The place of peripatetic music staff (or visiting music teachers, as they're now more commonly known) is a notoriously grey area for schools and heads of music. Who is responsible for them? Are they...
Jane Werry Secondary education
It’s that time of year again. The end of a really long term, one often filled with the need for cover work or room changes as concert rehearsals and mock exams take place. But how can you keep classes...
Anna Gower Secondary education
In a number of schools, music teachers will need cover in order to meet the demands of the festive season. When cover is required, a teacher from another department will inevitably end up in your room...
James Manwaring Secondary education
From time to time, our rehearsals can have a little too much of the ‘harrowing’, or even of the ‘hearse’ to them. This resource is about revitalising our approach within a school context. It looks at...
Jonathan James Secondary education
What value can you extract out of Hamilton for your KS3 classes? This resource shows you how to put together vocal and instrumental performances from the show, and use this as a springboard for...
Jane Werry Secondary education
One of the attractive features of the OCR A level syllabus is the thoroughly enjoyable repertoire covered by this particular Area of Study. However, while the songs themselves have instant appeal, it...
Jane Werry Secondary education
The Beatles’ seventh album Revolver was released in August 1966. Following Rubber Soul and preceding Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (discussed in its own Music Teacher resource, February 2017),...
Simon Rushby Secondary education
This resource will not only give some Christmas-themed lesson ideas, but also suggest some one-off lessons that you might like to try. It might be that you’re at the end of a scheme of work, or just...
James Manwaring Secondary education
In this resource, we’ll look at the remaining styles and traditions included in the area of study: African drumming; Calypso from Trinidad and Tobago; Brazilian samba. Once again, this resource...
David Guinane Secondary education
Whatever our motivation for setting our students off with a songwriting task, there’s always a danger that with familiarity comes an assumption that it’s something they’ll be able to ‘just go off and...
Anna Gower Secondary education
Of all the Areas of Study for the 9-1 OCR GCSE, AoS5 on Conventions of Pop is likely to be the one where students already have at least some familiarity with the music. However, although they may...
Jane Werry Secondary education
‘It was 20 years ago today…’ sang the Beatles on the opening track of their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. And it is now actually 50 years ago that they first sang these words. So it's a...
David Ashworth Secondary education