The report makes a number of recommendations to help schools ensure all pupils receive a high-quality music education, including:

• Supporting subject leaders to develop a curriculum that deliberately and incrementally teaches all pupils to become more musical.
• Making sure that all pupils can develop their musical talents and interests, by offering extra-curricular activities as well as instrumental and vocal lessons.
• Ensuring that teachers provide ongoing feedback to pupils that improves pupils’ music-making in both technique and expressive quality.
• Continuously developing teachers’ subject knowledge, including their musicianship skills and their understanding of what high-quality music-making should sound like for pupils in the age group they teach; this approach should align with the choices set out in the school’s curriculum.
• Actively seeking the support of local music hubs or other sources of expertise when developing and improving the curriculum.

Leeds Music Education Partnership (LMEP), led by ArtForms Music, are the Music Hub for Leeds.  If you would like support with any aspect of your Music curriculum please contact LMEP@leeeds.gov.uk or Sam.Mercer@leeds.gov.uk  You can also click here to see our 2023-24 Music Connect programme of support that is available to all schools.

The Music subject report is further summarised by Ofsted below –

Music teaching too variable in quality and often not given enough time

The report found that there is significant variation in the quality of music education in both primary and secondary schools. Since Ofsted’s report into music education in 2012, many schools, particularly at primary level, have taken important steps to make music more prominent in the curriculum. We found that almost all primary school children had frequent opportunities to learn music in reception and music was taught weekly in key stage 1 and 2. The strongest aspect of the curriculum in primary schools was teaching pupils to sing.

 While many primary pupils now have regular opportunities to learn music as part of the curriculum, at secondary level, Ofsted’s research shows that too many schools still do not give music enough time. There was considerable variation in the amount of curriculum time allocated to music in key stage 3. In just under half the schools visited, leaders had not made sure that pupils had enough time to learn the curriculum as planned by the school. This meant that pupils were not adequately prepared for further musical study. Most secondary schools did not build on the strong progress and enjoyment that pupils had experienced in their singing at primary school.

 The sample of schools we visited showed that those with stronger musical curriculums focused on teaching pupils to get better at music rather than just having them ‘do’ music. Most senior leaders understood the critical role that extra-curricular music, both instrumental and vocal, played in complementing the curriculum. However, there are ongoing challenges re-establishing extra-curricular lessons as schools return to normal following COVID-19.

Many teachers, particularly in primary schools, reported lacking confidence in teaching music, including demonstrating high-quality work to their pupils.

 ArtForms now have both a choirs co-ordinator and an ensembles co-ordinator to support schools to set up or reinforce their extra-curricular Music activities.  We also offer bespoke advice and guidance sessions in your school with the Music Leader and/or SLT to help develop the Music offer in school with a specific focus on the curriculum if required.  Contact Lee.Muncaster@leeds.gov.uk or Sam.Mercer@leeds.gov.uk if you wish to find out more.

LMEP have teamed up with Leeds 2023 to bring a new commissioned singing resource for all schools. Created by LMEP partners Musical Futures for the Year of Culture, this is a great opportunity to be part of a city-wide collaborative video performance!  

Get involved! 

Online resources are available for teachers to guide classes through learning and performing the song. We are encouraging you to film your final performance and to share it with Leeds 2023 to be edited together into a mass participation music video.  The resources are suitable for primary and secondary schools.

We would love as many schools in Leeds as possible to get involved. This FREE resource includes backing and performance tracks, and sheet music to allow instrumental performance to accompany voice performance if you want to. Film your final performance (the more creative the better!), send it in to LEEDS 2023, and it will feature in the final video on LEEDS 2023’s YouTube Channel during Leeds Language Week 13 – 19 November! 

Learn to sing in French, Spanish, Romanian, Polish and Urdu. We encourage you to add in other languages you may have in your school.

