Music - how many lessons does your Yr9/10/11 DC have?

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

DD1 is in year 9 and wants to choose music as one of her GCSE options. I am wondering whether this is a good idea now, as I feel the school does not prioritise it on the curriculum at KS3 (only one 50-min lesson per fortnight) and very few go on to take it at GCSE.
OTOH, she wants to do it, the music teacher himself is fab and they get on well (but there are only 1.5 music teachers in the 1,500-pupil school so he is somewhat overworked), and she plays an instrument to grade four level already and is taking music theory lessons also.
So two questions:
First - is one lesson a fortnight enought at KS3 - what do other schools do?
Second - given the lack of interest and resources shown by the school, is she likely to get the support she needs for GCSE?
We have options evening later this month but have had NO info regarding options from the school as yet.

DD is year 8 and gets 1 lesson of music a week, but they have a weekly timetable.

DS is year 10 and taking gcses and gets a minimum of 3 lessons a week for each of his gcse subjects .

DD1 in yr 9 - about to chose options which will include music.

Currently one hour lesson per week, but expect it to go up to 3 per week in line with any other GCSE options.

In y 7 it was only 1 hour per fortnight, alternating with Drama. Perhaps your DD had nore lessons then, so it balances out across KS3?

I would not consider DD's school to be especially strong in the music department. Two teachers for ~ 1200 students. A few excellent singers in yr11 and 6th form. The 'Orchestra' only has about 10 which is a bit disappointing and the yr9 choir is dwindling.

It is often compulsory for GCSE pupils to attend at least one extra curricular music activity. Do they have the facilities for this?

Circular - yes, the music teacher runs a school orchestra to which DD belongs. About the same number of members as the one at your DD's school. She used to belong to a local music centre orchestra, but quite when the timing clashed with her ballet class. I suppose she could rejoin, although bless her she wants to carry on with ballet despite failing her grade four exam. (She is dyspraxic and worked very, very hard for the exam but just didn't make the grade.)

Shameless bump. Options booklets come home on the 10th I now hear. Would love to hear people's experiences of music GCSE.

DD is doing music as exam subject (scotland - so not GCSE!). She is year 10 & gets 3 hours of music a week plus individual music lessons in guitar & singing - 1/2 hour each. She also takes part in choir, windband & guitar group after school. As you can maybe tell she loves music!

Thanks Cuckooclock. So it looks like 3 lessons a week is fairly standard then. I'm trying to compile a list of questions to ask at Options Evening.

Good idea to ask which exam board if it's not in the booklet, so you can see the syllabus.

I think all have an element of performance (solo & ensemble), composing and appraising.

I also seem to recall reading somewhere (maybe on here) that the performance level was roughly grade 5 - so your DD should be well on track for that.

Ds1 has one music lesson per week of an hour - he too wants to take music as a GCSE. There are 3 music teachers in a school of 1500 pupils

I am not sure how many lessons he will get in Yr10.

Hi I am a secondary music teacher - yes your daughter should do music!!! She will get the same amount of allotted time as other options at GCSE. Don't worry about the resources - your daughters teacher will be totally dedicated to the GCSE students. In my school we have 2.5 hours a week in year 10 and 2 hours a week in year 11.

Also if your daughter is grade 4 already on an instrument she will be performing (most probably) at level 7/8 or even exceptional if she has good listening skills and compositional ideas at the moment. Usually the pupils who have grade 4 + are the pupils who have the all round music skills (not always though - I have known some grade 7 pupils not to have a clue about composition- and some who cannot read music have a great ear for harmony and melody writing). SHe is well set to achieve well at GCSE

Thanks everyone, Stillenacht especially good to hear a teacher's perspective. I think she should do it, but now I have some questions to ask at options evening. She has wanted to do it for a while but has been wobbling a bit because none of her friends are going to - last year I think 17 out of 300 pupils chose it.

17 is an ideal size. Large enough to form a class and small enough for each to get their individual attention.

DDs school seem to get between 10 and 20 out of a year group of 189. At A level (which DD has already decided she wants to do) its about 3!. If she's still serious will consider moving schools for 6th form. Though the best music departments seem to be in the private schools.

Our school doesn't have a sixth form. Everyone goes to the local FE college for A-level and they have a somewhat patchy reputation. They dropped A-level music a couple of years ago, and an increasing number of pupils now go to the nearest city (75-min train journey away, infrequent trains) to do their A-levels. ATM DD is saying she wants to do Maths, Physics and History at A-Level, none of which is well-taught at the FE college, according to parents.
I'm not going to think about that yet (buries head in sand).

As well as the 2-3 hours music lessons per week in the school GCSE curriculum, it will be very helpful for your daughter to continue working hard at her music outside of school (or any school music groups). Taking Grade 5 in the next year would be very useful, and even more so, taking Grade 5 theory as there is much in the theory study that is taken up in GCSE lessons - a thorough understanding of cadences, and music history, and composition.

My DS is in yr9 and was allowed to choose arts option this year. IN years 7 & 8 they had one music lesson every 2 weeks.

DS now has 4 lessons of music per week.....he no longer does art, pottery, food tech or design. He loves music and I think by 13 DC should be able to drop the arts subjects they don't enjoy and concentrate on the ones they do. He will start GCSE music next year.