I had the joy of writing a resource (cost-free!) for
@nmcrecordings
suitable for GCSE and A-level composing - I'm keen we get more living/recent contemporary music in the classroom again. I'd love to know what colleagues think and if it's useful.
Excited to have accepted a new role for September as Director of Arts and Culture for the Odyssey Trust for Education - working across
@TownleyGrammar
and
@KingHenrySch
- can’t wait to meet the pupils, and colleagues. More than ever we need the arts.
I know I can be rather annoying/zealous going on about the arts in education; the arts saved me as a child when my father died and set the direction of my entire life. I won’t be giving up on ensuring young people get access to great experiences, teaching and education.
I'm quite ashamed to be a male teacher when you see how female teachers are treated on twitter when they challenge, question and provoke colleagues. I don't normally tweet anything like this but the behaviour is shocking.
I’m joining
@Charter_Trust
as Director of Creativity, Music and Culture soon: over the moon to work with
@cassiebuchanan
. students, colleagues and families across the schools in the trust. Excited to learn and build a shared vision for creativity, music and culture. Can’t wait!
My final four weeks as Director of Music - after nearly 17 years of teaching and leading the teaching of music there’ll be lots of things I’m going to miss. I realise how privileged we are as music teachers to build lasting relationships with pupils, parents and the community.
‘Students from low-income families are three times more likely to get a degree and twice as likely to vote if they do art in school. They are also more employable’. (Rob Hopkins, 2019, 94)
You’re completely right
@daniel_bath
- I didn’t pay for instrumental lessons when I went to school; if my mum had to pay I’d never had progressed into my music career. We must remove financial barriers for those most at risk of missing out.
Of course she's brilliant and working with her is the greatest blessing a scruffy music teacher like me could dream of.
But Lucy is what happens when you make instrumental tuition available to disadvantaged children.
Help us to get this message across to those who decide.
No one should have to pay to train to be a teacher. We need great people to join our profession in all subjects; they should be properly remunerated to grow as a professional and not be paying any fees. No one should struggle to keep a home as a consequence of becoming a teacher.
It’s lovely seeing so much joy in music-making, and the arts, as schools are returning to these activities again. The collective commitment from leaders to ensure every child has a full curriculum is wonderful. The arts will be what students have missed the most in lockdown.
Exactly - every top school has a generously resourced music department and a commitment from its leadership that every pupil has an outstanding musical experience.
Inspiring reading about
@thesundaytimes
Schools of the Year. What unifies them all? An investment in music. Where there's an outstanding music department, you find an outstanding school.
For the autumn 2023 issue of
@CharteredColl
Impact, we are seeking papers on the theme of effective pedagogy and applying research in practice. More here:
Why arts subjects were hit so hard in the pandemic |
@tes
Magazine - an important reminder why any suggestion to reduce or remove creative, artistic teaching/learning would be harmful to children and young people’s education.
Happy Fathers’ Day. Mine passed when I was 10 before I discovered music. I will keep going on (loudly) about the arts so he can hear. Without music in my school I’d never have afforded lessons, and without sponsorship from my father’s employer never studied music. So grateful.
Research highlights the therapeutic effects of engaging in the arts, and how creative activities can help us to make meaning out of difficult situations.
#MentalHealthAwarenessWeek
@tes
Thrilled to be joining
@SWPSOfficial
in September as Senior Deputy Head. An exciting time to join as the school approaches its tricentenary year in 2025.
Thrilled to have completed, and passed,
@CharteredColl
Chartered Teacher (Leadership). Another excellent programme from the College that connected readily with the reality of our roles (and challenged and enriched our work). Thanks to the team and to my LIG.
It’s frustrating news for arts teachers tonight - but we all learned a great deal last year as we tackled online platforms for making music; we can keep the arts going by sharing and working collectively. I wonder if we need another blogging activity
@MusicTeachers_
members?
Having Covid and losing a family member to Covid this weekend makes me rethink a lot of things; so grateful for friends and family. 2022 really is a year of lots of change, and reconsideration of priorities. Hoping for good news this week to balance out recent days.
Looking forward to speaking on a future
@tes
podcast about the importance of arts and creativity as we return to schools - important we recognise the significant role the arts can play to support well-being and provide the space for self-expression for our students.
I became a teacher because I love my subject. Genuinely love it. I can’t get enough of music and the arts. If you do anything in education that prevents subjects to flourish, you need to rethink your approach.
It made my heart sink when meeting pupils at a school recently where they said they longed for more interaction in lessons, and their teachers to take an interest in them. The homogenous booklet culture can feel really dystopian when you wander between lessons as a visitor.
Students are more than their results and they’re more than careers; they’re human-beings. Educational settings are there to enable flourishing humans, active citizens and not people with numbers tattooed to them. Arts, culture, craft, and heritage are vital.
This seems important. My dad died when I was 10 and it was difficult with some of my teachers when at school. This webinar from
@CharteredColl
looks really valuable.
