HUBNEWS
News from Norfolk Schools With the recent news of declining numbers in arts subjects nationally, there are secondary music departments across Norfolk that have bucked the trend and are increasing their uptake. There are success stories to be celebrated in our secondary schools and many different approaches that departments are taking to drive music education in their schools.
Viewpoint from Thorpe St Andrew High School Pete Edwards, Head of Music “Music should be deeply embedded in the life of a school and often it is but in the current climate the value of music is overlooked (along with other arts subjects). At Thorpe St Andrew School we take the view that music is for everyone and that not ‘doing music’ at level 2 or level 3 doesn’t mean that a student is excluded from music in any way. I am in a fortunate position in that the leadership of my school really value music; we contribute a lot to the wider school life but I would be wise not to forget how precarious a position we are in being that we are a niche. In a world of tightening financial constraints, anything we can do to prove our value is vital. There are three of us in the department and we all teach vocational and academic courses. Currently we have a larger cohort of BTEC students than GCSE but both qualifications are co-taught in the same lesson. This is tricky and has its disadvantages but we make the most of the shared composition and
performance elements of each course. There is, or at least has been, a perception that BTEC courses are for musicians without training or just drummers and guitarists who learn through YouTube. While it’s true, a number of the learners on our BTEC course don’t have a regular instrumental teacher when they start the course, but they have no less ‘natural’ musicianship than their peers.
There is a wider pool of talented students who want a career in music but don’t want to follow the traditional path. Most of the typical BTEC musicians want to be immediate rather than strategic in their learning. These musicians can be highly motivated and are independent but there is little structure to their approach. It’s our job to focus their enthusiasm and guide them into learning technique and theory. GCSE numbers are falling nationally but young people who want to learn about music as part of their options choices are, in my experience, put off by
studying set works or the perception that GCSE is for ‘classical’ musicians. I’ve found that BTEC students are often more open-minded to world music and classical music when you can explain the benefit to their potential career of ‘stealing’ ideas, processes and techniques from different genres and experiences. Vocational courses measure the final performance or composition but there is also an emphasis on the judgement of the students progress towards the end result as well as the final ‘product’, how well they responded to adversity or challenge and how they responded to feedback. When we implemented our BTEC course three years ago we planned to introduce a vocational course at Sixth Form so there was an obvious pathway for our students to follow. The vocational course (our choice is BTEC Level 3 in Music Performance) has had a really positive uptake and numbers are growing to a level where the course is more financially viable and not offered as a loss leader to keep students in the centre, which A Level can often be.” BTEC students performing at Norwich Arts Centre
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