Welcome to the Music PGCE course at Sheffield Hallam University. I’m looking forward to seeing you in September and hope that you will enjoy studying here with us and working with partner schools in our region. Music is a wonderful subject to teach in schools, offering such a varied experience for both teachers and pupils with a mixture of practical and theoretical learning. To prepare for starting the course in September, here are some things you may wish to investigate:
Classroom instrument skills: Instruments that are commonly used with pupils in the classroom are piano, ukulele, guitar and drum kit, alongside singing of course! My first suggestion is to feel comfortable playing a few chords on these instruments and a basic rock beat. You don’t need a drum kit for this, just use your body percussion. There are some great websites and tutorials on YouTube to get you started.
Curriculum and/or Key Specifications:
Music Curriculum in schools: We will be looking at this in more detail but please read the National Curriculum for music to gain a basic understanding of the music curriculu in schools. Read it here. The Model Music Curriculum is a non-statutory guide to potential content for a music curriculum. It is extensive but may give you some ideas about the topics and areas for covering in the curriculum. The National Plan for Music Education is also a must-read for teachers. On this link, musicteachers.org have highlighted the key points, and the full document is linked.
Ofsted review into music education: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-review-series-music
At Key Stage 4, there are a variety of options for teachers, and so your placement schools could have opted for any of the following exam board specifications, GCSE or BTEC Tech Award:
Eduqas GCSE Music, AQA GCSE Music, OCR GCSE Music, Edexcel GCSE Music
BTEC Music (Level 2 for KS4, Level 3 for KS5)
Eduqas Level 1/2 Technical award Performing Arts
Music Technology: The use of music technology is now an expectation in the secondary music classroom, and so you should feel confident in the basics around using this. If you don’t have a DAW such as Garageband, Cubase or Ableton, have a look at these two free web-based DAWs that are great and increasingly being used in schools for composition: Soundtrap and Bandlab.
For scoring notation, if you don’t have expensive software like Sibelius, Musescore is a free alternative.
Preliminary Subject Knowledge Audit:
After reading through the curriculum and key specifications above, identify the following:
- 3 key areas in which you feel confident / have substantial experience.
- 3 key areas where you feel less confident / lack experience in. You will be required to complete a more detailed subject knowledge audit at the start of your course.
Reading list
Below are some examples of key texts we use on the course. If you can access them, you may wish to do some preliminary reading from them. Note: these books will be available from the library once you are enrolled on the course.
Green, L. How Popular Musicians Learn: A Way Ahead for Music Education. (2017). Taylor & Francis Ltd. or Adapting popular musicians’ practices for the classroom | IOE – Faculty of Education and Society – UCL – University College London
Cooke, C. (Ed.). (2016). Learning to teach music in the secondary school : a companion to school experience (Third edition.). Routledge. (Currently on Google Books for free.)
Philpott, C., Spruce, G., & Dawsonera. (2012). Debates in music teaching: Vol. Debates in subject teaching series. Routledge.
Cooke, C., Evans, K., Philpott, C., & Spruce, G. (Eds.). (2016). Learning to teach music in the secondary school: a companion to school experience: Vol. Learning to teach subjects in the secondary school series (Third edition). Routledge.
Finney, J., & Laurence, F. (2013). Masterclass in music education: transforming teaching and learning: Vol. Masterclass series. Bloomsbury.
Heble, A., & Laver, M. (2016). Improvisation and music education: beyond the classroom (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315737393
Music Educators National Conference, Colwell, R., & Richardson, C. P. (2023). The new handbook of research on music teaching and learning : a project of the Music Educators National Conference (R. Colwell & C. P. Richardson, Eds.). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195138849.001.0001
Powell, B., & Smith, G. D. (Eds.). (2022). Places and Purposes of Popular Music Education : Perspectives from the Field. Intellect.
Price, J., Savage, J., & Dawsonera. (2012a). Teaching secondary music. SAGE.
In order to keep up to date with developments in education we recommend that you read the TES (Times Educational Supplement- www.tes.co.uk) and the Guardian Education supplement (www.theguardian.com/education).