musicalfutures's posterous

 

Great teachers are reflective practicioners and what better way to summarise our thoughts about life in a musical futures music classroom than via a blog. The links below are to blogs written by several of our MF champion teachers about what it's like to do the job, the challenges, the highs, lows and other experiences! There are also some great suggestions for things to try that teachers have found have helped to improve their own practice.

John Kelleher: Baylis Court

Martin Said: Cramlington Learning Village

Anna Gower: Monk's Walk School

The Musical Futures website (www.musicalfutures.org.uk) hosts a wealth of resources, case studies and ideas for implementing the approaches. The attached guide is designed to make finding what you are looking for a much easier task! 

One of the main criticisms MF has faced over the years is that it is a simple 'Rock and Pop' project and therefore presents a danger in limiting the breadth of the curriculum in a Musical Futures classroom.

Recently, Musical Futures teachers have been looking at moving away from using it as simply a 'project' and have been exploring the idea of the pedagogical 'approaches' that underpin our Teacher Pack

http://www.musicalfutures.org.uk/c/Teacher+Pack

Visit our website for ideas on how to apply MF to a range of musical genres and projects

Why not start with one of the most popular KS3 projects 'The Blues' and look at how MF approaches can chage the way this is traditionally presented:

http://www.musicalfutures.org.uk/resource/27638

Take a look at ideas for exploring Celtic music through MF approaches:

http://www.musicalfutures.org.uk/resource/27725.

Refresh your Year 7 schemes of work and challenge them to compose their own music using non-formal approaches:

http://www.musicalfutures.org.uk/resource/27709

If you have any examples of how you have embedded MF approaches into your schemes of work, why not send them over and we will feature them on our website? Email musicalfutures@phf.org.uk

 

 

It's that time again! GCSE and A Level coursework is coming in and teachers are busy collating, moderating and running revision sessions in every spare minute they have.

But let's look ahead to the last half term when the weather is lovely and the exam classes have left. if you are looking for a fun, practical way to spend your release time, why not take a look at the Musical Futures transition materials and approach your feeder primary schools to see if their year 6 would like to explore the Musical Futures transition project with your support! 

The 'Passenger' project http://www.musicalfutures.org.uk/c/TRANSITION+PROJECT is a set of resources that you can download and use to put together a performace of 'The Passenger', originally performed by Iggy Pop. Use the Musical Futures non formal approaches http://www.musicalfutures.org.uk/c/Non-Formal to workshop the riffs, or support primary teachers in using the backing track to put together a vocal performance. Download notated parts, stream video or audio to support instrumental learning, the possibilities are endless! 

In their recent editorial entitled “Transition Days and beyond: Where’s the Music?” at www.teachingmusic.org.uk, the Musical Bridges team (www.musicalbridges.org.uk) ask why music isn't more prominent on the traditional year 6 into year 7 days. The Musical Futures transition project is a great excuse to hold your own music transition day, get the schools together to give a performance of 'The Passenger', join up with other practical subjects to offer workshops and a hands on practical day at your school. Musical Futures Champion School Monk's Walk, ran a full day event and concert performance with the School Sport co-ordinator and Modern Foreign Language Leaders: http://sites.google.com/site/monkswalkmusicdepartment/links-with-local-primar...

Video and case studies about how schools used the materials last year can be found at http://www.musicalfutures.org.uk/resource/27598. Why not give it a go this year and send us your outcomes for our gallery? We are happy to answer any questions about how the project could work for you, contact us at musicalfutures@phf.org.uk

 

 

Musical Futures Approaches can be applied to any genre of music or can be adapted to deliver new projects or to refresh old schemes of work and on our website there are a number of examples of how teachers have been doing this in their schools, with case studies from using MF with year 7 to re-writing a Blues scheme of work to include MF approaches at every stage of the project 

London 2012 is coming fast and many schools are choosing to use the Olympics as the central inspiration for cross-curriculuar projects, theme days or units of learning. For the last 2 years, Musical Futures has been working with the Youth Sport trust to develop a project that uses the experiences of Olympic bronze medal winner Tasha Danvers and the Olympic and Paralympic values of respect, excellence, friendship, courage, determination, equality, inspiration to create a unique musical composition using Non Formal Approaches. Pilot workshops have run at Sports Colleges across the country, with up to 5 schools attendng, each bringing along a teacher and students to explore the project and to plan how they could deliver this back in their own schools. 