To access the song resources, instructions and find out how to submit your song videos, please click on this link:  

Video resources – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6WV9wEVdssgwikG-yDybeYC2SmjYDPX4

Lyrics, audio and chord sheets – https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-DzJxi6Hr3e1Fno2obDLSeehnzGZWj8E?usp=drive_link

We would love to see you share any images and clips of your school practicing for the challenge on social media by tagging @LEEDS2023, @ArtFormsLeeds and #LeedsMultilingualSong.  

Please note that all children and young people captured on your video must have photographic and video permissions, as these images will be shared on the internet and social media where necessary.  

Deadline: The closing date for entries is Friday 27 October 2023 at 4pm. 

How to submit your videos: 

Guidance for filming on cameras / tablets / phones: 

·       Minimum resolution full HD – 1920*1080. 4K is preferred if supported by the device used to film. 

·       All videos MUST be landscape / 16:9 aspect ratio. Vertical videos such as Instagram reels (mobile phones held upright) will not be usable. 

·       24fps (frames per second) if possible, using your device. Most phones will offer this as an option within camera settings. 

·       Steady, static angles are preferred to too much movement. Any movement must be steady, preferably with the aid of a gimbal. 

·       Files must be shared uncompressed via WeTransfer (https://wetransfer.com/) to hello@bigskycreative.co.uk directly. Please state your school in the description. Once your video is downloaded, you will receive a confirmation email from WeTransfer.  

·       In the title of the email sent from WeTransfer, please write: L23-LLW-Song-[insert the name of your school].  

·       In the body of the message to Big Sky Creative, please write the name of your school and sign off with the name of a lead contact from the school should we need to get in touch with you regarding the footage. Please also state how many pupils took part.  

·       Files shared via messaging apps etc are often compressed and this will degrade footage, please transfer to computer using a cable connection, AirDrop or other form of transfer that will not compress footage. 

For more information please email Artforms at Educ.Artforms@leeds.gov.uk.

It’s Monday morning, and a small group of children are gathered around eclectic percussion instruments on the floor, responding to each other to create music that oscillates between tense and calm.  They are in a music nurture group, a safe and welcoming little community within school, where they meet weekly with a music teacher and a TA to play games, learn skills, make music and take charge of their session together.

This year, Bramley Park Academy (BPA) and ArtForms took part in the trauma-informed, music nurture group, training programme from Changing Tracks.  This is a national project for developing inclusion in music hubs headed by Youth Music and Hertford Music Service.  BPA uses music nurture groups as a part of its enrichment and wellbeing offer to pupils who face challenging circumstances at home or in their community and pupils who have additional needs or disabilities.  The benefits for the pupils are many, as the groups aim to:

• Provide a safe, kind place for self-expression and communication
• Foster a sense of friendship groups, community and identity
• Help pupils identify and self-regulate tricky emotions
• Enable opportunities to succeed and celebrate achievement
• Provide an avenue for making choices, developing agency and confidence
• Develop musicianship skills

The Changing Tracks programme has helped develop the way that our music nurture groups run.  Pupils’ ideas are at the forefront of the sessions, and the camaraderie and decision-making in the groups has led to pupil progress in other areas.  The pupils also gain musical skills which they can use in school and follow on with in their community, perhaps at a Saturday Music Centre.  The individual attention, and the fun, responsive activities have really made a difference to BPA’s hard-to-reach children and those who need extra support.

Alfie, a pupil, said, “I love being in music and having fun with everyone.”

Teacher Ms Marr remarked, “Cody likes it because it gets his brain working. … Cody likes being creative and likes that he can write his own music.  Cody’s confidence has increased since joining the group, show[ing] more interest compared to when he first started.”

SENDCo and Vice Principal Ms Booth commented, “We would love to continue the groups into next year as we feel that it is an amazing intervention for our children and they really enjoy coming.”

