Teach Primary Issue 19.6

www.teachwire.net | 21 A s a professional music teacher, I understand the challenges of delivering inclusive music lessons, especially for generalist primary teachers with minimal training in the subject. But when it’s done successfully, the rewards are immense. Seeing first-hand how influential music can be in children’s development is incredibly powerful. To witness the impact when a musical concept clicks, highlights why it’s so important for pupils to receive inspiring and effective music instruction. All teachers want to deliver enriching lessons with clear progression routes, but this is only possible when everyone feels equipped to bring the curriculum to life. Here are four key areas you can focus on to teach fun and engaging music lessons: Utilise digital tools Lots of schools have access to digital tools, but knowing how to use them effectively is key. If you’re not sure what’s available, speak to your subject leader or SLT about the schemes you have access to, and do some searching to see if they offer music support. This research will not only increase your own musical knowledge, but also develop lesson plans that are exciting and relevant. Whether it’s activity worksheets, interactive videos or ready-made lesson templates, the more time you spend getting to know these resources, the more comfortable you will feel bringing them into your classroom. Organisations like the BBC have lots of free videos you can incorporate into your lessons ( tinyurl. com/tp-BBCmusicvids ), and you can see a wealth of additional resources at teachwire.net/primary/music Encourage a whole-school approach Frommy experience, the best way to embed music into school life is through collaboration. Sharing tips with colleagues creates a culture where everyone can contribute. One idea you can share is how to link music to other curriculum topics. For example, pupils studying ancient Egypt could rewrite the lyrics of a popular song from the perspective of an ancient Egyptian, deepening their historical understanding through creativity. Similarly, musical performances (or even practices in class) can become a rich learning opportunity where students can imagine them as part of a world tour; planning stops and exploring geography, or even planning the tour’s production budget to support numeracy. Assess progression Assessing progression can feel daunting, but knowing what musical progress in the classroom actually looks like, makes it far more manageable. Let’s consider assessing children’s ability to ‘listen with attention to detail’, as laid out in KS2 national curriculum. This could be broken down into observable skills that can be ticked off one by one: ‘identifying the pulse of a song’, ‘identifying differences in tempo’ and ‘articulating what instruments they’re hearing’. To observe these skills, you can bring a variety of fun, musical games into your classroom. For instance, identifying the pulse of a song could be seen by playing a popular song and asking children to tap along to the beat. You could also play a ‘guess the instrument’ game, using simple clips from YouTube and asking pupils to raise their hand when they think they know what instrument they're hearing, and explain their thoughts. Learning comes easiest when pupils are having fun, especially for primary- aged children. Get involved Collaborating with local music hubs also helps to elevate provision and bring more musical opportunities into schools. They offer a wide range of resources and services that can be tailored to the needs of your school and take on board factors such as available provision and budget. You can find your local music hub by heading to the Arts Council England website and searching for music hubs. TP Pitch perfect LESSONS Richard Bushby is a professional music teacher and head of curriculum and teaching standards at Rocksteady Music School, which delivers in-school rock and pop band lessons to over 100,000 children in thousands of primary school every week. rocksteadymusicschool.com Leaning into digital tools and whole-school approaches can make even the least confident teacher a music maestro, says Richard Busby F EATURE S MUS I C