The outcomes from all pilots and some guidance on how to run a similar session can be viewed at http://www.musicalfutures.org.uk/resource/27520

Musical Futures (MF) wholeheartedly supports the recent Ofsted report for its insight and ability to get to the heart of the issue facing all music educators: the need to improve the quality of music teaching and learning in schools. 

 

The report provides a real breadth and depth of the understanding of what excellence in music teaching and learning should look like, and this is well supported by the case study films. We are pleased that Flegg High School, a MF Champion School, was chosen as a best-practice example of how MF underpins the work of an effective music department, and this commitment to delivering high quality musical learning exists in all our Champion Schools and many other music departments delivering MF nationwide. 

 

The aspirations of MF and Ofsted are the same: to advocate for innovative music teaching and learning of the highest quality, particularly with regard to: musical sound as the predominant language for learning in music classrooms; keeping engagement high; balancing social, academic and musical skills; balancing theory and technique; finding effective and musical ways of reporting and assessing; finding innovative ways to tackle the varied demands of musical genre; and making creative use of technologies. Most importantly to create an inclusive entitlement to high quality, meaningful and relevant music-making activities for all young people, the many not the few. The MF website (www.musicalfutures.org.uk) is testimony to the work of so many teachers who have been sharing the resources and ideas they have developed within their classrooms to challenge themselves and their students to achieve these aims. 

 

It is disappointing that it appears such an entitlement has not been improved upon or fully addressed since Ofsted’s previous report ‘Making more of Music’ in 2009. It is particularly disappointing that achievement in Key Stage 3 is felt to be the weakest area, with a focus on poor assessment procedures and overly planned lessons that lack practical musical content. 

 

Ofsted identifies some strengths of MF of which we are very proud: notably that MF in schools has a considerable and beneficial effect on the engagement of young people and on their musical development. 

 

However it also highlights that MF is subject to variable quality of practice, with an example of poor practice provided in the report. MF is a ground-up initiative that has no quality assurance or regulatory procedure of its own. It relies on teachers and practitioners delivering a quality musical experience regardless of the approach that is chosen, and on them ensuring that the secure pedagogy that characterises Musical Futures is central to all delivery. However, we are committed to making our own practice more consistent and to working alongside Ofsted and other partners to ensure this is the case. 

 

Ofsted highlights the often poor access to music CPD for music teachers and practitioners, and the professional isolation of the music teaching community. Musical Futures’ core work is a national, free CPD programme, which focuses on MF approaches and provides an opportunity for networking and sharing ideas, resources and good practice. MF has also recently established an online networking site dedicated to the discussion of MF in practice (http://musicteachersnetwork.ning.com/). We are committed to constant evaluation of our CPD offer, especially in light of this report, to ensure that the courses we offer are fully meeting the needs and demands of the sector. 

 

Ofsted’s seven priorities clearly set out exactly what is needed for improvement. Many of these have been long-standing problems, and all of the Government support given to the sector appears to have done little to address these. 

 

This powerful report delivers a clear message to the whole education sector – music education is still in need of dramatic improvement – and this message cannot be ignored. We look forward to working with Ofsted, along with the rest of the sector, to strive to improve music where it is universally available: in the classroom. This is not just a report, it is a call for action.

 

Musical Futures team

5th March 2012

Posted via our international forum for teachers, here are some thoughts about the report from our Musical Futures live chat tonight!

• I'm just so pleased that it's supporting all the things that music teachers have been saying for years
• Musical learning, assessment needs to be music centric, learning objectives don't necessarily need to be stated and obsessed over!
• I'm writing a summary and I intend to reassert the 'you need to be trained by me before I let you observe a music lesson' rule for my SLT!
• I'm delighted to see a real value placed on modelling and encouragement to ditch lengthy verbal starters and for them to be related to the learning
• I liked the emphasis on music making in class and avoiding the pitfalls of levelling.
• The case studies in the report are detailed I feel I know more about what they are looking for now
• There seems a tension between Ofsted insepctors in schools and the advice for music teachers here. Our Ofsted inspector refused to give an outstanding becasue a teacher had not mentioned enough about levels. This needs to be clarified!
• I like the SLT bit, ie SLT don't know how to observe a music lesson and they should accept this rather than try to judge our lessons on other subjects

So where shoudl MF go from here?

