School Music Lessons

[JellyCat11]

I have posted this in Secondary Education as well, because I wasn't sure where to put it. Sorry for any confusion caused.

My eldest son is 12 and has just achieved his Grade 7 violin with distinction. He plays for the regional youth orchestra and really enjoys all aspects of playing, both alone and with other people.

However, his school music teacher (curriculum teacher, not individual music tuition) insists that he works with the class. For Year 7, they are taught about the Scale of C major, reading a musical score and doing simple compositions, usually without notating this. He is also expected to learn to 'recognise the sounds of different orchestral instruments'. All of these things he finds very boring, although he is obviously still applying himself, as in his last Assessment he achieved Exceptional Performance (which is the 'level' about L8) and an 'A' for effort, which the school is quite strict about giving out.

I am not against the music tuition the school provides: my daughter loved it and gained immense amounts from it, and the teaching itself is good, but I just wish there was something my son could be doing during these lessons, as they are not stretching him at all.

Thanks!

[Elasticwoman]

As a former school music teacher I can tell you that your son's teacher is being completely unreasonable. When I had a 12 year old Grade 8 student in my class, she was put into a different class for music and did GCSE early, which she enjoyed. Yes it was difficult to timetable, but it was the right thing to do.

That particular child went on to gain a First class honours degree from Cambridge in history by the time she was 20.

Go to the Head of Department and if no joy, to the Head Teacher of the school. It is crazy for your ds to stay in the Yr 7 music class.