Primaries with little or no whole-class music lessons at ks2

[teachingmusicquestion]

I've just seen it suggested that there are some LEAs in which as many as 40% of schools do not make adequate provision for classroom music (I don't mean peripatetic lessons). I'm in music ed and interested in improving it.

I wondered if any teachers or parents know of such a school.

If these schools are out there, I suppose what I'm wondering is how music education has failed so many schools so badly that heads don't consider it worth while spending time on it (even though it is an obligatory statutory subject).

I appreciate that schools are only tested on a narrow range of subjects but that doesn't, for me, explain a head finding a subject so useless as to disregard it.

Really interesting thread!

I'm not a teacher, but I do meet a lot of music & non-music teachers in my day-to-day work (plus I have 2 young children of my own), and I frequently come across the confidence issues discussed, the perception of music as difficult and the trouble in making music something that can be included across the curriculum, whilst keeping it fun for the whole class. Above all, I'd say the most common phrase I hear coming out of non-music teachers mouths is : "I haven't got a musical bone in my body"

That phrase always irks me because we all, I think, know that isn't really true. We all sing in the shower, or (in the UK, especially) when we think nobody else can hear us.

We all have "musical bones" - we are born with them, and they are essential for all of our speech and language development. We use exactly the same parts of our brain for listening to and processing our mothers voices from day one, as we do for listening to and processing music. (For more on the academic research behind this, watch this excellent TEDx talk by Anita Collins - "What if every child had access to music education from birth?"

I cannot agree more with teachingmusicquestion's statement that "I have never yet met a child who is not musical". For me, for anybody to have lost their musical bones by the time they reach early adulthood (I think age 16 is around the threshold where people either have or have not decided that they want to play an instrument), is an indication that something is going badly wrong in the way music is traditionally taught up to that point.

Early music education should be playful, unreserved, and most of all fun. With so many teachers believing that they have lost their musical mojo, why not let the children (who still have a firm grasp on their own mojos) lead the teacher, and just let them play? The formal stuff can come later.

I'm interested in a critical perspective on ABRSM music grades. My DD (10) does piano, music theory and singing at a conservatoire here in France and, while I am happy with her progress (particularly in voice), I don't really know how to assess it...

My DC attend a primary school where it is more usual to play an instrument than not. They have two school choirs (attendance for key stage 2 choir is about 40%), an orchestra and a string quartet. The orchestra has about 40 members playing about 12 different instruments.

The school has a very broad intake and a lot of kids having music lessons are from families where this would be unheard of - the pride the parents take in their kids doing something that seems so alien to them is really moving.

A lot of this happens because of teachers giving up free time, parents who play instruments helping in orchestra and a whole school ethos of music being the norm and something it is ok to take pride in.

I'm not sure how one would go about achieving this in other primaries but I will always be grateful that we got our second choice school! DD will finish year six at Grade 4 on her instrument (fingers crossed), DS1 is doing his first grade in the spring (year 3) and DS2 is starting his first instrument after Christmas (Reception). My side of the family is musical but DH's is not and his parents have loved coming to concerts and hearing the DC play.

Having said all this, they seem to buy in whole class music teaching so will do a course each year of harmonica, djembe, recorder etc. I rarely hear that they have done music in class time other than this.

When I was growing up in the dark ages we all had recorder lessons in school. It was nothing special in that it was only our class teacher and there was no provision for differentiation, we all learned at the same speed.
From this class several went on to play woodwind instruments at secondary school because they had had an insight into music.
Nobody left primary unable to read music, which you could argue isn't necessary in life. Imo though it is part of a rounded education even if the child takes it no further.

When my children were in primary I ran a successful recorder group at their school, gained references from the head and then moved back up north.
I have a PGCE, had a crb and as a sahm was able to offer a free class to the schools, anytime they wanted.
They didn't want to know. Their answer was "It wouldn't have any takers".
Some of the parents I knew were furious and thought that other schools would be appreciative. I have had 3 dc in different primaries up here and none of them were interested.

I think it sad that this is the case and could understand if I had no experience or no crb, or couldn't be flexible, but I handed them it on a plate.

Needless to say my dd is H.ed because her passion for music is so strong and it couldn't be met at a state school.
She is presently practising for her audition at music school tomorrow and I hate to think what will happen if she doesn't get in.

Well, in all honesty, whilst a lot of exciting things can be done with singing and rhythm without ever needing to test peoples' "level," it takes years before children playing the flute, piano, violin, trumpet, clarinet or whatever, actually make a sound most people would enjoy listening to... at least grade exams (provided they aren't ploughed through as quickly as possible so that all the child ever plays is exam pieces) can provide some focus to help a child develop their technical proficiency and thus access a wider range of music, they give feedback from an outsider's perspective, which can be helpful and encouraging (or should be - I don't see the point in it being hyper-critical and putting you off altogether and have never seen exam feedback that wasn't aimed at being helpful, rather than off-putting), and give a sense of achievement for what is, however musical you are, quite hard work. Passing a music exam is only a status symbol if you go around telling people all about it...

I know that in France they have a much heavier emphasis on theory right from the beginning. I remember my sister being very put off organising music lessons for her girls in France, because of the music school's insistence that right from the very beginning, you weren't allowed just to have the instrumental lessons, you had to have separate classes in theory, too... before you even knew whether you were going to enjoy playing a musical instrument! It didn't inspire her to hope they would try to make it fun. In the UK, whilst you have to take a Grade 5 theory exam to progress beyond Grade 5, there isn't this odd and inflexible requirement for your children to sign up to formal theory lessons at the same time, which must surely put off all but the most committed musicians.

I only ever found my music exams useful for the development of my musicianship - but I didn't monotonously go through grades 1-8 in every instrument, instead taking exams when my teachers thought they would be helpful (which was most of the grades from 1-8 for piano, but starting at grades 3 and 5 for the other instruments I played).

Thank you for your reply, rabbitstew.

DD likes her music theory lessons! She has an hour a week of music theory for piano and voice and comes out very happy but tired from the singing.

I'm glad your dd enjoys them, Bonsoir. I think I would probably have enjoyed music theory lessons, too. Unfortunately, my dsis's children put their feet down and said they weren't willing to do them, so they couldn't access the piano lessons, either!

Do they not have anything like ABRSM exams in France?

Now retired, but can remember using 'Singing Together' with some classes (provided I remembered to tape it as it was on during playtime). We also had a very competent visiting pianist, and it was extremely difficult to replace her when she left.

It's not all bleak...my daughter's state primary in SE London had a dedicated music teacher who encouraged everyone to try an instrument, and by about the age of eight most kids were able to read music, at least to a basic standard, through the main class sessions; my younger daughter left last summer with two instruments at grade 4, both taught through school.

She's now joined her sister at a local comprehensive where music is also a pretty high standard. And it's a science specialist school, not a music one (we have one of those locally too).

I am not musical but used to love teaching music, until an idiotic head bought into mucin express, the worst resource ever. BBc time and tune was BRilliant, and we used to sing lots of tuneless raucous songs at the end of the day, for fun, but it really was fun- all not really approved of these days.

as an ex infant school teacher. music is (was) pretty easy to teach in the infants... a bit of singing, experimenting with musical instruments of various sorts and making up rhythms and sound stories etc. listening to music. (to be honest I have not looked into the current curriculum for music) oh and we had a music teacher to come and sing with the children in some schools.

the further up the school you go though the harder it is to teach. there is a big gap between infant curriculum that is deliverable by nearly all infant teachers and the specialist teaching in secondary.

all the children have had the opportunity to learn the recorder for a year at dd's school.