\n<\/p>\n
I<\/span>n April 2024, Hannah, a teacher in a Kent primary school where she is in charge of music, thought she had successfully set up weekly drum lessons for around 10 children. She had found a company to provide them: Totally Rad, based in the West Midlands.<\/p>\n Totally Rad Hub is one of the big players in a part of the education economy that has boomed as public funding for music in state schools has been squeezed: private companies that supply freelance instrument teachers. The company says it has a network of 200 freelance tutors providing instrument lessons to about 300 schools and 5,000 families.<\/p>\n It offers one-to-one tuition delivered in either 15-, 20- or 30-minute lessons, charging parents prices equivalent to \u00a340 an hour (excluding VAT). It\u2019s a lucrative business: Totally Rad\u2019s income from schools was projected to surpass \u00a31m in 2024.<\/p>\n But according to the company\u2019s promotional material, Totally Rad\u2019s mission is all about the music. Because it is run by musicians, the company says it understands \u201cthe challenges of developing musical skills and pursuing dreams\u201d. It promises \u201cexperienced teachers\u201d. Its corporate communication style is chirpy and upbeat: one of its favoured catchphrases is \u201cYou\u2019re awesome. We\u2019re RAD\u201d.<\/p>\n At Hannah\u2019s school, the experience didn\u2019t quite match that hype.<\/p>\n A drum kit from Totally Rad duly arrived and all the kids who had signed up had a first lesson from their new drum tutor. But on the second week he didn\u2019t show up. Totally Rad hadn\u2019t supplied Hannah with a phone number and she couldn\u2019t find one online, so she asked why he had been absent using an email address she had been given. She got a reply four days later saying there had apparently been a \u201cpersonal emergency\u201d.<\/p>\n The tutor returned for two more sessions but then disappeared again. The first explanation the company offered put his absence down to \u201cunforeseen circumstances\u201d, which was followed by news that his commute to the school had proved to be financially unviable.<\/p>\n \u201cHe did three lots of lessons and that was him done,\u201d Hannah said. Totally Rad said lessons were now \u201con hold\u201d and assured her it was trying to find a replacement.<\/p>\n If schools lack confidence and knowledge in music, the door\u2019s wide open for people to come in offering a substandard productChris Walters, Musicians\u2019 Union<\/p>\n Wendy Hollands\u2019 son Riley was then eight years old and had been thrilled that his mum had signed him up for drum lessons (he is a massive Pink Floyd fan, she says). \u201cEach week he came home and I said to him: \u2018How was drumming?\u2019 He was like, \u2018I didn\u2019t go again \u2013 they didn\u2019t get me.\u2019 He was missing it,\u201d Hollands said. Riley is awaiting an autism and ADHD diagnosis. \u201cHe was coming home and taking it out on us because he wasn\u2019t doing the drumming.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Back at the school, Hannah had also been waiting for a Totally Rad singing teacher since April. One finally turned up in early June but only provided one day of lessons. The school were told this was due to a bereavement.<\/p>\n The seeming lack of reliability was one thing but by now the parents she was dealing with had another very glaring grievance: they had paid upfront for drumming and singing lessons that hadn\u2019t happened. Hannah said she contacted Totally Rad with a clear instruction: \u201cYou have to tell our parents that this is not happening and refund them immediately.\u201d But that \u201ctook months and months and months\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n No more singing lessons ever happened. In September last year, Totally Rad finally sent the school a drum teacher. That lasted two months before the new teacher told Hannah he was leaving Totally Rad. The school, and its children, were once more in limbo.<\/p>\n At this point Hannah decided to quit using Totally Rad. The company initially met her suggestion that their contractual arrangement should end in February 2025 with an insistence that it should carry on until Easter (at one point, Totally Rad recommended that the school hire independent legal advice to try to resolve this), and insisted it could fill the resulting gap with yet another drum teacher. But no one ever came.<\/p>\n By the spring of 2025, though Totally Rad had not come to collect its drum kit, Hannah was confident she would not have to deal with the company ever again and that the issues with families\u2019 money had been resolved. But in June she was contacted by around 10 parents who had either suddenly had money taken from their accounts by Totally Rad or been notified that it was attempting to do so.