This month's Music Teacher magazine shines a light on early childhood music education. We welcome specialist practitioners who have worked for Spitalfields Music, Wigmore Hall and Creative Futures, and researchers from the RCM and Bath Spa University. As a group, they cover the importance of free play, musical play, classroom environment, and choosing songs and activities for a rich curriculum and inclusive practice. Topics range from Speech & Language Therapy to punk pedagogy, to how to embed music in the curriculum. Speaker and trainer Dr Shaddai Tembo, I'm pleased to say, joins us for the first time as a contributor, reflecting on musicality and identity in young children.
Another highlight of this month's issue is Simon Toyne's in-depth discussion of the workforce in secondary schools and how high-quality curricular and co-curricular music could be delivered. Resourcing the NPME while realising its aims and delivering musical value and progression (as well as participation) has been a concern of many leading figures for some time. I refer MT readers to previous ‘pipeline’ articles by Martin Fautley, Adam Whittaker, Liz Stafford, Jonathan Vaughan and Gary Spruce, in addition to sector surveys from the ISM. How we match the scale of ambition with resources requires a short- and long-term plan, as Simon Toyne says, to stop the ‘vicious circle playing itself out’. But, as he also notes, the present mood music is encouraging, with a curriculum review and other measures due by the new government during 2025. There are grounds for optimism.
Elsewhere in February's MT, you'll find thoughts on representation and inclusive practice from Tolu McCarthy, who gave a popular talk on this at last year's MT curriculum conference. We have a candid account of life as an ECT, notes from an examiner on a recent visit to South Africa, and the first column by our new partner for Health and Wellbeing, Creative United, who describe an instrument grant scheme that is helping with the cost-of-living crisis.
Finally, though not least, we have a full-length interview with Ryan Wang, the worthy winner of BBC Young Musician 2024 and, by the sounds of things, a pianist with a firm grasp (at the tender age of 17…) of what it takes to be a top-flight performer.
