Bishop Challoner Catholic College offers a wide range of instrumental lessons, all taught by professional musicians, many of whom have been teaching at our school for a significant number of years. This academic year, we have had nearly 100 students taking lessons every week and we hope some of our new Year 7 students will also wish to take advantage of the opportunities we offer.
We currently offer lessons on all woodwind, brass and string instruments, recorder, acoustic and electric guitar, drum kit, steel pans, piano/keyboard and we have a Trad Irish group where students can learn banjo, mandolin or bodhran. Students undertaking instrumental tuition will receive a 20 minute individual lesson or a 30 minute lesson in a pair per week. For Steel Pan and Trad Irish groups the cost is £45 per term, and for all other instruments it is £80 per term. This includes the hire of an instrument for the duration of the time the lessons are taken (excluding steel pans, drum kit and guitar).
You will be invoiced and asked to pay termly via our Schoolcomms system, and this is a commitment for the whole term. A term’s notice needs to be given to terminate lessons and no refunds are given. Failure to pay by a deadline may result in your child losing their lesson slot. Instrumental lessons are a huge cost to the school and lessons need to be booked forthwith. If you wish for your child to have lessons on any instrument please email Miss Hughes, Head of Music, at
s.hughes@bishopchalloner.bham.sch.uk with your child’s name and the instrument they would like to play. Alternatively, you can call Miss Hughes through main reception on 0121 444 4161; please leave a message if she is not available.
All requests for instrumental lessons need to be made by Monday 15th June 2026. These will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and if the demand for a particular instrument is too high, your child may be placed on our waiting list.
If your child secures a place for lessons, Miss Hughes will send a memo directly to them during the week beginning Monday 7th September 2026, informing them of where the timetables for lessons are and when and where the lessons take place. Please talk to your child about the arrangement and reassure them that everything will be ok. It is the students’ responsibility to know when their lesson is and ensure that they tell their class teacher and leave the lesson 5 minutes before their instrumental lesson begins. If your child struggles with this system, please email Miss Hughes and we will try to put some support in place for them.