<\/p>\n The company later told her that some of the invoices it demanded payment for \u201cwere raised in error\u201d, but \u201cin some instances they related to underpayments from parents during the period when lessons were active\u201d. It offered no explanation of why it had suddenly contacted parents six months after its lessons had ended.<\/p>\n One of these parents was Hollands. \u201cI emailed them,\u201d she said. \u201cI was like: \u2018Is there a reason I\u2019m being charged again when my son\u2019s lessons are no longer with you?\u2019 They didn\u2019t respond. And they tried taking more payments the following days \u2013 three times. They eventually replied. They tried telling me that I was overdue a balance from December, six months beforehand \u2013 but when I checked my Totally Rad account, it said \u2018paid\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Totally Rad said there was an unresolved balance in the account which triggered the automated payment system to issue a payment reminder. Once the company was alerted, the invoice was voided and no payment taken. They denied the allegation that there were multiple requests for payment.<\/p>\n Totally Rad said the cancellation of sessions was \u201cregrettable\u201d and that any lessons that do not take place are not chargeable but do remain credited on an account for future sessions.<\/p>\n It denied threatening the school with legal action and said it simply reminded the school of its contractual obligations. Totally Rad said it agreed to terminate its working relationship with the school with no financial penalty. It said this was a gesture of goodwill.<\/p>\n These answers and claims from the company arrived in my inbox a fortnight ago. But at around the same time it became aware that the Guardian was investigating its affairs, Totally Rad seems to have started a comprehensive rebranding exercise. The Totally Rad Hub website has now been cleared of all content, and brings up a single message: \u201cThis site is restricted and not publicly accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time of writing, a Totally Rad website that recruits new freelance teachers is still live. There were residual traces of the company\u2019s old corporate identity on YouTube. But it seems the people involved want to somehow move on. Many of the parents and teachers I have spoken to , by contrast, feel that Totally Rad still needs to be held accountable for a long list of failures. <\/strong><\/p>\n I first encountered Totally Rad in March this year. Until the end of the recent summer term, my son James went to an autism specialist school in Somerset called the Mendip school, and like many autistic people he is extremely musical. He told me he wanted to learn the piano, and when the school said it had arranged for Totally Rad to deliver its services, I provisionally signed him up.<\/p>\n <\/span> Photograph: Liudmila Chernetska\/Getty Images\/iStockphoto<\/p>\n Because of his autism, James has a singular learning style, and teaching him is best done by someone who understands neurodivergence. If things go wrong, it can poison his interest in whatever he is learning. So I emailed Totally Rad with a reasonable request: could I speak to the tutor involved? Two days later, I got an answer: \u201cWe don\u2019t have a phone number to be contacted on but we are more than happy to discuss any of your concerns.\u201d So I asked again: could the tutor who would be working with James call me? \u201cWe are happy to pass on any information to our teacher you may have,\u201d said the reply.<\/p>\n After more back-and-forth exchanges, I then received an email suddenly agreeing that \u201cspeaking with the teacher in advance\u201d was in fact a \u201cvital part\u201d of \u201cevery child receiving the support they need to learn in a way that works best for them\u201d. But by then I was fearing the worst. \u201cI\u2019ll leave it,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n Totally Rad says there is a phone line available for teachers and tutors and schools, but not for the parents of the children being taught. The company communicates with parents <\/strong>via a secure messaging platform called Intercom. This, it said, was for safeguarding reasons.<\/p>\n What happened next echoes the experiences of many of the parents I have spoken to. Over 17 days, I was sent 24 text messages \u2013 sometimes at the rate of two a day, at completely random times \u2013 demanding money for lessons I had not agreed to (at one point, the fee went up from \u00a378 to \u00a3120.90) and that were not going to happen.<\/p>\n Totally Rad said these messages were from an automated system and related to amounts I would have owed had the lessons taken place. It voided my invoice, it said, as a gesture of goodwill.<\/p>\n I later discovered what had happened after Totally Rad sent a teacher to the Mendip school, in a long conversation with the school\u2019s spokesperson. \u201cIt was 16 May, which was a Friday, when we had the first lesson,\u201d he said. \u201cThey sent this chap out \u2026 and I said: \u2018What experience have you had working with children with special needs?