What music education is offered at your child's primary school?

[bigbeautifulmonster]

State schools.

Both my husband and I are musicians and work in private schools so are aware of opportunities available in fee paying schools but not really sure of the state school system.

Our DD will be starting reception in Sept and, without wanting to be pushy, we would ideally love for her local primary (state) school to have some sort of music 'culture'. I'm thinking about volunteering to run a choir at the school and maybe even a group piano/keyboard club but I don't know how welcoming they'll be for such things.
I believe the national curriculum has just been updated for music but I haven't had time to look into this too deeply yet.

Does your child's state school have any music clubs? What opportunities are they given as part of the curriculum?

We are moving to private just because of to have professional music, drama, sport and dance lessons.

Correct.

But it's still like a different world for provision

The school will own more instruments and pupils will get to use them in music lessons, there will be music festivals, musical cafes, string ensemble, jazz and rock bands, glee club, choir open to everyone, various other choirs, chamber music group, main orchestra, and these days music tech club. Each year's annual stage performance will normally be a musical. Very musical schools might do more.

State schools do these things too, but it would be rare to find one that offers all the things that are standard at prep schools

In private schools parents choose to pay for the education though, and presumably are affluent enough to pay for it. I haven’t had anything to do with private schools but I also assume that most parents do this and therefore the children are in an environment where most children learn instruments, play in an orchestra and/or sing in a choir. Meaning there is a culture of valuing music and enjoying it together.

If your child is in a state school which doesn’t value music but you’re well off enough to afford private music lessons and opportunities to sing and play in a group outside of school then that’s great. Although I’d argue that such children would still miss out from that not being part of their school lives.

It’s the children in state schools, where music isn’t seen as an important part of the curriculum, whose parents can’t afford to supplement their education with other paid for options who I feel sad for.

The above could also basically be said for sport, drama and art too, as a poster above has mentioned. It’s ultimately not fair that children receive different standards of education based on their parents’ wealth. I’m not judging anyone who sends their children to private school (I plan to do it myself for secondary if possible), but it’s really not fair.

Scottish state school.

Violin and brass in P6 and P7 for those selected as having aptitude.

yes this was me as a child - I wanted to do music but my parents wouldn’t pay for lessons and there was no music in the primary school.

In our state primary year 4 & 5 get class guitar lessons. And as mentioned above you can pay for violin in school (but only a few places)

they did used to a choir and do young voices.

@mintymcclinty spot on!

@MajorCarolDanvers are these paid for by parents as extras or supplemented by the school?

Paid for by parents - all music tuition in Scotland has to be paid for by parents. Its about £300 per year plus extra if they join the orchestra.

That's interesting. I have two children who attend state school, and do not pay any fees for instrumental music lessons. In Scotland.

Maybe your local authority subsidises it.

No, it's free for all children in Scotland:

www.gov.scot/news/music-tuition-and-core-curriculum-fees-removed/

The real question is how long will the Scottish Government waive these fees....🤔 Still a good idea to encourage lots of children to learn music though, who would otherwise be put off due to cost of instrumental lesson fees.

I'm in Scotland, our local primary has nothing on offer at all regarding music lessons as far as I can tell. No choir, no instrument lessons. We pay for private piano lessons.

@bigbeautifulmonster
Your best bet is to see if your LA has a Music Service. Ours runs peripatetic lessons at schools for orchestral instruments. So brass, wind and strings in the main. They also run numerous groups on Saturday mornings at their centres. The teaching was in groups of 3-4 and clearly worked better in bigger schools. My DD did violin from y3. In Infant school, a teacher taught recorder. From y3 both DDs did school choir and violin DD did a string ensemble. Annual concert was good.

The great difficulty for schools is that they have no musical staff. We were lucky. An excellent teacher who was also a musician. It’s the same with MFL and art. These people are like hens teeth!

Sports funding came about after the Olympics. It’s a health thing. However music is wonderful and singing should be an absolute minimum.

New (June 2022) guidance from the DfE for schools in England. May be useful to read @bigbeautifulmonster

www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-power-of-music-to-change-lives-a-national-plan-for-music-education

A lot of LA music services have been farmed out to organisations that have to apply to charities for funding. Usually the LA continues to contribute a bit, but nothing like enough to provide a proper service. They have silly names - in our area it has called itself Encore. It is a CIC - Community Intertest Company. An MD and lots of trustees etc. And of course it has bollocks things like this: Ensuring access for all
Networking and forming stronger partnerships
Continuously striving for higher quality and improved services
Organising a broad range of activities and ensuring value for money
Reflecting upon and evaluating our services
Enjoyment for everyone in the community

I find it all rather sickening. It is based on political dogma to have outsourcing. A good LA music service is a treasure - if you still have one in your area, then fight tooth and nail to keep it!

I looked at this plan when it came out. It is limited and short-sighted in practice, but big on waffle.

