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Rebecca Berkley writes: On a recent school visit, I observed a conversation between a primary trainee and her mentor discussing the successful maths lesson the trainee had just taught. As they discussed the finer points of the maths pedagogy she had employed, it occurred to me that this was exactly this kind of professional conversation … Continue reading
Ingrid McLean writes: I am in my tenth year of classroom teaching and ninth year as a Head of Music and I’m still not sure of the answer. When I first became a Head of Music, I spent far too much time thinking only OFSTED knew what made a great Department. I heard terrifying stories … Continue reading
All these different music organisations…. Things have gone a bit quiet on this subject recently, but it’s not long ago that most of us were agreeing that there were too many of them, and that they should merge together and form one big powerful organisation with a ‘single voice’. The sticking point was that no … Continue reading
Martin Fautley writes: David Ashworth challenged to me to write a guest editorial entry for Teach Talk Music which didn’t focus on assessment, and was contentious! So this is my attempt to do just that, but I couldn’t leave assessment alone, sorry. So this piece begins and ends with assessment, but does go somewhere else … Continue reading
We know what a violin sounds like, what the piano sounds like and what a trumpet sounds like. We also know what it looks like when these instruments are played – the movements and gestures associated with many of the best-known instruments are so universal that we don’t even need to hear a sound to … Continue reading
Jane Werry writes: I am worried about harmony. Actually about the teaching of harmony, and the fact that with every new A level spec the requirements for completing harmony exercises diminish further, to the point that with the 2016 specifications, you have to dig around to find it. If I stick with OCR, my A … Continue reading
Patrick Gazard and John Kelleher write: We are working on a new book. For some time now we have been aware of the number of colleagues who are running one man/woman departments. Often promoted after no more than a year or, increasingly, as their first post in teaching. Patrick writes: “thinking back to my first year … Continue reading
Kathryn Deane writes: I and my good colleagues Anita Holford, Rob Hunter and Phil Mullen have spent a lot of time over the last four years thinking about disadvantaged children and young people – what Youth Music calls “children in challenging circumstances” – as part of our evaluation of Youth Music’s Musical Inclusion programme. For … Continue reading
Don Gillthorpe writes: Whilst clearing out a filing cabinet in a previous school, I found a Scheme of Work from the 1980s. In the opening paragraph was a statement describing classroom music’s primary aim as being ‘a release from the rigours of the academic curriculum’. After some gentle teasing of the former Head of Music … Continue reading
After standing down as Director of Learning and Participation for Sage Gateshead in April 2015, I took up the free-lance, part-time role of Programme Director for inspire-music (www.inspire-music.org) a Paul Hamlyn Foundation initiative aimed at improving music learning for children and young people through sharing effective, inspiring music education practice*. Alongside establishing inspire-music with Professor … Continue reading
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