At the end of June this year I had my last day at Newark College. I had been teaching guitar making and repairs at Newark for over 20 years, but recent events have resulted in a high risk that the guitar making course (along with violin, woodwind and piano courses) will close down. The teaching staff put a huge amount of work into trying to ensure the courses continue, and efforts are being made to find alternative ways to run the courses under challenging financial restraints.
It was a difficult decision to make, and I have always enjoying teaching the wonderful students we’ve had at Newark over the years. Sadly, the amount of stress involved in coordinating a course with (at best) patchy support from college management was just too much to be sustainable, whilst trying to run my own guitar making and repair business at the same time.