10 minute read
Leading music as a non-specialist
Sarah Marshall shares her experience of developing her role across a three-school partnership.
First of all, a confession, I am not totally without the musical knowledge the title of this piece suggests – I scraped a C at GCSE in 1997 and had undertaken some piano lessons, but after failing my grade 3 piano and my teacher shrugging her shoulders and saying very gently ‘shall we knock these exams on the head - I’m not sure they are worth the trouble,’ my musical journey came to an end; or so I thought!
You may think based on this information I am therefore not worthy of writing an article with this title. You may feel this even more strongly when I tell you that purely by accident I attended a school renowned nationally for their music department and choir.
However, being a non-musician taking a music GCSE amongst people who have gone on to play professionally at the highest level does nothing for the self-esteem. As a music lead having been surrounded by such talent in my formative years has left me with the feeling that no matter what situation I am in regarding my role I am the elephant in the room, the one who cannot play a multitude of instruments, who struggles with the terminology. I am the child who played jingle bells at their summer school leavers concert in year 6 (true story!), that performance of Jingle Bells was followed by my best friend’s solo performance of Bohemian Rhapsody (all 10 minutes) just to put all this into context!
I have been music lead for our partnership for 4 years and took on the role in our first year of what was initially a two school partnership, so I have had the experience of being part of this process from the start. In 2023 we were joined by another local school. The pupils from all our three schools are from an area with significantly higher number of free school meals than the national average. There are very few children within our schools who would get the opportunity to experience playing an instrument or listen to a wide range of musical genres without our curriculum delivering this. This knowledge, coupled with my excruciating experience of music at secondary school meant that my main focus of our curriculum was to empower our children with a strong, fundamental understanding of music and basic musical skills so that when they reached secondary school they felt that they have a place at the musical table, that they could enter the music department feeling that this was a place they might want to be and could belong to. Our music policy that covers the three schools in our partnership sets out an aspirational intent for what our children will have attained by the end of Year Six with the intention of achieving this.
When I took over leading music, I was paired with another teacher and together we reviewed the curriculum. The outcome of our review identified that the majority of the instruments chosen by teachers to use in lessons were percussion based ones. We decided that rather than leaving the instrument choice to the class teacher, we allocate an instrument to a year group that they use for the whole year, a progressive set of instruments that build on skills year on year and this became our starting point. Having had this idea approved by our Head of Schools, one of my first jobs in leading music across two schools was to tell our partner school that they needed to spend money on instruments in order to make sure we were using the same instruments and that each child had their own to play during the session. Thankfully, our partner school welcomed this and the instruments were quickly established.
At the start of our journey, our two schools travelled along the road together implementing the new curriculum and establishing the new lesson structure of a single instrument per year group. Planning shared across both schools has made it easier to monitor curriculum coverage and reduce staff workload. In September 2023, when we welcomed the third school into our partnership who were new to the journey, having previously followed a music program purchased by the school, they very quickly had to adapt to our curriculum structure and planning.
In order to make subject leadership on such a large and complex scale a success, our Head of School facilitates subject leadership across our partnership giving a timetable of quality assurance activities across the year clearly detailing the expectations of each action. They are proactive in adapting and making this process as clear and simple as possible in order for subject leaders to complete their work effectively. This guidance has made the process much more streamlined. Subject leaders are allocated non-contact time each term to conduct QA activities in each of the schools and directed time is allocated in place of staff meetings for subject leadership paperwork to be completed.
Our partnership schools work closely together, meeting weekly as a whole staff or phase groups. Many staff move across schools to gain opportunities and experience in different roles and year groups. This means that positive working relationships are established across the partnership. This close, joint working enables subject specialists to visit partner schools confidently making them familiar with the staff and school site and it makes it easier to conduct the work needed.
Staff voice has been a useful tool in identifying where staff feel they need support. Initially, staff confidence in teaching the subject was low, but this has increased consecutively over the last four years. Whilst I feel that our approach to music of using one instrument per year is right for our pupils, it makes it hard to provide targeted whole staff CPD, and I lack the musical skills myself to deliver the type of training that they require (unless that be a questionable rendition of ‘Jingle Bells’ on the piano). I have highlighted staff CPD as a development area for this year and am considering having this support delivered to phase groups rather than the whole staff, in order for it to meet their individual year group needs more closely.
Not being confident with my own musical knowledge has and still does make me sometimes doubt what I know and have implemented; being responsible for this across not just one school, but three can weigh heavy. Therefore, in order to support the growth of my own subject knowledge I have attended termly ‘music hub meetings’ these are a form of subject network meetings that are run by the lead music school in the area (ironically my previous secondary school!). Music leads attend the sessions from primary schools across the area. Many of them are very talented musicians leading to GCSE music horror flash backs for me, but there are also others who attend who are in a similar situation to myself. The first meeting was quite intimidating – they are very practical sessions that require singing, improvisation, group performances and sometimes even dancing and I often wonder if the leads of subjects such as history and science have to endure such activities! However, I have a rule that I shouldn’t expect the children I teach to do something I would not be willing to do myself so I decided to embrace that element of it and get stuck into the activities. I have found the sessions supportive and it has boosted my confidence in my subject knowledge and in making sure that our music curriculum is heading in the right direction. It is a great source of support in terms of ideas for lessons, passing on the latest information regarding the subject and I would recommend that if you are in a similar situation to me, you seek out this sort of support through your music hub. It has also been great to meet other music leads who have none or little musical knowledge and experience like myself. Music is a unique and challenging subject to lead, even more so when you are not a musician – a bit like sailing a ship when you can’t read a map, so when attending the hub with people in similar situations to yourself, it is helpful to know that you are not navigating it alone.
Being at different stages in our musical journeys over the last year has been challenging, but following the release and reviewing of The Power of Music National Plan for Music Education document, during the summer term the music curriculum was adapted and some major changes brought in. We moved to a weekly music lesson model. This enabled me to strip back the curriculum to the very basics – what would I need to know about music if I had my chance all over again?
I was able to launch our new curriculum by delivering a partnership staff meeting meaning that as we go into the new school year all three schools are all at the same place on the starting line of this particular journey which will make the teaching and from my perspective, the monitoring of the subject simpler.
In order to bring in our new curriculum, over the summer term I have adapted and rewritten the current music curriculum to include an appraising music session at the start of each lesson, moved instruments around in year groups including the introduction of ukuleles in year 6, djembe drums in Year One and boomwhackers in Year Two. Music is now 40 minutes once a week, supported by a music assembly that builds on the children’s theoretical knowledge, knowledge of music genres and also incorporates singing (the assemblies were crafted by our lovely head of school, who I am very fortunate is a great supporter of music), we attend Young Voices each year with our 40+ Year Four pupils to support aspects of our singing curriculum. This is repeated across the partnership. Our staff surveys are showing that staff confidence in delivering music is growing, and that with the weekly lessons, the children should be able to embed the skills needed to competently play a range of instruments.
As I reflect on the experience I have had in my role, I think my advice to a non-music specialist stepping in to this position would be to embrace your fear of the unknown, use your lack of knowledge of the subject as a starting point – what would you need to know yourself to become an aspiring musician and build from there. Appreciate the power that you have to give your children the opportunity to develop a lifelong love of a truly unique set of skills, and be open to seeking help, support and guidance from those who were talented enough to play the full 10 minutes of Bohemian Rhapsody at their leavers concert.