Ours is a Trust and still identifiable as a LA service. DC can become members and get tuition and access to our orchestras. Although I would say they are not as brilliant as they used to be. Nationally recognised years ago! There is then a fee reduction for lessons. One to one is offered snd small group. It could be worse!

HAHA, sums up our government. Usually big on waffle, written with no input from schools and published with absolutely no idea ( or funding) to implement.

Years ago there was not music finding either. The service was part of the LA budget. Noevits devolvex to schools who need to subscribe to the service, but they don’t. There were also teachers who could deliver a music curriculum. Parents bought recorders etc. it’s very short sighted not to support the arts but schools just look at sats now and little else is valued. It is in private schools.

How I agree - getting good arts and music input is always a fight and very dependent on some one individual taking up the cudgels. Such a shame.

One of the great joys of my primary school was the music - we all learned different recorders and would get together in the breaks to play quartets etc., and the singing set me off on a lifetime of song - in choirs and choral societies and running a choir of my own. Without the wonderful singing in school and the inspirational teacher who spotted I could sing, my life would have been so much less full and joyous. I desperately want other children to have these opportunities and feel very sad when I know that these are not there for children in state schools now.

@Mischance

I find it very sad too! We had a “Rolls Royce”music service here when my DDs were at school. There were lessons in junior school for brass, strings and woodwind. A music teacher came in to run the orchestra. My DDs joined the Music Centre ensembles and choir. DD was in a school strings quartet.,other groups were formed for brass and woodwind. We did pay but fsm got very reduced fees. The annual concerts were a great celebration of music making both in school and at the Music Centre.

My DDs went with the music centre choir to the Schools Prom. The Music Centre had a nationally recognised jazz orchestra.. Having seen them at the Royal Albert Hall was a very special night and they were not even my DC! They were that good! The concert orchestra was also brilliant. How DC built up their confidence and ability by playing together was inspiring. It’s not as good as it was, but many parents do value music here so it’s not totally dead!

OP, I am a secondary Music teacher who occasionally ran musical events in my DDs' primary school. More recently I also did some P/T work in my local primary. This was a school that saw the value in music and was supportive but funding was dire. Had there been a music room where I could have taught, I would still be there, but I got fed up of dragging kit from room to room and trying to teach around tables.

The new guidelines for teaching are unfortunately non-statutory, so schools can and do ignore them.

In your position, I would contact your local music hub to see what provision they can offer. I was able to borrow a "class set" of instruments for "a term" free of charge. I use inverted commas because their idea of a class is 30 when I had up to 42 in a y6 class and the term ignored a couple of weeks each at the start and end of a term. But it was a good deal. My predecessor borrowed sets every term and the kids did a term of guitar, a term of glockenspiels, a term of ukulele etc. However, there was no discernible planning or progression and they didn't know how to read from any sort of notation.

I had a simple plan for KS2 which tied my content in with their topic work. So when y3 were learning about Ancient Egypt and I wanted to teach rhythm patterns, we used the words they had studied and wrote rhythms for them. In my final year I also taught KS1 and Reception. I used Jolly Music for that and was really pleased that despite losing a term to lockdown in early 2021, my mixed R/y1 class could still sing and sign songs we had learned 5 months earlier. I really recommend the Kodaly method and Jolly Music is fab. I ran 2 choirs and a string group over my 2 afternoons per week, and one of the peris ran a Big Band which was the group they all aspired to join.

You are welcome to PM me if you want more info.

I think that was a spirited attempt @Malbecfan

At no time were all DC in a class being taught a musical instrument at our school. So many wanted to learn they did aptitude tests in y3. All had had the chance to learn the recorder at infant school. Brass was usually delayed until y4/5. Free instrument loans were available but after DC got on with the instrument, most people bought.

Our great friends were guitar teachers but they were attached to a different music centre. By the time DC were in secondary schools, all sorts of instruments were taught. Electric guitars, drums, brass sections - all sorts. At primary it was more limited but at least those who were interested got a chance and the choirs included anyone. Even if learning an instrument was by aptitude, at least all Dc listened to them! I know it’s now not the done thing to only support talent snd it’s a goal that all can play, but in private schools parents accept not everyone can have that talent or even be interested. It probably is too expensive to teach large groups.

Music room? Rarely seen one in a primary school. Most schools here are bursting at the seams with children.

@TizerorFizz I really liked the children and the other staff, even the SLT. I loved watching the progress of 4 and 5 year olds and seeing them reading music (only rhythms but who cares?) If I was 20 or 30 years younger, I might have been keen to push it further. My age, the chronic underfunding plus Covid restrictions meant that I just didn't have the enthusiasm and drive they deserved.

@Malbecfan
Totally understand your position!

It’s a shame so many schools don’t have great enthusiasm for music. When I was at school, nearly every village school had a piano and someone who could play it. We had fairly basic choirs but went in for inter school competitions and I remember what we learnt to this day. I have one DD who still sings at nearly 30. Birthday party is karaoke! She is usually hoarse the next day after a good bash!