Primary Music Magazine
Issue 2.0 Summer 2018
A journey from Special Measures to Top 1%. Jimmy Rotherham discusses how learning about the work of Zoltan Kodaly helped save his school… When I began supply teaching at Feversham, four years ago, music provision was typical of many primary schools. A few broken instruments on a trolley, competitive singing in assemblies which had become shouting contests, and music lessons which had consisted of objectives like "Children will learn the names of the Beatles.” Without any training or guidance in musicianship, only three or four children could sing in tune or match a pitch, and rhythm and pulse were generally insecure. Children were not enjoying their music lessons, and there was no culture of music-‐making at home. But they did know that the 3 Beatles were called "John-‐Paul, George and Pingu.” What I didn't realise at the time was that my headteacher had already tried out various music specialists -‐ whilst all were great musicians, they did not know how to relate to younger children and teach developmentally appropriate lessons. I was no different, given that most teachers are trained as secondary music teachers or primary generalists with virtually no music content in their PGCEs. But my headteacher obviously saw something in me that got me the permanent job. I later discovered it was because I was able to engage children and had a belief that all children, given the right training, would be musical. This philosophy is all well and good, but it was clear to me that I simply didn't have the tools or the knowledge to make this happen. The children could not even sing fairly simple songs in tune or keep a steady pulse. Fortunately, my research drew me to the work of Zoltan Kodály, and simply by adopting a few strategies, I started to quickly see results. Kodály was highly critical of the music education system in Hungary, which did not recognise the importance of music in primary schools and was therefore not spending enough time on music. The curriculum was too focused on rote instrumental learning rather than musical understanding, training for teaching music in primary schools was poor. Sound familiar? With his colleague Jeno Ádám, Kodály spent a decade reforming music teaching in Hungary and was highly influential. Eventually this led to the holy grail of government support, and by 1950 the first music primary school was opened -‐ by 1960, there were over 100. By 1965, half of the schools in Hungary were music schools. An interesting effect of this was that music schools performed far better academically in all subjects.
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In 2013, Jimmy Rotheram was ready to quit teaching, burdened by the effect of cuts combined with 30 hours per week of paperwork. Instead, he switched to Primary School music teaching and fell in love with the profession again, thanks to Feversham Primary Academy prioritising music and giving him and the children the time, resources and support to succeed. In this time, the school has risen from Special measures to the top 1% of schools in the UK for pupil progress. This has gained international attention, and Jimmy has appeared in the Guardian, The One Show and Radio 5 live. Jimmy is still doing 60 hour weeks, but this is now spent on getting the most out of pupils, as well as supporting other schools across the country with their music programmes and music education advocacy. Find him on Twitter @MusicEd4all
