Approaches to primary music curriculum
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Engaging KS5 learners in challenging content
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Conducting workshop with a school ensemble
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How the key to whole school initiatives can be found in the music department
How many of your senior leaders had a great music education? Who really understands what you do and why you do it? Rather than recoiling at the sight of seemingly irrelevant whole school initiatives, become proactive, lead the way and build trust. Here’s a tool kit to help change perceptions and make your department the go-to place to see and hear best practice in action. Oodles of take-aways reflecting Rosenshine’s Principals, Dual Coding, Bloom’s Taxonomy, Oracy and Integrated Pedagogy.
How to get started with Cubase
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Building a co-curricular curriculum
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Partnerships and choral commissioning
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Introducing the Musical Literacy Network and musical phonics project
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Saturday 17th May
The ADHD Advantage: a choir designed for neurodiversity
With rising ADHD diagnoses, adaptive teaching is crucial in choir sessions, just as in classroom music. Karen Marshall, who leads two Key Stage 2 and two infant choirs across three schools with high percentages of neurodivergent children, will share her strategies. As one of her schools moves toward becoming an ADHD-friendly awarded school, she’ll discuss adaptations including movement-based songs, Makaton signing, Kodály musicianship with hand signs, and effective behaviour management techniques.
Takeaway:
- accessible repertoire
- behaviour and adaptive teaching techniques
Success at KS4 for classroom musicians
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You can sing, but can you swing?
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Coaching strand – where to start?
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Please note, some sessions will start at 11.10am and some will start at 11.30am, to allow for staggered lunch servings.
Five a Day: simple ideas for classroom activities (11.10am)
In this practical session, Dr. Charles Béquignon-MacDougall, Mike Simpson, and Ollie Tunmer will demonstrate simple, engaging, and effective ways to integrate musical activities into everyday teaching. Drawing on the innovative Five a Day course from the MuseClass platform, they will share creative ideas that can be easily adapted for a range of age groups and settings. Whether you teach primary or secondary, you’ll come away with some quick and easy ideas to engage your pupils in starter activities, plenaries, singing assemblies, or rehearsals!
Key takeaways:
- Practical music integration in everyday teaching
- Activities for starters, plenaries, singing assemblies, and rehearsals – all adaptable for all age groups
- Engaging and inclusive ideas with minimal resources
- The MuseClass Primary advantage: 600+ songs, structured lessons, and full interactive teaching resources at an outstanding price
Building voices, building communities: cultivating outstanding school singing (11.10am)
Drawing on experience from a range of school settings and many years of training and supporting music teachers to enhance singing in their own schools, Don explores practical strategies to create a thriving singing culture. This session highlights the interplay between curricular and co-curricular music, approaches to embedding singing into the curriculum, and techniques for supporting adolescent vocal development. Learn how to build and sustain school choirs while working alongside school leadership to provide transformative singing opportunities for all pupils.
Courageous conversations: mentoring student and early career music teachers (11.10am)
The relationship between mentor and mentee is crucial for establishing professional confidence in student and early career teachers as they take their first steps in becoming autonomous music teachers. Mentors need to develop the art of having courageous conversations as they support and guide these less experienced colleagues, balancing delivering targeted advice and help with opportunities for more independent thinking. Sometimes the conversations can be difficult, especially when things do not go to plan in the music classroom. This practical workshop explores how to use coaching skills to have courageous conversations when mentoring student and early career music teachers, with opportunities for delegates to role play scenarios as both mentor and mentee.
Coaching stream – curriculum planning (11.10am)
Details to follow
An exploration of Music with Mr Gray (11.30am)
An introduction to the Music with Mr Gray resource and how it can be implemented into your own curriculum. The resource includes lots of play alongs for typical primary school instruments including Ukulele, Recorder, Tuned percussion, Boomwhacker and Guitar.
The Independent Sector music department: challenges and opportunities (11.30am)
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Teacher training in music in primary and secondary schools
This panel discussion will explore teacher training in Music in primary and secondary schools. The panel will examine the recent changes to the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework published by government in January 2024 and explain the different kinds of training that student music teachers get when they train as primary and secondary music teachers on employment based and University based programmes. The panel will include ITT providers and trainers, student teachers and early career teachers, and school mentors sharing their experiences of the music teacher training process. This session is ideal for any colleague working with student teachers on school placement, and early career teachers working in their departments.
Developing musical understanding at KS3: balancing creativity and academic rigour
The term creativity is synonymous with things that are remarkable and original. That’s a tall order for experienced confident musicians, never mind students in the early days of acquiring and developing musical understanding. This session explores how well designed questioning and the active acquisition of knowledge through discovery, enable creativity and academic rigour to work hand in hand, without one being compromised for the sake of the other. Plenty of progressive ‘tried and tested’ take-aways to weave into your own practice.
Jazz in the classroom
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Partnerships: developing best practice for partnerships across your school network
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Coaching stream – extra-curricular activities
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Sunday 18th May
Singing is life
Fifth Element will give a brief introduction to the world of Barbershop with this practical session including tag singing, and key tools to get the most out of a performance.
Key takeaways include:
- Gaining an understanding of the Barbershop Style
- Vocal Techniques and Tools
- Performance Skills
- Information and resources on the wider Barbershop community