1 in 29 children experience the loss of a parent. Yet school staff receive no bereavement training. In this webinar, Suzannah Phillips of
@winstonswish
provides training and advice to teaching professionals on how to support a child dealing with grief:
The more I reflect on my education the more art and design comes to the fore; my GCSE and A-level experiences were hugely formative. Very honoured to be a Vice-President of
@NSEAD1
and to have been able to share gratitude for my art teacher and teaching in AD magazine.
I keep thinking the reason I love teaching music is because I keep being a musician myself. I wondered if enough interest for
@CharteredColl
orchestra (and choir)? Any teacher who plays an instrument (regardless of subject) to get together and do a concert?
Starting my new role next week. I care so deeply that children have a childhood rich in creative, artistic and cultural experiences and learning. In a sustained and equitable way. But I recognise too that drive comes from the anecdotal and personal experiences I’ve had.
"After the age of 14, 90% of children are not learning art or music or drama in schools. So our system, particularly the way it is driven to these exams, means that it prioritises surface knowledge not deep thinking"
@PeterHyman21
speaking on
@BBCRadio4
#r4today
Great article
@FionaMaddocks
- ‘The biggest public loss is the music education facility the new venue promised’ - we have schools around the country willing to be the music education facilities young people need. Let’s invest in them.
I really do want to write a book; there is so much to share about continuing/continual professional development and learning for arts teachers and arts/cultural learning professionals. I want to write about it.
My final 11 months awaits as President
@CharteredColl
- and an exciting 2024 ahead. Look forward to meeting our new Council members this month. Thanks to
@DanWorth
at
@tes
for interview about why our professional body matters.
This is the most important part of the new (non-statutory) guidance from
@educationgovuk
- all students entitled to one hour per week or Music Year 1 to 9. Very significant announcement.
A minimum of 1 hour's classroom music per week from Year 1 to Year 9, with WCIT / First Access in addition to this... A significant announcement this morning.
#candomusic
The more I talk to educators the more I realise how vital equity is to me; every child deserves a rich diet of opportunity in and beyond the classroom, and every child deserves a rich pedagogical experience. In and through subjects. We need learned societies to support this.
I am dreaming big this weekend: imagining a music department where the spaces are designed to serve the curriculum/extra-curricular by day and in the evenings/weekends can serve children/young people in a variety of ways for creative music (tech) making. What would you include?
I’d love to donate my upright piano to a school that needs an instrument - the recipient would just need to cover delivery. Would ideally be a London school to minimise the journey/cost - feel free to DM if interested.
Very excited to start my new role, properly, next week. So grateful to all the new colleagues I’ve met across both schools who have been generous in responding to queries and have been so welcoming. Even after 17 years in it never gets any less exciting to start a new year.
Being a teacher for nearly 20 years, I remain committed to the profession. I'm standing for Vice President (Policy Development and Advocacy) of the
@CharteredColl
Council - I'd welcome your vote, if you're a member or fellow; I care deeply we have the best supported teachers
If I achieve anything before I retire (reader, I have decades to go) it would be to have convinced anyone that would listen that arts, culture, music and creativity are school improvement activities. As well as being part of a child’s education. School improvement is more than
I will never forget a checkout person at Waitrose claiming I was a celebrity: “you’re on TV aren’t you?”. Despite my protests they claimed I was in a TV show I’d never heard of. When I googled - and looked up who I was supposed to be… I now never shop in that Waitrose.
Love this new series from Claymen, ‘Helping Hands’; they feel like a complete set of expressions I make when (a) one reads any news about the arts and (b) I attempt to schedule something in a calendar.
Getting back to school nerves as I look ahead to starting as Senior Deputy Head at Sir William Perkins’s School in September. Looking forward to visiting a few times before half-term and meeting colleagues and students. 300 years of history; the tricentenary approaches in 2025.
Brain is buzzing at developing music, arts, creative thinking, imagination and culture across seven schools. Most importantly from 5-18. In and beyond the classroom. Grateful to have started the role pre-festive break to get to know the schools, colleagues and pupils.
I love seeing all the music department tweets this time of year; tonnes of selfless music educators who work with such zeal to ensure so many children have a musically-rich festive few weeks. Imagine lots of thrilled families hearing lots of super music-making. With tinsel.
I think should patent the term ‘procrasticake’: the act of baking (cake) when another activity (usually a research or work-related venture) is more pressing. Maybe ‘procrastibake’ too.
By the end of the academic year every school in our trust will have a music development plan - built on our shared ambitions for music across our trust. The
@MusicTeachers_
materials are really useful for supporting departments to reflect and prioritise
If you’re a class music teacher don’t forget
@MusicTeachers_
are there to support you; all members of the committee will happily support colleagues as we rapidly move to remote teaching again. We still
#CanDoMusic
‘We shouldn’t be wondering whether children need art and music and stories and poetry any more than wondering why plants need water’ - well said
@PhilipPullman
(quoted in
@robintransition
, 2019, p. 94)
Wouldn’t it be marvellous if state schools became the venues for these groups - invest in making the state school performing arts facilities of a professional standard so we mutually benefit.
