You can tell that half the country has started the Easter break. A twitter storm, a discussion around music and people’s differing opinions have collided into a landscape of reflection, argument and an agreement that you can talk about music for-pretty-much-ever.
The model music curriculum quietly arrived at a time which
surprised some and definitely didn’t for others. It’s important to remember
that It’s not a compulsory document, it’s guidance, and what a refreshing thing
to read after being hammered with so many reading, writing and maths updates,
CPD, lectures and webinars. All worthwhile, but can become a sea of conflicting
and sometimes confusing advice. The model music curriculum, in contrast, has
the potential to be a springboard for some really great work and for music
development in schools that had previously allowed music to be the first to get
the chop.
Our school is small, rural, coastal,
deprived and remote (We win a prize? Right?) and access to ‘The Arts’ is not on
our doorstep. Therefore, we’ve always had to think creatively in terms of
budget, time and what really counts when it comes to our curriculum offer. Music has always been massively important,
regardless of the challenges we have faced as a school and we believe it has
had a big hand in moving our school out of special measures. Not purely because
of the music curriculum offer, but because of the huge impact it has had across
all other subjects, plus the influence on mental health and well-being, on
bringing our community together, on communication and early socialization. It
was a signal to our children, colleagues and community of the high ambitions we
had for everyone.
As a school leader, I knew our music curriculum was
restricted to singing services and an occasional visit by drummers. Having
contacted the local Music Hub, we began inviting a Brass teacher in for weekly
whole class lessons with our more challenging KS2 class. The discipline of
music, team work, consistency and listening skills, alongside decent direction,
really did create something wonderful for that specific cohort. After some
persuasive conversations, that teacher became our music lead and a full time
member of teaching staff (and he’s still here 4 years on!).
Having such a small team, staff wear multiple hats in terms
of subject leadership, there is always a risk that the focus and majority of
time and budget is spent in the core subject areas. There had to be really open
and robust conversations around everyone’s subject knowledge within the wider
curriculum and areas for development - and likewise conversations about areas
in which they could support, and cascade training. While supporting staff to
develop themselves and hopefully move on to bigger and better things,
succession planning has become an integral part of the normal strategic
development of the school and that means ensuring subjects like music have got
to be considered. Developing support staff to work alongside teachers has
ensured a sharing of knowledge and a mixing of different perspectives into
teaching sequences. This offers everyone a broader context and avoids us
working in silos.
We promote learning an instrument from Years 1 through to 6.
Children learn the recorder, ukulele, a brass instrument and everyone sings.
After their 2 years, if they want to continue, we either source a teacher or
signpost families to local opportunities. We believe children learning an
instrument promotes individual learning, independence and unpins everything
they learn within the classroom. Children learn that you can’t pick something
up and become a virtuoso. It takes time, practice and perseverance to achieve
their goals. We have found that our children with additional learning needs
have gravitated towards these opportunities and relished the challenges that music
brings. Exposure to music at an early age provides building blocks like no
other subject.
• At Key Stages 1 and
2, pupils should receive a minimum of one hour of teaching a week; this may
take the form of short sessions spread across the week.’ Model Music Curriculum: Key Stages 1 and 2
If you consider a normal week in school, there will be many
times in which music takes place. This may be through nursery rhymes in EYFS,
singing assemblies or collective worship, reciting times tables in chants,
breaking down sentences in to rhythmic patterns, call and responses in phonics
and other subjects, using programmes like Scratch, Chrome Music Lab,
GarageBand, Times tables Rock stars in computing and maths, or in games at
break and lunchtime. Our schools are awash with rich opportunities to use and
apply music, whether we are consciously aware or not. Whether you are a music
specialist, have a music background or are completely new to the subject or new
to teaching, just being more aware of when you are using music within your
lessons is better than doing nothing. You will probably find you are doing more
than you think.
The Model Music Curriculum may not encompass everything that you need as a school. On its publication, we sat down and had a look at our own curriculum map and examined whether there were aspects that needed to be added or changed; it definitely promoted discussion around Bjork, Oasis and The Beatles tracks (and lack of Bob Dylan!). There may need to be some research around your local community and what can and can’t be accessed, but this curriculum can be moulded and manipulated to work for you - and what an exciting place to start!
Thank you to Nick Sermon (@nicsermon) for his thoughts and expertise on this blog.
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