About
As with the other national curriculum subjects there are four strands to support high quality subject knowledge:
- National curriculum importance statements
- Authentic sources
- Subject associations
- Twitter communities
To help us get our bearings, it is worth quoting the purpose of music in the national curriculum programmes of study: ‘music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high-quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon’.
The national curriculum for music aims to ensure that: ‘all pupils perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians; learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence; understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the interrelated dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations’.
Once the importance statements have been revisited, it is helpful for subject leaders and coordinators to discuss and agree with colleagues, the reason why their subject, in this case music, is important for the pupils in their school. One way of doing this, is to draw on a quote, in this case from Friedrich Nietzsche, ‘without music, life would be a mistake.’
This kind of prompt allows us to formulate our way of stating the importance of the subject. We might agree or disagree with such a statement and in doing so come to a form of words which expresses our view of the importance of this subject, in this school. This moves us away from the territory of ‘we teach this subject because of the SATS or GCSEs’. While the external tests and exams are important, they are not the totality of the subject.
Professional Communities
Subject associations are important because at the heart of their work is curriculum thinking, development and resources. The subject associations for music are Music Mark the Music Teachers Association and the Incorporated Society of Musicians. It should be the case that any member of staff with responsibility for a subject should be a member of the relevant subject association, and this should be paid for by the school.
Twitter subject communities are important for the development of subject knowledge, because it is here that there are lively debates about what to teach, how to teach and the kinds of resources that are helpful. For music it is worth following the Music Teachers Association and ISM on Twitter and the hashtags #MusicEdSummit.
Links
- The Guardian: 10 resources for teaching music
- ISM: A Framework for Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment
- BBC Music – Primary and Secondary
- BBC Ten Pieces
- Jolly Music
- Wider Opportunities
- Arts Council Music Education Hubs
- Making More of Music
- SingUp
- Friday Afternoons
- Listen Imagine Compose
- The Full English: Folk Music in schools
- National Teachers’ Choir
- Virtual Piano
- GarageBand for Schools
- UCanPlay
- The Music Education Centre
- Huntington School Music Department
- Ralph Vaughan Williams 150 KS3 Materials by Liz Dunbar