Without first-class teachers we would be nothing, so we uphold the absolute highest standards for all our teaching staff.  We know we're the best, because teachers from other schools and music services keep failing our interview!

At Cherry Pie we're justifiably proud of our top-class teaching staff.  We have a team of around 15 teachers at our school and a wider team of teachers for visiting and peripatetic work.  Our teachers come from a diverse range of musical backgrounds and all have various specialisms whether classical, jazz, rock/metal, pop, musical theatre and so on, as well as being excellent all-round musicians.  Although we look first for qualifications and experience we value "real world" experience very highly, and most of our teachers are or have been professional performers or session musicians.

Over the course of 2007 we refined our recruitment, selection, training and supervision procedures to bring ourselves a large cut above the rest.  It's a little-known fact that most music schools and tuition services require little more than a demonstration of some musical ability and an apparently friendly personality to get the job, something we feel is dangerously inadequete.

Before working at Cherry Pie our teachers go through a rigorous assessment which addresses every part of being an excellent music teacher.  On the musical side we audition not only technical and artistic ability but also the wider skills of sight reading and improvisation which make a well-rounded and versatile musician.  We also require a written music theory paper.

We assess teaching ability through an observed lesson and teaching practice questions and test the teacher on their ability to put across complex information clearly and simply.  We also use competency-based interviewing to ensure we only take teachers who are reliable, mature and organised, and whose hearts are truly in music and in teaching.

All our teachers are fully CRB checked to work alone with children as required by law.  In addition to this we also test our teachers awareness of child protection at their interview to ensure they have a common sense understanding of correct procedure and practice when working with children, then train them all to a common standard when they start working for us.  So far, we've yet to find another school that does any more than the minimum required by law, something CRB themselves admit is inadequete vetting for teaching staff.

We don't have any minimum qualification or experience requirements for teachers as such, although we do require a graduate level of musical knowledge and ability and a strong teaching ability.  Only in extremely rare cases do we find teachers who have this level of ability without the matching qualifications, and as a result over 95% of our teachers are music degree graduates.