@OliverDowden
‘while smaller MATs had a positive impact, overall… large MATs (16+) had, on average, a negative impact on secondary students… MAT growth may well be in tension with an educational argument for smaller groupings of schools.’ (Greany & Earley 2021: 45)
What we really need
@TracyBrabin
is for every school to have a class music teacher: instrumental lessons are being pushed by unions such as
@WeAreTheMU
as their membership is instrumentalists. Classroom music in the curriculum is being eroded and replaced by instrument lessons.
Children from lower income families are half as likely to take up an instrument than their wealthier peers, recent
@WeAreTheMU
and
@UK_Music
research has revealed. Today I urged the government to ensure all children are given the chance to learn a musical instrument in school.
Merry Christmas to everyone I’ve had the joy to speak with, work with, make work with and support and be supported by. Hugely grateful. Lots of collective work to raise awareness of the value of arts, cultural and creative education, still: we’ll keep going! Covid won’t stop us.
This is great to hear - and this is why arts and culture are an integral part of the
#OdysseyTrust
as it is known well by leaders the key role the arts play in a young person’s education
@ArtsOdysseyMAT
I remember in my first teaching job a colleague bought their first home at the age of 41 and I kept thinking “they left that late”. Reader: I’m 41. Thanks to my twin for the celebratory exchange cookie.
Pleased to have passed the NPQEL with
@Ambition_Inst
- a collegiate programme, with plenty of purposeful support and great content. Loved being able to connect with my Exec Head buddy over the 18 months. Thanks, Ambition! 👏👏👏
Reading tweets for understanding rather than reading tweets to challenge. Encourage my fellow male teacher tweeters to consider how they respond to challenge and how a need to 'win' might be relinquished for a need to be collectively curious. We can do better.
Huge admiration for colleagues as they navigate the rapidly changing situation in schools; every conversation puts students first. What a privilege to work in education.
I wonder where all the
@CharteredColl
Chartered Teachers will be 12 months from now? Feel like we need a British Bake-Off style end of series video next year. It’s clear it’s made a big difference - many of us have moved into new roles due to
#CTeach
I was disappointed to see such a lack of diversity in the Music Education APPG today - can this be addressed? I worry music education policy-making continues to be poorly representative of the profession.
@ISM_music
@musicmarkuk
@DeborahAnnetts
@DiversityAPPG
Any music teachers fancy joining me in blogging through some of the most cited articles from
@BJMEMusic
? Maybe
@DrFautley
might help with suggesting a question if I choose an article for the week for us to read together?
So much positivity about how remote teaching and learning in instrumental/vocal music provision across all levels has enabled some focused detailed work from students. In awe how the ingenuity of musicians has enabled training to continue to a high-level for so many students.
Tonight has reminded me how much I love working with teachers. I really miss running in-person CPD. Equally I quite enjoy all the tools that help us collaborate when we're apart.
Can’t believe it’s Issue 16 of
@CharteredColl
Impact. Conversely, I can believe it’s Issue 16. Congratulations to editors
@P_A_Kirschner
and
@thebandb
and to the 23 article authors. Important contributions to our ongoing professional conversations.
I would welcome some guidance from
@CharteredColl
on social media behaviour of those that choose to add MCCT or FCCT to social media profiles; empowerment is great, but the risk exists of certain behaviours bringing the professional body into disrepute, and the profession.
Thrilled to be launching a composing club for music teachers - a partnership between
@MusicTeachers_
and
@nmcrecordings
- members of MTA will receive details on Friday in the bulletin. 12 places!
Hoping as we approach the end of the school year leaders will be kind to themselves and their teams; it’s hot, it’s frantic and the to-do list continues to grow. But don’t forget we’re all human. Be kind. Let’s end the year well and with our relationships strong.
Chatting to
@twbsmusic
and wondering if we need a
@MusicTeachers_
zoom event where music colleagues can share ideas, concerns, worries about rebuilding music in their schools as we look ahead to next year. What do you think?
Teachers make a huge difference to children and young people’s futures. Having an inspiring art teacher was formative for me. Grateful to wax lyrical about my experience of art at school in a past issue of AD, and to continue to express my gratitude as VP
@NSEAD1
.
Advocating for arts, culture and creativity can feel either very lonely or rich in fellowship; I remain committed, relentlessly, to its inclusion in every setting for every child. And I’ll work ceaselessly to do what I can to make that happen where there is a risk it won’t.
I’m excited and nervous to follow in Stephen’s footsteps in November as the next President of the
@CharteredColl
- I hope I can amplify the expertise of colleagues through Chartered Status and broker the collective expertise of all members.