Ofsted summaries - invaluable resources for practitioners and head teachers
Are you too busy to read the 70+pages of the most recent Ofsted triennial review for music? If so, read on!
Are you too busy to read the 70+ pages of the most recent Ofsted triennial review for music ? If so, read on!
According to a recent report from Ofsted (March 2012), there is a lot we could be doing to make music teaching better for pupils in schools. But accessing the information can be rather time consuming; to help us all out, I have created some short summaries aimed at practitioners and teachers.
These short summaries were designed to help spread the messages and help practitioners have the ammunition they need to make changes in order to make music more relevant to young people. The messages are equally important for community musicians and instrumental teachers who work in school, particularly because in future, schools are responsible for ensuring the quality of anything that happens in their school. This means that deliverers must be aware of the 'bigger picture' - how can what they deliver be made more relevant to the particular young people they are working with, and how does their work fit in with the rest of young people's musical and educational lives - in other words, are you differentiating effectively, personalising learning effectively, taking into acount personal experiences and contributing to a progressive education which has real musical development at the heart of it?
The summaries can be found by using the following link:
http://www.ism.org/news/article/ofsted_2012_recommendations
There are downloadable versions at the bottom of the page on this link, plus links to the Ofsted report summary and videos of good practice.
We have a professional responsibility to read these kinds of reports and do whatever we can to make teaching and learning better, whatever sector we work in. One of our failings as a sector when the previous triennial review was published (2009) was not to widely distributed to those who it really mattered to - namely schools, headteachers, teachers, peripatetic teachers, music practitioners, community artists. I am determined not let there be a similar criticism this time round.
These briefings are not about advocating any one style or method of music teaching as superior to any other. We all know that inspirational teaching comes in many different ways and from many different approaches and personalities. What I hope these reports do is to support all teachers to deliver a better music education, whatever approach they choose to take. Whilst I have tried to include as many key points as succinctly as possible, I know there are others which may have been marginalised. I think this really is an opportunity for us to be proactive in influencing change, at what is a critical time for music education. Please pass these summaries on to everyone you think needs to hear these messages.