\u2019 He said: \u2018I actually only found out it was a special school when I Googled it myself.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n As far as the school understands, the teacher had done this the night before he turned up. He was scheduled to teach 14 autistic children.<\/p>\n \u201cI said: \u2018How much music teaching have you done?\u2019,\u201d the school spokesperson said. \u201cHe said: \u2018This is my first day. I\u2019ve never taught music before.\u2019 He said to get the job he had had to send Totally Rad a video of him playing the guitar. His words were: \u2018I think they just wanted somebody in the job quick, so they hired me within about three weeks.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n He was also scheduled to teach the piano, which he said he could play \u201ca bit\u201d. Fearing things might go badly wrong, a full-time teacher had to sit in on the first lessons and leave his class of nine-, 10- and 11-year-olds in the hands of support staff. \u201cIt very quickly became apparent that the Totally Rad teacher was just out of his depth,\u201d the spokesperson told me. \u201cHe didn\u2019t really know how to handle our children. There was none of the animation you\u2019d need to get children excited. There was just nothing.<\/p>\n \u201cI have no issues with this lad \u2013 I mean, he really did try his best. But he shouldn\u2019t have been placed in that position.\u201d<\/p>\n The Totally Rad branding on TrustPilot suddenly changed to that of \u2018Winston Farriers\u2019, a horse-riding company of which I could find no recordJohn Harris<\/p>\n The school sent its first email alerting Totally Rad to serious concerns and raising the prospect of cancelling its arrangement on 16 May and received no replies, aside from a suggestion to try a different email address, and a claim \u2013 on 13 June \u2013 that the member of staff who could deal with this would be \u201creturning shortly from annual leave\u201d. By the start of July \u2013 six weeks after the first teacher had turned up \u2013 the Mendip school had still received no acknowledgment of its problems.<\/p>\n The staff concerned made their grievances plain: \u201cAs a school, we are appalled with our experience with Totally Rad, from sending an individual who is unqualified to teach music, particularly to students with additional learning needs. Perhaps more upsetting, however, is the way in which your company has hounded our parents for payments, sending multiple emails and messages each day.\u201d<\/p>\n Totally Rad did not address the fact that its tutor did not know he was teaching autistic children and had never done so. It did say that suggestions a tutor was simply thrown in without verified checks on quality or suitability were \u201cunfounded\u201d and misrepresented its recruitment process. That process, it said, includes a performance video and interview, with responses assessed against an internal scoring system.<\/p>\n The school also raised another issue: \u201cThere are parents who have unknowingly paid for music lessons for September who have since rung to request a refund, only to be told [by Totally Rad] that these lessons will be taking place. They will not.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Because of the contract it signed with Totally Rad, at the end of the recent summer term the Mendip school was still hosting lessons provided by the teacher it was sent. Teaching assistants have to be present in all of them. Two weeks ago, the school sent the company an email repeating the fact that it wanted to cancel its contract and informing it that a member of staff was speaking to the Guardian. A reply came back within an hour, along with confirmation that the contract would be ended.<\/p>\n In researching the company, my attention was quickly drawn to a fascinating subplot in the story of Totally Rad on the consumer reviews website TrustPilot. In early June, when I read some profoundly negative descriptions of the company\u2019s services posted on there (there are 43 one-star reviews, out of a total of 51), I posted my own. I mentioned some of my experiences and explained that I would soon be writing this article. At around the same time, the Totally Rad branding on the relevant page of that website suddenly changed to that of \u201cWinston Farriers\u201d, a horse-riding company of which I could find no record.<\/p>\n There was also a review credited to \u201cAnon\u201d enthusing about \u201ca five-star experience from start to finish\u201d, in which the staff had \u201cmatched each rider to the right horse, and kept the pace right for everyone\u201d. For a while, these changes meant any Trustpilot user had to scroll down to find any mention of Totally Rad\u2019s music tuition.