September 2021
Welcome to our pack of ways in which we can support you, your students and your school unlock music for the new academic year.
This pack includes:
- Starting points – guidance from MusicMark, news from Charanga, and the Model Music Curriculum
- Music Curriculum Support – eLearning, Sing Up, Workshops, curriculum enhancement, teacher networks, school development plans, and CPD.
- Music Tuition – Band-It!, group lessons, discounts and subsidies, including generous funding for LAC pupils from Virtual School
- Group and Whole-Class Instrumental learning – Play-It! (Free whole class instrumental tuition, one term for one year group at KS2), and Play it! Again – subsidised whole class instrumental tuition
Have a question? Get in touch and drop us an email to musichub@essex.gov.uk
1 Starting Points
Latest MusicMark Guidance for managing Covid-19 related risks
Release of a Model Curriculum for Music
A short video to detail the support offered to schools. The video will give you an overview of the content of this document and how the offer works together, if that is your preferred way to digest information.
2 Music Curriculum Support
We know that schools, teachers and pupils are all unique and one size never fits all. That is why we offer curriculum support that will cover the requirements of the National Curriculum but also offer flexible pathways to cover the needs of all teachers, whether they have a musical background or not.
Our partnership offers include different resources that schools can use to deliver all the aspects of the curriculum, extracurricular and school-wide activities.
E-Learning package
Our e-learning package, which costs schools £100 for the full package for the year (we subsidise this, in that each item costs well over £100) provides access to:
- Full curriculum resources for KS1 – 4, EYFS and SEND (Charanga and Focus on Sound)
- Music technology solutions (O-Generator and VIP Studio)
- Teacher Development resource bank (Reel Music)
Charanga are undergoing a huge development of their support to schools with hundreds of new lessons and resources and extension of curriculum support to KS3.
Short video from Charanga detailing these developments.
Our website details other free resources that will compliment these schemes including BBC Ten pieces, Bring the Noise and Chrome Music Lab.
To sign up, please send an email to musichub@essex.gov.uk
Sing Up
We are excited to be partnering with Sing Up to offer schools up to 65% reduction in the cost of membership.
Sing Up provide a vast bank of online resources for singing, from simple songs for nursery classes to multiple part arrangements of recent pop hits alongside a broad choral repertoire.
Sing Up training will be available in the coming year and would love to support school clusters to perform together, so please do look out for this in the coming months.
See prices, more information, and sign up.
Workshops and curriculum enhancement
We continue to offer workshops to schools in a variety of musical disciplines including Drum-It!, Rap-It! and Create-It! and are happy to work with your school or setting to provide a bespoke workshop to fit in with your school needs.
Our workshops cost from £175.00 and are subsidised down by us from their full £350+ cost.
Teacher Networks
Primary meetings: 14 September 2021, 18 January 2022 and 26 April 2022
Secondary meetings: 15 September 2021, 19 January 2022 and 27 April 2022
Meet with colleagues and share ideas at our free network meetings. We will share with you the latest news of what is happening in music education and hear from partners and colleagues about strong practice.
We host a dedicated area on our website where teachers can share documents, planning and resources with other network members.
In the second half of each half term we will be supporting colleagues to meet in local quadrant groups to develop strong practice in all areas of the county.
MIDAS
We offer a free MIDAS (Music Improvement, Development and Support) visit to review the delivery and impact of music in your school and work in collaboration to plan your next steps.
If you require more intensive support we also run a MIDAS+ scheme that goes deeper into your school’s musical journey and the support we can offer.
To book or enquire about further support for either of these, please email musichub@essex.gov.uk
We run a yearly programme of CPD sessions. Regular Charanga training is available and additional dates for your diary include:
Music Co-ordinator training day – for new music co-ordinators or those wanting a refresher! – Friday 8 October 2021 – all day, live if possible. £40 fee.
Music Assessment overview for KS1-2 – Suitable for music leaders – Wednesday 22 September 2021, 4.00-5.30pm online. There is no charge to Essex Schools for this session.
Music delivery and assessment in Years 5 and 6 for non-specialist teachers – October 2021 date, details to be arranged, £40 fee.
Booking will be available on our website nearer the time and additional training will be added. If your school would like bespoke CPD, please email musichub@essex.gov.uk.
3 Music Tuition
We continue to offer high-quality tuition in a range of traditional instruments and other musical disciplines.
Direct parent payment is now available. Sign up is now closed for the autumn term but will re-open again for the spring term.
We are planning to offer face to face music tuition out of school hours at local Essex Music Schools. We also have a series of Community Music Centres from September where young people can take part in ensembles, workshops and masterclasses to develop their musicianship.
If you are looking to provide Rock and Pop tuition in your school, Band-It! could be the solution for you. Book Band-It!.
KS2 pupils in groups of 4 to 6 pupils create a band and are coached by an experienced music tutor to learn to play their instruments in a group setting.
To find our more or sign up, please send an email to musichub@essex.gov.uk
We want to ensure that all children have equal opportunity to engage with music, no matter their background. We offer a 66% reduction in fees for pupils from low income families. Applications are via our website.
Musical Opportunities for LAC pupils
Through generous funding from the Virtual School, we are able to subsidise provision and free musical activity for young people who are looked after. Email us at musichub@essex.gov.uk for more information.
4 Play-It!
We continue to offer our free term of instrumental provision for whole classes in one year group at KS2.
We are developing this model over the coming year to ensure that young people are getting the best possible musical experience.
The first addition to the programme is a CPD session for all class teachers who will be team-teaching the sessions with the music tutor.
There is no expectation for the teacher to have musical skill or knowledge. This training will give class teachers and support staff the knowledge they need to best support pupil’s musical learning and hopefully remove some of the fear of learning an instrument alongside your class!
The session will take place online on Thursday 9 September, 3.30-4.30pm and be available as a recording after the session.
For schools who wish to invest further into whole class instrumental learning, we offer additional subsidised sessions. These can be used to continue after the free term or to deliver Play-It! to other year groups or key stages.
Sign up for Play-It! is via the link below. All schools are asked to send a member of staff to a free CPD session (a charge of £25 will be made to schools who do not attend the online training session either live on Thursday 9 September or view the recording afterwards).
