Tag: GCSE Music

  • Nurturing Every Student’s Creative Ambitions 

    Students arrive in our classrooms with extraordinary creative ambition. Across the arts, technology and design, young people bring a wealth of creative experience with them; real, sustained ambition that’s ours to nurture and grow. The question I find most exciting as a teacher isn’t how to spark that ambition, but how to give it the best…

  • What if the exam itself gatekeeps

    Reading the entry figures in Whittaker et al. (the 42% of schools no longer entering any pupils for GCSE Music, the 43% fall in A-level entries since 2011) I find myself thinking less about the headline numbers and more about what happens inside the qualification for the pupils who do get entered, because that’s the vantage point…

  • Developing listening

    I love working with other music teachers on INSET courses, and I had a particularly enjoyable day leading a course for a group of passionate teachers on Monday. Much of my course looks at approaches to starting compositions and the afternoon focused on perception skills. I had such a thought-provoking time in Berlin while on…

  • A right way to teach composing?

    With composition a compulsory part of the school music curriculum (at all levels) I continually reflect on my approach to teaching composing. The range of activities vary from whole class, small groups to individuals and emcompass a breadth of styles and genres. There can never be one method but a series of strategies that can…

  • GCSE and A Level Music Entries Falling

    Music Teacher magazine today posted a news story regarding the falling entries for GCSE and A Level Music in the UK. Alarming? Perhaps, but there seems to be reasons why this might be the case that are out of the control of teachers. The story can be read here: http://www.rhinegold.co.uk/magazines/music_teacher/news/music_teacher_news_story.asp?id=1541 and comments from me are quoted within…

  • Composing Across the Spectrum

    -Below is the text of the article that appears in the current issue of EPTA’s Piano Professional- Nothing can be more satisfying in the early stages of a new composition with a pupil than exploring scores. For me, all composition should start with research; listening to similarly scored pieces, exploring a particular composer in depth…

  • ConTENT with CONtent?

    Result day looms. I’m sure I’m not alone as a teacher in preparing to receive the news of my pupils’ performance. Contemplating results day in turn leads to thoughts of the new term ahead and the various performances and the schemes of work I’ll be teaching. I genuinely enjoy looking back on the previous year…