Primary Teacher UK

Find your talent

Ten areas around the country are to pilot the Government’s £25 million Find your Talent programme to give young people the chance to encounter a range of high-quality cultural experiences for five hours a week both in and outside of school. Children in the pilot areas will be able to discover and develop their talents in the cultural sphere.

In time, the Government wants all young people to have the right to experience five hours of arts and culture every week.

The ten lead organisations chosen as pilots are:

• Bolton Borough Council;
• The Creative Foundation (serving Shepway District and including Folkestone, Hythe and Romney Marsh);
• Customs House (North and South Tyneside);
• Hampshire County Council;
• Leeds Children’s Services;
• Leicestershire County Council;
• ‘Liverpool City Region’ Partnership (serving three Merseyside neighbourhoods);
• North Somerset;
• Telford and Wrekin Council; and
• Tower Hamlets.

Sound Junction

SoundJunction is the award-winning site for listening to, exploring, discovering and creating music. On the site you can:

Listen and explore: rock, classical, jazz, African, drum 'n' bass, pop, fusion and much more. Listen to different musical instruments and see professional musicians on video -- the violin to the udu, bassoon to drums.

Discover how music works by taking it apart and making it yourself and listen to 40 musicians talk on film about their experiences.

Create and compose your own music online with free software and discover how composers and remix artists make their music.

Learn about music's background and history and get free music teaching resources and materials for exams in music.

Link: http://www.soundjunction.org/

Come and Praise Words

I've just ordered in the BBC Come and Praise Complete music CDs and piano book. I'm desperate however to get a copy of the words to each song typed up so that I can photocopy it to acetate to use on the OHP in assemblies.

Does anyone have these words typed up or know where I can find them? If you can help please email me at rossa@primary-teacher-uk.co.uk.

Sing Up!

http://www.singup.org/ is the Music Manifesto's National Programme. The site has tons of information and resources for children, parents and teachers including free lesson plans and advice on how to get started with music in your classroom.

The Sing Up Magazine, which you can order for free on the website, is the first step to getting involved in the programme and accessing resources. It's a termly magazine which available to primary schools and singing leaders working regularly in primary schools in England.

Each issue of the magazine will include 10 songs (on a CD) fully supported by learning materials and full performance, echo and backing tracks. Each issue will also feature an update from Howard Goodall, singing news and examples of good practice from all around the country.

There is loads of other free information and resources if you register for full access.

Link: http://www.singup.org/

Instruments in school

Just weeks after a craze for ukeleles over recorders in primary schools was revealed, a government-backed study has found that guitars and drums are becoming the instruments of choice in the classroom.

Orchestral instrument lessons are in decline, according to researchers from the Institute of Education in London. Susan Hallam, who led the team, said it was likely the guitar would soon overtake the violin as the most widely taught instrument, with children being inspired by bands such as the White Stripes.

The figures were published as the schools secretary, Ed Balls, announced £332m funding over three years to help boost music for the under-11s. The aim was "to renew the country's musical traditions, creating a musical culture in schools for all to embrace, not just the few". Balls said: "Every child from all backgrounds should have the chance to perform, play an instrument or sing and I want every school to become a musical school." Officials said £40m of the total funding would be used to buy brand new musical instruments, from violins, flutes and clarinets to African drumming sets and bassoons.

Primary Music Teacher

Primary Music Teacher is a website set up by Mark Smith, a PGCE student specialising in KS2 music.  Now if you are anything like me these music websites are a life saver in class and this site is no different if you are looking at Samba.  Although the site is in its infant stages at the moment,  the Samba resources are excellent (including example music) and it other areas could be developed it could really become an essential website in the future.

Link: www.primarymusicteacher.com

Royalty free music for your performances

With the summer performances coming up lots of teachers will be looking for 'atmospheric music'.  This site, which has royalty free music, allows you to download and use the music as long as you give credit.  They ask for an optional $5 donation for those feeling flush.

What's good about this site is the ability to search on the 'feel' of the music.  Looking for something eerie?  Maybe something aggressive?

Link: http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/

Primary Teachers too shy to sing!

A study by the Institute of Education has revealed that half of primary teachers in England are unconfident about singing in front of a class.

The study says that most primary school pupils spend an hour doing music, with 13% learning to play an instrument.

Professor Susan Hallam of the Institute of Education said it was shocking that one in three primary school teachers had received no training in teaching music and singing.

"Teaching music is about so much more than learning to play an instrument or spotting the protégés of tomorrow; it's about developing social skills, team work, confidence, co-ordination and creativity.

"Today's research findings revealed a worrying lack of confidence in our primary school teachers when it comes to helping children benefit from music lessons, so we now need to evaluate the direct effect this is having on our children."

The study involved the analysis of questionnaires given to 350 trainee primary teachers.

Top 30 children's songs

According to the Independent the Government is planning to publish a 21st-century songbook consisting of the top 30 children's songs.  Alan Johnson will announce the move on Thursday and urges all schools to get pupils to vote for the songs they would most like to see in the book.

Any favourites to suggest?  Maybe Don't Give Up by Peter Gabriel for the teachers!

Edit: Here's the offical announcement on the Governments site.  I look forward to the support that is going to be given to teachers who can't sing - like me!

Assembly Music - What would you play?

We pick music to play as the children are coming in and out of assembly each week as I'm sure many schools do. I'm wondering if anyone has any good suggestions for me next week. It's not actually as easy as it sounds if you listen carefully to all the words!

Here's three suggestions to get us going:

Unwritten
Earth Song
You've got a friend