Programme
- Exploring what ‘quality’ means in music education, including how the term is used in policy and government guidance, and the implications this has for curriculum design
- How schools can balance participation, musical standards and repertoire choices to create an inclusive curriculum that supports meaningful musical development for all
- Identify the factors that most effectively support – or hinder – musical progression, with a focus on lifelong musical learning beyond the classroom
- Understand what the proposed curriculum reforms and renewed focus on arts subjects could mean for teachers and schools
- Explore the key policy, staffing and funding challenges involved in delivering curriculum change effectively
- How teachers and leaders can make the most of the opportunity for a renewed curriculum offer
- Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) is a growing concern among young musicians, hindering their ability to achieve their full potential
- Understand the basic neuroscience behind MPA and learn how to identify the signs in educational settings
- Acquire tools for helping students understand MPA, build musical self-efficacy and overcome perfectionism, all in the name of happier, healthier and improved performances
BREAKOUT SESSION 1 (choose 1A or 1B)
This practical session, with a focus on KS2, shows how you can teach musicianship in creative and inclusive ways to make musical learning available to all children. It will explore ways to build children's fluency in aural skills, performing and composing (in line with the National Curriculum), and starts with chanting and singing as the first instrument that all children can access. It then progresses with movement work to develop rhythmic understanding, listening, and talking about music analytically, and then composing with voices and classroom instruments (the session will use songs from the Sing for Pleasure Junior Songbook Pack). The session will also cover how to develop these ideas into medium-term schemes of work.
How can we help students feel confident about writing effective compositions right from the start of KS3? This session explores strategies for creating and developing musical ideas and structures, providing students with the means to write effectively at KS3 and then build on this for GCSE and A-level. It starts with simple ideas and shows how these can progress, becoming more finely tuned as students get older and more experienced with music, musical genres and styles, and music's building blocks.
BREAKOUT SESSION 2 (choose 2A or 2B)
This session encourages teachers to develop inclusive music-making that promotes participation and creativity while ensuring a clear progression across the primary age-range. Offering practical, effective ways to teach improvisation and composition, the workshop explores how participants grow skills and knowledge and build confidence and enthusiasm, as part of a community of learners. Capitalising on children’s natural tendency to experiment, it showcases key elements of Riffing Around such as ‘stick or twist’, a novel approach to riff creation.
This session guides delegates through a series of accessible music production tasks designed to build skills progressively and boost student confidence. Suitable for use with any Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), the five tasks include creating an 8-bar drum groove using preset sounds, developing a bass line from root-note patterns, and exploring texture through focused listening and analysis. Participants will also experiment with writing a short hook or call-and-response phrase, before applying a quick-mix process to complete a track. Alongside practical shortcuts and teaching strategies, the session emphasises creative approaches to help deepen students’ understanding of core production techniques.
BREAKOUT SESSION 3 (choose 3A or 3B)
This session explores how to design lessons which support long-term musical understanding and progression, not just short-term engagement. Drawing on classroom practice, it will consider how careful sequencing, purposeful talk and structured routines can help pupils retain learning and work more independently. This session will leave delegates with practical strategies for making the most of one-hour-per-week music lessons in primary schools.
This session explores how music teachers can apply a range of models and frameworks of inclusive practice, with a particular focus on neurodivergence in both learners and teachers. Moving beyond approaches that centre on support or intervention, the session considers how classroom environments, curriculums and pedagogies can be designed to be inclusive, flexible and responsive from the outset. The session will explore: how music education offers unique opportunities for flexible, relational and multimodal learning; practical ways to design tasks, environments and interactions that support regulation, autonomy and engagement; and inclusive approaches that benefit all learners, not just those identified as neurodivergent.
Do you feel like an imposter when leading your choir? Need inspiration? Do you wonder if we actually ‘sing from the diaphragm’? Do you wonder if singing could hold the key to better mental health but aren’t sure where to get started? In this practical session, Pamela Hay will give a group singing lesson, and demonstrate how each technique principle improves vocal health, mental health, accessibility of all musical genres and a sense of community. Delegates will leave the session with a singalong, a bag of new warm-ups, and a sense of empowerment to lead a culture of singing at their school.