• Highlight a potential confusion in the purpose of MF demosntrated in the report
• Should we suggest that champion teachers will take a role in getting information like this to their local teachers
• Partly there is an issue with funding in music - I'm not sure if that is addressed anywere and the recent cuts in funding to music Hubs can't help this situation
• The role between Hubs and schools needs to be clearer I think
• I Can't see how Hubs can deliver more for less!

It was with concern that in discussion with some teachers over the weekend it became clear that they had no idea about the recently released OFSTED report into music in schools with all the detail in there about what OFSTED are actually looking for as opposed to what it seems they are seeing in English schools. Vital reading for any primary and secondary classroom teachers surely?

 

So just how are teachers supposed to keep up with sector news? How should they be informed of the latest developments and is there anything that could be done to support busy teachers with this issue?

 

Musical Futures relies heavily on online means of communication with the outside world. We are a tiny team with a small capacity, our approaches are developed and shared by teachers (our CPD training is run by teachers for teachers) so the issue of how best to reach teachers at the chalkface is crucial for us. We held a live chat tonight on our international forum to sound out how others felt about this issue and the following is a summary of some of the points discussed.

 

Most of us heard about the report from Twitter and the article on the BBC website. But how can teachers who aren’t on Twitter and who don’t look online find out about such important information? Who should be sharing this with teachers? Why don’t more teachers use Twitter? It seems that primary teachers in particular aren’t utilising this as a resource.

 

So should information be circulated from music services by email, via Head Teachers/SLT or through word of mouth via colleagues in local schools? It seems that judging by our experiences this is patchy depending on your particular school or music service. We don’t feel this is enough!

 

How has information been shared historically, before email, Twitter and social media became the norm? This was difficult to answer. We recalled hard copies being posted out to schools and annual networking meetings organised by music services but are hard copies of documents more likely to be read? Are networking meetings still happening? Again it seems to depend on where you are!

 

In Australia unions are a good source of information. Perhaps we need a union specifically for the arts as in teh UK there are a number of unions all catering for all subjects in the same way that there are a number of different organisations all claiming to speak for teachers. Is the lack of information reaching teachers yet another symptom of the lack of one voice for music education? In the meantime, what can we do? Our suggestions for improving the situation ourselves are listed below. So why not join us in helping to improve communication for teachers by doing any of the following today!

 

• Invite another teacher to join Twitter
• Invite another teacher along to our next live chat session (which will be publicised via Twitter)
• Circulate and share information with colleagues in other schools
• Get your voices heard! Contribute to discussions on forums such as www.teachingmusic.org.uk and http://musicteachersnetwork.ning.com/
• ‘Like’ us on Facebook
• Sign up to our newsletter and watch the front page of our website for updates www.musicalfutures.org.uk 

 

 

One of the challenges to teachers looking to try MF approaches can be space. In many schools, there is only one room and if there are any practice spaces they are often taken up with instrumental teachers. Whilst some departments have been fortunate in securing funding to invest in jam hubs or their own equivalent set up, this isn't a reality for everyone. At St Cyres School in Penarth, one of our MFUK Wales pilot schools, they are just finishing the informal learning approach with their year 9s having delivered the entire unit in only one (small) classroom. Visiting the school today, it became apparent that despite the noise of 7 groups playing at the same time, there were actually some clear benefits to this! The teacher can instantly gage the level of support needed by simply standing in the middle of the room and observing. If students drift off task, or need support it is instant and effective. Performances at the end of the lesson become much easier as the groups are in situ with equipment set up and ready. This way there can be a focus on a specific part of the song such as all groups perform the chorus with a discussion about the function of a chorus in a song, or they can all perform their introduction and share ideas about how the piece could begin, perhaps by layering the texture or featuring a single instrument making the final performance a learning tool for the next lesson. There is an emphasis on students coming back at lunchtimes to practice in a quiet environment. Teachers at St Cyres have noticed a new buzz around the department as students return to continue their learning or come early to set up the equipment in the room.