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Trustpilot told me this change happened when the owner of Totally Rad registered with the website decided to \u201cclaim\u201d its profile, a change that lets companies reply to their reviews. \u201cWe were informed by a whistleblower report that the business had changed the name of the profile to a domain not associated with the company,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce this was confirmed by our internal teams, we changed it back to the original name and sent an educational message as part of our enforcement process, which was acknowledged by the business owner.\u201d<\/p>\n The rebranding has been reversed and the horse-riding review has disappeared.<\/p>\n Totally Rad\u2019s lawyers told us \u201cour client has no understanding of why the page was temporarily changed\u201d, and that some of the reviews on Trustpilot were not reflective of their customer base.<\/p>\n A spokesperson from Trustpilot confirmed that changes on the company profile were actioned by a user using a Totally Rad Music business email address.<\/p>\n Totally Rad has threatened at least two people who have posted reviews on Trustpilot with legal action. One is Hannah, the teacher in Kent. In June, she posted a negative review on the website. She then received two emails from Totally Rad\u2019s \u201coperations director\u201d, Josh Hall. The first said: \u201cI\u2019ve been alerted to a public review containing defamatory claims which appears to align with your first name,\u201d and asked for confirmation that she had written it.<\/p>\n The second was legal. It said her review was \u201cdemonstrably false and malicious in nature\u201d and threatened her with legal action under the Defamation Act 2013. As a result, Hannah spoke to me for this article under a pseudonym, and the school has declined to be named.<\/p>\n Samuel Morgan was willing to speak to me on the record. He is a self-employed music tutor based in London, and one of several former Totally Rad tutors I spoke to, all of whom talked about late payments and poor communication; two of them have resorted to legal action to try to secure money the company owes them.<\/p>\n Morgan is a drummer. To demonstrate his skills, he had sent the company a video of him playing Starless, by the 1970s prog-rock band King Crimson. But he says he was not asked any meaningful questions about his aptitude for teaching. \u201cThere was nothing like that,\u201d he said. He also agreed to teach guitar and piano.<\/p>\n <\/span>A child being taught guitar<\/span> Photograph: South_agency\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the first proper job I\u2019d had after leaving uni,\u201d he said. Totally Rad said he would be paid around four weeks after each working month had come to an end: for September, he was told, he\u2019d be paid at the end of October. \u201cBut they were terrible at communicating,\u201d he claims. \u201cThe first story that was spun to me was maybe two weeks after my invoice was overdue. They said: \u2018Can you amend some things on your invoice?\u2019 Another few weeks went by. I was sending emails like: \u2018Just checking \u2013 are there any issues here?\u2019 And then the finance manager said: \u2018Sorry there have been delays, we\u2019ve been switching over to a new payment system. We\u2019ll get you paid shortly.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n By now it was \u201cwell into November\u201d. He was finally paid for the work he had done in September after getting help from the Musicians\u2019 Union. By then he had decided to stop working for Totally Rad.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I handed in my notice, that\u2019s when they started being ridiculously difficult with payments,\u201d he claimed. \u201cI had to pay my rent. I was having to borrow money off people. It was a miserable Christmas because of that.\u201d<\/p>\n He finally got paid for his work in October at the end of December, but then he began chasing Totally Rad for another two months\u2019 worth of fees that had not been paid. \u201cI remember sending emails with links to songs with money in the title: Money, by Pink Floyd, and Money For Nothing, by Dire Straits,\u201d he said. His outstanding invoices were finally paid in February this year.<\/p>\n Totally Rad said each candidate was put through a detailed and structured selection process, including a video performance and an interview. It said invoices were paid within 30 days of receiving correct invoices, and that it was within its right to delay payment until accurate invoices were received.<\/p>\n The Musicians\u2019 Union\u2019s recommended hourly rate for instrument teachers who work in schools is \u00a344 an hour. Its national organiser for education, Chris Walters, says the union has been concerned about privately run music tuition services for about a decade, but issues about the way they operate have noticeably intensified over the past few years.<\/p>\n \u201cIf schools lack confidence and knowledge in music, they see these companies as a great solution,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so the door\u2019s wide open for people to come in who are actually offering a substandard product. And that includes the way that they treat their teachers and the way they prepare them to go into schools.