the database, not just the app
Audit log of sensitive actions
Parent consent will be recorded against versioned wording
Draft DPIA, data processing agreement, retention policy and Age Appropriate Design Code assessment available to review

Help us shape the pilot

School Music Manager is pre-launch and not yet in use in any school, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. The organisation and school structure, data separation and fee model are built. The rotation scheduler, registers, parent sign-up and billing are being built with pilot schools. We are looking for a small number of schools, trusts or music providers to pilot it with, so that what we build fits how you really work. Tell us a little about your setup and we will get in touch to talk through what a pilot would involve, including terms.

Pre-launch: pilot schools shape what gets built first
Open to single schools, trusts and music providers
Pilot terms discussed directly with you
No obligation to proceed after a conversation

Questions

Is School Music Manager available now?

Not yet. It is pre-launch and we are recruiting pilot schools and trusts. If you request a pilot we will talk through what is ready, what is still being built and what a pilot would involve.

Is this for single schools or multi-academy trusts?

Both. A single school is one organisation with one school. A trust is one organisation with several schools, where trust administrators see everything and school administrators see only their own school.

Does the school have to take a share of lesson income?

No. The school share is optional and switched on school by school. If it is off, nothing is held back for the school. Either way, the remainder goes to the tutor or to the school, as the school chooses.

How is children's data protected?

We collect only what is needed, keep each organisation's data separate at database level, and log sensitive actions. Parent consent will be recorded against versioned wording. A draft data protection impact assessment and data processing agreement are available for pilot schools to review.

Do we have to change how our teachers or tutors work?

No. Teachers keep teaching in the periods the school makes available. The software is designed to handle the rotation, registers and billing around them. If you already use external providers, the plan is for them to be paid through the same system.