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We've been super busy at MF HQ recently, getting our training and CPD programme finalised, as well as getting some great new resources online. Also a brand new report from the Institute of Education has raised some interesting new findings about MF. And please do sign up to our new international network - there is a lot to say at the moment, especially with the National Music Plan being published this month, so let's get online and debate!

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New report on long-term effects of MF now available

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Since 2008 the Institute of Education, University of London has been carrying out research on the long-term effects of Musical Futures in a sample of schools running the initiative. The report is now available HERE and contains some rich and useful information about the varying ways in which MF operates within a school. The research examined the long-term impact on students’ motivation, enjoyment, engagement and skills development, as well as whether doing MF made any contribution to their wider learning. It also examined the impact on music teachers, and on staff and senior leaders within the whole school. We would be delighted to hear feedback and comments on this report, and have set up a discussion group here

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More MF training/CPD courses available in your region

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The majority of our training courses have now been announced and the full list is available here. MF training/CPD falls into four separate courses: An Introduction to MF (for those completely new to the ideas), Applying MF (for teachers to consider how to fully embed MF into their music departments and move beyond the initial MF projects), Transition Into MF (looking at how MF approaches can support the primary – secondary school transition process) and MF Live (an opportunity to observe an MF lesson and have an informal discussion with staff and students afterwards). All training/CPD is FREE of charge, so please book now at www.musicalfutures.org.uk/training

Forthcoming courses

• Musical Futures Live – 8^th November, County Durham
• Musical Futures Live – 8^th November, Sheffield 
• Introduction to MF – 11^th November, Belfast 
• Musical Futures Live – 2^nd December, London
• Introduction to MF – 9^th December, Leicestershire

Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Brand new resources available

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We have some great new resources available on the website for you to download, notably:

• Anna Gower’s case study on how to apply MF approaches to your existing scheme of work
• Great advice on using mobile phone apps in the MF classroom by Tim Hallas
• Review by Tim Hallas of software and websites that you may consider using in the MF classroom
• Guidance for setting up a MF pilot overseas 
• Case study of how Ashfield School, Leicester, for physically disabled children, used the Passenger transition materials 
• Resources and case study from one of our Welsh pilot schools Bryngwyn School in Llanlleli

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Join the international MF Debate!

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Musical Futures has now launched an international online network, where teachers and practitioners from across the world can share ideas, resources and good practice specifically for MF work in the classroom. All are welcome, in what we hope will become a useful and productive space for people. Sign up here

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Exciting Olympics Music Competition announced

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Musical Futures is proud to be supporting the 2012 School Games Young Musician Competition. To enter, students need to compose a song (in class or independently) based on the values inspired by sport: Determination; Honesty; Passion; Respect; Self Belief; Excellence and Teamwork. The winning song will be professionally recorded and played at the Opening Ceremony of the School Games 2012 to be held at the Olympic Park in May. Other songs will also be recorded onto a CD to commemorate London 2012. To register visit the Radiowaves website

  Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Take part in our MF survey

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Musical Futures is currently conducting a survey of how Musical Futures is used in secondary schools across England. As part of this, we'd like to carry out a short telephone survey with as many secondary teachers as possible who currently use Musical Futures. If you use Musical Futures in an English secondary school and are interested in taking part, please contact Safiya at musicalfutures@phf.org.uk so we can arrange a convenient time to talk. The purpose of this survey is to really understand the varied ways in which teachers implement Musical Futures, so please don’t underestimate the value of your participation in this!

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Young Champions 2011 are go!

Our Young Champions programme, led by NUMU is underway for its second year. This year, groups of students in schools are operating ‘NUMU Young Champions Collectives’ and are working collaboratively to mentor and support others online with their MF work. For more information see our website. For details of the first Young Champions training session of the academic year at Bryngwyn School, Carmarthen, see here

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And finally...

Voting is now open for the Next Brit Thing competition  – a major UK initiative to help young musicians aged 11-19 to get their music heard. Anyone can now vote using their Facebook log in, and tracks can still be uploaded (deadline is the 16^th December). There is equipment to be won for the winning students’ school, as well as the student prizes, so please do encourage your students to enter!

