Category: Curriculum Design
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A Practical Model to Grow Confidence in Music for Young People Aged 11-16
Over the last 8 years in my current school, I’ve been continually looking for ways to improve the experience of my music students. Every one of them is unique, no matter ability, demographic or experience of life. A one-size-fits-all model would have failed within minutes so I’ve developed a flexible, customisable model for every individual…
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Year 8 “Production” Launched
This first week of 2019 has seen the launch of our exciting new “Production” unit in KS3 music at Manor. The unit gives students the opportunity to explore the type of work they might do on our new GCSE Music Production Via Technology Pathway. It could also be the first step of development towards a…
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Melody Detox – updated
For this first week back of the new year, I decided to focus on melody with all my year 9 and 10 students. For year 9 this was their first experience of writing melodies with this amount of depth of thought, and a timely reminder for year 10 who are beginning to compose longer works.…
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A Wall of 2 Sides – increasing students’ learning ambition in Music
One wall in the Manor music department is more important than any other. Side A – The Wall of Fame The Wall of Fame is a visual display to celebrate the achievements and progress of Music students choosing to study for graded exams. Students have a choice as to whether or not they would like…
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The real-world truth about… GCSE Music Composition (How to start)
Most GCSE Music students feel stressed as they begin their composition work. This stress is often nothing to do with music whatsoever and therefore very unhelpful for our young musicians. The stress is usually rooted in expectation about grades, either their own or that felt from a parent or teacher. Without experience of composing before,…
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Mini-Mr Lowe
Something I use on a daily basis is “Mini-Mr Lowes”. My own understanding of music has developed so much more during the period of my teaching than at any other time. Every day, students approach concepts differently to how I have ever perceived or imagined them before. I provide a starting point with a specific…
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Discovering a ‘Production Environment’ for learning
In the early 2000s (before I retrained to be a secondary music teacher), I was greatly fortunate to be invited to some of the leading music and audio production facilities in the UK, perhaps the world. The primary purpose of my visits was to meet professionals at the top of their industry and to learn…
Music Teacher Solutions 