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019d cancelled the lessons, but Totally Rad then hounded me. And honestly, it made me ill.Beccy Marshall, parent<\/p>\n This is, at least in part, yet another story about the long shadow cast by austerity. A big factor in the rise of such companies, Walters said, had been a post-2012 funding freeze for music hubs: local organisations that are meant to coordinate music teaching in state schools, with finance provided by the Department for Education. Their financial problems have been reflected in a decline in instrument teaching, and a sense that much of what remains is delivered on a hand-to-mouth basis.<\/p>\n In October last year, Totally Rad announced it had secured \u00a3100,000 in debt finance \u2013 from public money \u2013 from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II, a scheme overseen by the state-owned British Business Bank.<\/p>\n Those funds, Totally Rad said, would partly be used to support the development of a new online platform, which would \u201ccomplement the existing service by enabling pupils to continue lessons during the school holidays or allow those in rural areas to access lessons when there are no local teachers available\u201d.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, there are people with grievances all over the country.<\/p>\n Beccy Marshall lives in Saddleworth, in Greater Manchester. Last autumn, her daughter said she was interested in Totally Rad drum tuition at her school, but then she changed her mind. Her mum cancelled the lessons that had been planned.<\/p>\n \u201cBut she came home from school and said they\u2019d pulled her into a drumming lesson,\u201d Marshall said. \u201cI was really annoyed. I thought: \u2018You\u2019ve not had my consent to do that.\u2019 I\u2019d cancelled it. But Totally Rad then hounded me. And honestly, it made me ill.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was constant texts, constant emails, and I kept trying to contact them to say \u2018I cancelled this, I don\u2019t want the lessons\u2019. And the only time they would reply would be to say: \u2018You didn\u2019t cancel it\u2019. I was sending them screenshots to say: \u2018Look I\u2019ve got this to show you I have cancelled it.\u2019 And they would just keep hounding me for this money. The money was going up as well, they were putting charges on it, late payment fees.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I even said in one of my messages: \u2018You are just a music provider to schools. My bank doesn\u2019t hound me like this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n In most of what she says, there is a familiar element of so many accounts of dealing with Totally Rad: a kind of grim amazement that something as simple \u2013 and potentially life-changing \u2013 as teaching music to children could be so fraught with difficulty and bad feeling. \u201cIt was bonkers,\u201d she said. \u201cBonkers<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Totally Rad says bill payers are liable to pay for sessions unless cancelled in advance in writing, otherwise automated reminders are sent out until the issue is resolved. In many cases we have reported on, Totally Rad has agreed to cancel outstanding payments for lessons which have not yet happened. This, it said, was done out of good will.<\/p>\n Totally Rad said it had attempted to deal with all issues raised in this article, many of which were caused by circumstances outside its control, in a professional and timely manner. It also said the business had supported schools, donated free instruments and provided lessons and opportunities for children from all backgrounds.<\/p>\n Its lawyers, Taylor Hampton, said the allegations in this article \u201care not only inaccurate, they are also defamatory of our client\u201d. This language closely mirrors that used in letters sent by Totally Rad to tutors and teachers, whose pupils have just wanted to learn to play music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In April 2024, Hannah, a teacher in a Kent primary school where she is in charge of music, thought she had successfully set up weekly drum lessons for around 10 children. She had found a company to provide them: Totally Rad, based in the West Midlands. Totally Rad Hub is one of the big players<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[9426,1466,438,9681,686,583,9680,588,436,9679,1418],"class_list":{"0":"post-16314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-despair","9":"tag-firm","10":"tag-leaving","11":"tag-lurch","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-pupils","14":"tag-rad","15":"tag-schools","16":"tag-teachers","17":"tag-totally","18":"tag-tuition"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018I\u2019ve never taught music before\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018They were terrible at communicating\u2019<\/h2>\n