Deals and offers for MF teachers/practitioners

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MusicLearningLive! - discounted places for MF teachers/practitioners

The national MusicLearningLive! conference comes to London on 12th and 13th March 2012. The organisers are offering MF teachers/practitioners a special partner discount of 25% in addition to the current Early Bird reduction - meaning that the rates are £120+VAT for primary/non-formal delegates and £180+VAT for secondary. There is an additional incentive for headteachers who are ALL eligible for the primary/non-formal rate. For details of the full programme and speakers, and to book a place, please visit www.mll2012.com, quoting discount code 'MLLMF' when booking.

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Both of the following products/services are featured in our recent review on websites/software 

Desktop DJ enables you to listen to new releases and countless more chart hits since 1952 through the largest fully licensed music streaming service to education. There is a 10% discount for MF teachers. To take advantage of this please visit the ilikemusic website here or contact James, tel 0207 637 8800, email desktopdj@ilikemusic.com . 

 Notion 3 and Progression software is being offered at the following prices to MF teachers/practitioners: Progression @ £55 (RRP £67.78 and Notion 3 at £150. Please order directly via email info@notionmusic.co.uk , tel 07979 024153     

   

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It’s an exciting start to this academic year as our pilot projects are beginning in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (see below). As Musical Futures funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation (who have funded the initiative since 2003) is due to end in July 2012, we’re working hard to ensure there are as many resources and training courses online as possible to support teachers and practitioners within the UK and beyond.

New Resources by teachers for teachers online now

Over the summer we have been busy updating our website with some great resources developed by teachers, and case studies of MF work happening in schools:

• Resources for band work from Okehampton College, Devon in dance music, pop, rap, reggae and rock 
• MF in Australia: case study of the superb work taking place in Trafalgar Primary School, Victoria
• Sheffield Park Academy and their journey out of special measures and into Musical Futures
• Find out how Cox Green School discovered Musical Futures in the pub!
• Resources and film from Harrogate Grammar School for using 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' for cross-phase primary and secondary collaborative work

MF Transition Project: Secondaries we need your feedback!

Hopefully secondary schools will now be building on the work of primary schools by using the Musical Futures 'Passenger' materials in Year 7. We'd love to hear about how this is working, and develop a collection of case studies on our website and on Twitter (#mufupassenger). To kick start this, some of our champion schools have shared how they have used the materials with their feeder primaries here. Please let us know how you've got on via our feedback form

MFUK pilots

Schools in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have now started piloting MF approaches in their classrooms, to assess its' relevance and suitability outside of England. If you would like more information about the pilots please contact: Scotland National Coordinator Alistair Salmond (email alistairsalmond@talktalk.net); Wales National Coordinator Viv John (email vjohn@uwic.ac.uk); Northern Ireland National Coordinator Sarah Murphy (email smilesmurphy@googlemail.com) and watch our website/Twitter for updates

New Champion Schools

We're delighted to welcome new Champion Schools: Alderbrook School (Solihull), Nottingham Girls Academy (Nottingham), Tavistock College (Devon), Okehampton College (Devon), and Coombeshead College (Devon) to our team of teachers who will deliver MF training and CPD. The three Devon schools will be delivering training as a South West Hub.

Our new look training and CPD programme will be announced at the beginning of October.

Put your school on the Musical Futures map!

Send us some information about how Musical Futures works in your school, and we'll put you on our new Musical Futures map. Please email National Coordinator Anna Gower for more details (email anna@jamesgower.com)

MuFu: USA

We're looking for stories from schools in the USA who have successfully adapted and adopted Musical Futures. Please contact Safiya Juma (musicalfutures@phf.org.uk) if you would like to share this with us.

Coming soon!

• Our new look training and CPD programme - courses to be announced early October
• New resource on how to apply Musical Futures to an existing scheme of work
• Advice on using mobile phone Apps in your Musical Futures work
• Review of software/websites suitable for the Musical Futures classroom 
• New research report from the Institute of Education, University of London, on the long-term impact of Musical Futures     
  

www.musicalfutures.org.uk