Whole Class Ensemble Teaching A partnership between schools and hubs? For the last few weeks, our Music Education Solutions® team have been frantically dashing around the country delivering music INSET for music hubs, services, and schools. Many of the hubs that booked us wanted training specifically for their WCET staff, so we’ve spent a lot of time talking to WCET teachers, and each other, about the realities of delivering WCET in 2019.
The most frequent discussion we had with teachers was whether the element of WCET as a ‘partnership’ between schools has been lost. Many schools now use WCET as PPA cover, and with budgets so tight in recent years this is completely understandable. However, when Wider Opportunities (now WCET) was first developed, it was always meant to be delivered in partnership by hub AND school staff, and the Ofsted and Youth Music reports on the pilot projects noted this collaboration between the two groups of staff as a major strength of the initiative. Not only that, but WCET wasn’t ever meant to replace the music curriculum, but to enhance it, so in effect we should have WCET lessons supported by the class teacher AND separate music curriculum lessons delivered by the class teacher too! 20
