Job Vacancy: Director of Suzuki in Schools Initiative

The London Suzuki Group is seeking applications from Suzuki teachers interested in
becoming the next director of the Suzuki in Schools Initiative (SuSI). Kate Conway
conceived of and founded this program in 2004, to bring the beauty and effectiveness of the Suzuki method to state school students, and to provide Suzuki teachers work for good pay during the school day. It remains one of the LSG’s most long-running and successful
outreach programs. Read more in the job ad, plus Kate’s detailed history and job description below.

Director of Suzuki in Schools Initiative

Job Description
Kate Conway, 11.5.22

Suzuki in Schools Initiative (SuSI):In 2004 I was teaching in two state schools, one in the West End and one in Hackney, and felt that the Suzuki approach was very adaptable to working in new ways within the state school system without compromising on quality. As such I wanted to expand the opportunities for state school students to learn with a Suzuki teacher, and for Suzuki teachers to work for good pay during the school day. 

I approached the LSG trustees to ask for this outreach project to be funded in terms of paying for my time in order for me to be able to recruit schools and teachers, attract new families, organise the timetable for maximum parent attendance, and deliver a joint concert once a year so the whole SuSI community would feel connected at this event. They approved my application and SuSI has run for nearly 18 years on this basis.

Having done it for so long I feel both ready to move on and sad about doing so. SuSI has been ‘my baby’ and has delivered quality Suzuki experiences to around 1500 children over the years, on violin, cello, flute and now trumpet. It has offered good job opportunities to many Suzuki teachers both new and experienced, and most importantly for me has diversified the Suzuki community to include low-income families and many more children of colour than elsewhere in the London Suzuki scene. I am immensely proud of this and it’s hard to let go!

Having said that, the time is right for me. SuSI needs fresh energy and management with the capacity to do it justice. I think it’s a great time to look at expanding the role to include more than one person, perhaps a director and assistant director, a director and administrator, or joint directors. The capacity for expansion is huge and I look forward to watching Suzuki in Schools flourish under new management.

Suzuki in Schools currently has eight state primary school programmes plus a strong affiliation with Ivydale School.

Job description:
• Finding schools who are interested in starting a Suzuki programme during the school day, on school premises
• Recruiting teachers interested in teaching at interested schools
• Organising the start of the programme: publicising the Suzuki approach (usually through offering an assembly or parent talk), recruiting interested families, organising the timetable for maximum parental involvement, supporting the teacher during the start of the programme
• Processing DBS checks for teachers and parents in order for their presence in schools to comply with child safety requirements (parents can be checked as volunteers which is
much cheaper than an enhanced DBS check)
• Organising and hosting the annual Suzuki in Schools Concert – so far held at St Giles,
Cripplegate in the Summer term although this could change
• Supporting existing SuSI teachers in expanding their programmes, dealing with any
conflicts that arise between them and their students, parents or schools, recruiting new teachers to replace existing teachers or take on waiting list students, helping schools with any changes they want to make

• General admin around interested schools, existing programmes and enquiring parents
• Delivering teacher training to SuSI teachers once a year. So far this has been a little
sporadic but generally a day of observation and feedback is offered to teachers once a
year, and the observations and suggestions are discussed and written up for the teacher to keep

Salary and hours (provisionally):
• Currently the fees paid to me are £600 per new school programme - £300 upon agreement with the school and £300 when the programme starts, plus a per-hour rate for ad-hoc work, including the concert administration and delivery.
• The LSG trustees have authorised a rate of £45 per hour for leadership and strategy work in this program, and £25 per hour for administrative tasks.
• Starting a new programme can take many hours and the above fee is based on an average of around 17 hours per new programme. This generally happens only once every couple of years at the moment, so most of the work is much less time-consuming except the annual concert. My estimate would be that most weeks I spend 2-3 hours on Suzuki in Schools, plus the observation days for teacher training and the preparation for the concert. Then when a new programme is starting the work increases dramatically for a few weeks. Generally it’s about a six week process from a school saying they want a programme to that programme starting.
• Obviously this is a project that could expand dramatically, depending on funds and
capacity. It currently operates pretty much by word of mouth, there is no website or online presence. This is because there have never been enough teachers to satisfy demand so generally I only put out feelers for new schools once a teacher becomes available.

Handover:
I am keen to have an in-depth handover with whoever takes on the directorship. I would also be amenable to continuing to present the annual concert, but not to administrate it, if that is something they would like. I would also be happy to continue with the teacher training element although again this is not necessarily how it has to be. I envisage recruiting between now and mid-June, appointing new people by the end of June and stepping down pretty much entirely (possibly excepting the above roles) by the end of the calendar year.

I would like to thank the trustees of the LSG for their ongoing support, this project is something I’m immensely proud of and I think we should all celebrate its existence. Thank you all!