Taking the Lead

How can hubs effectively solve the key issues facing school music provision?

By Dr Liz Stafford

We’re already halfway through the first year of the “new” music hub system in England, and, to some it might seem that the main meaningful changes of the great reorganisation have been solely administrative. Hubs are out there supporting the same schools with broadly the same issues as ever, but with new initiatives such as Lead Schools gradually rolling out, it may be a good time to take stock of how and why we address the key issues in schools, to see if our interventions can be more effective

We have an obsession in the sector over ‘non specialists’ teaching music as if that were not in fact the norm for all subjects at primary school, where everybody’s ‘specialism’ is, in fact, education! However, it can’t be denied that there are unique challenges to teaching music as a generalist which require support to overcome if the teaching is going to be effective. With more and more secondary schools now having to resort to either partial or full non-specialist provision at KS3 thanks to the recruitment and retention crisis, thought needs to go into solutions for this issue at secondary as well as primary level. Lead schools could be a good support here, through a mixture of demonstration lessons, team teaching, mentoring, and INSET, but only if they are carefully trained to deliver these elements with the understanding that all schools and teachers are different and require bespoke support. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen teachers promoting the ‘just do it like me’ approach with seemingly little understanding that not everyone is like them. Supporting other teachers is a particular skill, and just because you are a brilliant music teacher yourself, does not necessarily mean that you are automatically able to help other teachers develop their own practice. Hubs would be wise to carefully consider approaches to training their Lead Schools to avoid inadvertently alienating, confusing or annoying other schools in a well-meaning attempt to support them.

Many schools lack the budget and space for effective resourcing, and with the Capital Grant available, hubs have a real opportunity to support this need by purchasing the resources that schools need and rotating them round on a hire or loan basis. By having a centrally held bank of instruments that schools can request throughout the year, hubs can support the development of curriculum breadth across all their schools, ensuring that pupils are introduced to a wide range of different musical traditions in an authentic manner. Of course even hubs struggle for space, but with some careful planning it should be possible to make sure that these resources are effectively always out of the building moving from one school to another without returning to clutter up space at hub HQ! Hubs will gain extra brownie points from schools if they can organise the transport of the instruments themselves, and there will be generally better buy-in from schools to the idea if all they’ve got to do is request some resources and wait for them to turn up!

Another challenge that has been, and probably always will be facing schools is the many competing priorities squeezing the timetable, compounded at secondary with accountability measures steering pupils away from further study at KS4 and beyond. The stock response to this is that we need to ‘advocate’ for music, but let’s face it we’ve all been doing that for decades and it has made very little difference! Perhaps instead hubs could look at an incentivisation process for schools who prioritise music? It’s been fairly standard practice for hubs who do direct delivery (ie. music service model) to offer a discount or freebies to primary schools who purchase ‘continuation’ from whole class ensemble programmes, but it’s less common for incentives to be offered to secondary schools. Now might be the time to consider whether we can cajole schools into committing to music at KS4 and beyond by making a current GCSE cohort the key to unlocking some kind of benefits or additional services from the hub? I realise this will need to be paid for, but it might be possible to do this through existing projects, just reframing these as ‘first refusal’ for schools making active steps to prioritise music? Of course this would need careful thought to make sure that the flip side wasn’t other schools getting worse and worse at music through a lack of support, and giving up on it entirely! But I am confident that there is a happy medium between the two that would encourage more schools to get involved.

For many secondary schools, viability of numbers is the hurdle that KS4 provision may fall at. Again, we can advocate and bang on about the average GCSE class size for music being a lot smaller than for other subjects, but schools have to balance their books, and their timetables. I remember Music Mark posing the question many years ago of whether hubs should offer GCSE music (mainly because I commented my thoughts on it on Twitter and was shouted down by someone who was unreasonably angry about the idea, had thought it was my own suggestion and when corrected said something along the lines of ‘shame on you Music Mark,’ which was quite the overreaction for pre-Musk Twitter!) and I think this is definitely something worth consideration. Many of our conservatoires already offer out of hours GCSE and A Level provision, so it may just be a case of signposting towards that if it is geographically within reach, but if not hubs could consider hosting GCSE and A level courses as part of music centre or similar activities to ensure that pupils can access the qualifications they need.

Even when schools do have viable numbers they may not have a specialist teacher available to run the course. I have had the great pleasure of working with Jersey Music Service over many years, and have seen the benefits first hand in their providing both support staff services and full teaching for GCSE courses at various schools who found themselves in need of a teacher (you can imagine the rigmarole of trying to recruit someone from across the sea at short notice!) Even for hubs who don’t offer direct delivery or don’t have qualified secondary teachers working on their teams, their new Lead Schools network should presumably help identify suitable teachers who might be able to be ‘on loan’ to other schools for the purposes of covering GCSE classes, or schools who might take pupils in for GCSE classes if the schools are both in agreement? Even way back in the 90s, I was able to remain at my own school for three of my A levels, whilst travelling up the road (admittedly in the highly awkward situation of being driven on my own by the caretaker in the school minibus!) to take A level music at another school. It can be done if schools are willing, and hubs are well placed to encourage these types of partnerships.

If you ask secondary schools what their main issue is at KS3, they will undoubtedly tell you ‘transition.’ Primary schools, although less affected by the consequences, are also irked about this issue, often feeling that secondaries are ‘not interested’ in finding out what they’re doing with music (or indeed any other subject outside English & Maths), and instead just assume that they’ve done nothing. With strategic functions specifically around Schools and Partnerships, hubs have the chance to play a real role here with something as simple as providing joint Network Meetings with primary and secondary in the same room. Lead Schools could also build up a picture of provision in their areas, and share this information between relevant primaries and secondaries, facilitating conversations that will smooth the transition process for everyone.

Speaking of networks, it’s long been recognised that secondary teachers feel professionally isolated, particularly when they are working as one-person departments. The Lead Schools network could again play a crucial role over and above the Network Meeting approach already established in most hubs. Lead School practitioners could be the mentors and support systems for oneperson departments, acting as a sounding board, providing regular advice, and being a critical friend. Once they get to know each school they could also facilitate ‘buddy’ arrangements for peer sharing support between schools, gradually expanding the network of support on which one-person departments can draw.

As both hubs and schools tackle the challenge of doing more with less (in real terms) funding, it’s important to make support offers and interventions as targeted and effective as possible for the benefit of both parties. The new Lead Schools network provides opportunities for effective partnership working in this regard, and I look forward to seeing how this comes to fruition in different parts of the country. Perhaps you might like to write us an article on the impact of these across your hub area for our next issue?!