Music for Teachers

It seems that the future of the ‘A’ level GCE Music Technology course is in some doubt as the Edexcel board had, at one stage, decided not to seek re-accreditation. As the only provider of examinations in Music Technology at this level, this could clearly be a problem leaving potential university technologically literate musicians with-out a reasonable alternative post-16.  I see from Edexcel’s own website that discussions are continuing.  See the link.

Today saw a lively conference day during which colleagues were introduced to a wide range of topics, including ‘musical futures’, ‘Sibelius o-generator’, DfES KS3 initiative for music, an introduction to collaborative on-line tools and hands-on experience with podcasting and other demonstrations. A PowerPoint presentation of the notes of the day are available from my digital-brain site via this link . My address for visitors to shropshire.digitalbrain is keith.shropshire

See ‘Writely‘

See ‘Flickr‘

See ‘Musical Futures‘

See ‘o-generator‘

I saw a very good example of high quality singing today at Cleobury Mortimer when I was invited to see their end of term performance.

What a brilliant display from enthusiastic young singers who clearly were enjoying the opportunity to sing together in a theatrical setting.

 For futher information about supporting singing in school contact the Shropshire Music Service.

New materials to support personalised learning in music in schools have been made available from the DfES. Copies have been sent to every school - if you have not seen your copy yet then you can get further information via this link

The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, ‘Is there meaning to music?’. My answer would be, ‘Yes.’ And ‘Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?’ My answer would be, ‘No.’

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

St Thomas and St Anne CE Primary School in Hanwood, south of Shrewsbury, had an official opening of the new playground musical instruments that have been purchased by the PTA to add to the facilities for children at break-time.

The magnificent set of well-tuned instruments explores a wide range of materials, and therefore musical timbres, and is already being used by children fro leisure time improvisation.
At the launch Alan Atkin of The Shropshire Music Service and I presented a musical composition we had created with a group of children using the instruments with the addition of vocal and djembe sections. The response from the children has been fantastic - if you live locally, why not contact the school and take a look? The school contact details are below.
School

New guidelines for music in secondary schools at Key Stage 3 are to be available from September 2006. One of the national conferences for the launch of the materials was held in Solihull this week and the emerging details will be part of a briefing at our Shropshire Secondary Music Teachers Conference on Juily 17th. The aim of the materials will be to reflect on good practice to raise achievement at Key Stage 3. The national pilots of this new initiative have produced some interesting and positive results in terms of progress and pupil motivation and enjoyment.

Details will be posted (and be the subject of a major new section in www.m4t.org) as soon as they are fully available.