Music co-ordinator

[green hippo]

Hi!

Not sure where to post this or if anyone can help but just wondered if anyone had any advice or ideas.

I am the music co-ordinator in my school. I myself am a musician and like teaching music but this enthusiasm is not shared by the rest of the staff! I do understand that teaching music must be a bit overwhelming if you have no knowledge or experience of it yourself.

We use the Music Express scheme across the school as this seems to be pretty self-explanatory and easy to follow for non-musicians. I have put a folder together for everyone with all the extra resources needed, included printed out and laminated photos, sheets etc ready to make it as easy and accessible as possible. However, I don't think many actually DO music! And I am really struggling to get any evidence together in terms of attainment and progress that the children make - nobody wants to go down the route of written assessments for all the subjects.

I have some photos of music going on around the school and one recording. I am planning on asking people to record something that the children have done as evidence but other than that I'm not sure how to build up any evidence, other than watching lessons which probably will not go down very well - non of the other co-ordinators do this.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Green Hippo x

[catma]

Well I would say monitoring of your subject area is something that Ofsted would want to know about, so maybe there should be more of that??!!

 

However, how often is music on each classes timetable - can you do some model sessions with different year groups or start a project to make a CD of original compositions using a similar starting point like a dramatic painting in the style of Take One Picture?

 

Cx

[Froglet]

Green Hippo,

 

Thank you for posting this. We had a staff meeting tonight talking about the need to be more proactive as subject leaders and I ended it feeling somewhat disheartened as all of my subjects (music, PFL and PSHE) are those subjects that others seem to hate teaching, don't have any recording for or are the subjects that get pushed off the timetable when people have a busy week.

 

Catma - thank you for your suggestions, like the CD idea.

[green hippo]

Well I would say monitoring of your subject area is something that Ofsted would want to know about, so maybe there should be more of that??!!

Exactly - that's what I'm worried about! It's hard to monitor when there isn't much going on and very little written evidence which most of the other subject leaders have, of course!

However, how often is music on each classes timetable - can you do some model sessions with different year groups or start a project to make a CD of original compositions using a similar starting point like a dramatic painting in the style of Take One Picture?

I like the idea of a project but not sure the teachers of the time to fit it in!

Thanks

Green Hippo x

[Guest]

If memory serves me correctly Alastair Bryce-Clegg did a bit on his blog about how several settings used music in a very creative way...an experiment in trying to convert 'non music' types to being more 'musical'

There were some comments on too I think about how others used music...Alastair too is 'musical' so he may also have some inspirations for you