ArtForms offers weekly primary and SEND-setting nurture groups through it’s ‘Music sessions for children with additional needs (SEND)’ SLA on Leeds for Learning.  Nurture group work is also an option with the one-term 3As programme – a free to schools weekly music morning which is based on the ‘Attend, Attain, Achieve’ plan for Leeds schools and features whole class learning.  Through Leeds Music Education Partnership (LMEP, our local music hub), DJ School UK also runs music-tech nurture groups in secondary settings.  For more information please email the ArtForms office at educ.artforms@leeds.gov.uk

The ArtForms SEND Team also teach specially adapted music lessons in class settings and nurture groups as well as in small group instrument lessons.  ArtForms also offers music therapy sessions from accredited music therapists—these take place as weekly one-to-one sessions at school.  We run an inclusive Christmas Singalong in December (look for an announcement in October) and often team up with LMEP partner YAMSEN to provide performance opportunities and support special events for our pupils with PMLD and learning disabilities.  For more information you can email SEND Team Coordinator Joanna Winster at joanna.winster@leeds.gov.uk.

-Joanna Winster

But what, exactly, has this pupil forgotten? Her musical and cultural knowledge, built up since birth through nursery rhymes and songs, music on the radio and TV, songs sung in school and in the home (and perhaps place of worship), chants joined in with at the football? Or maybe she has forgotten her technical skills, and can no longer remember how to sound a note on her trumpet, how to hold her violin bow, or how to strum an A minor chord on her ukulele? Or has she forgotten how to respond physically to rhythm, or emotionally to melody, or to appreciate the beauty and joy of harmony?

Or has she forgotten a piece of paper with some lines and dots on?

Many years ago, I tried to persuade my father that, despite never having participated in music as a performer, he should take up music as a new hobby. He’d long loved listening music – mostly light classics – and was hugely supportive of my musical learning as I was growing up. ‘I couldn’t do any music. I don’t understand music: I can’t even read music’ was his response.

How many people make music? Million. Probably billions. A recent report suggests that the majority of young people in England are active music makers, and that more young people are making music than in the past.[1] Does this depend on knowing that Every Good Boy Deserves Favour? Given the diversity of musical genres, and the growth of many and varied ways of accessing music, it doesn’t seem so.

Ofsted asks that we music educators should:

‘promote teachers’ use of musical sound as the dominant language of musical teaching’

and observes that:

‘Too much music teaching continued to be dominated by the spoken or written word, rather than by musical sounds.’[2]

Is musical notation covered by this? Are we, as adults and music educators, thinking about what music really is? Are perpetuating a model of notation-led learning for good reasons (if that is, in fact, what we are doing)?

Music is an aural medium. It is about sound. It is made of sound. Notation is extremely useful, as it reminds us what sounds to make. It can enable us to imagine sounds in our heads, and to give instructions to other musicians to make certain sounds in certain ways. It is a very useful part of any musician’s resource pack, and I would always make music notation part of a child’s learning. But notation is not music. Music is something else. Music enables a meeting of minds that profoundly transcends the limitations of language. If we could describe in words what music says to us, then we wouldn’t need the music. But we do. Profoundly.

As music educators, we need to hang on this knowledge to inform our teaching. We are teachers of music. We may also teach about music, but this is not the same thing.

The German poet Heinrich Heine wrote:

“Where words leave off, music begins.”

My German is poor, so I have to use this translation. But I don’t need to translate German music, or my own music into German when making music to a German audience, or with German musicians.

[1] The Sound of the Next generation; Youth Music

[2] Music in schools: wider still, and wider

The show, which takes place at Leeds’ iconic First Direct Arena, is designed to entertain and inspire over 3000 teachers at the close of the first day of Teach First’s conference.

Big Samba is an annual event supported by Leeds Music Education Partnership (LMEP) and led by ArtForms Music in collaboration with Louder Than Life. Launched in 2016 to tie in with the Rio Olympics, Big Samba has worked with over 1250 children across 30 primary and secondary schools. It provides a brilliant opportunity for children – many of whom who have had little or no exposure to live music – to perform in public.

We are delighted that the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress will be in attendance at this year’s Big Samba and wish everyone involved the very best of luck!