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3 moments to look forward to

three things to be excited about - teacher and musician

Teachers spend a lot of time talking about concerns they have for the future.  When you consider that the last few years have been tumultuous for music education, it’s easy to understand why.  We’ve seen the introduction of hubs, the introduction of the EBacc, a sweeping change of the National Curriculum and radical reform of vocational qualifications.  What could be the next set of challenges?  How will we get through them?

So, with today being the day of the General Election, I thought I’d break with the looking back and focus on three things that I’m excited about over the coming months.  The first takes a positive spin on an inevitable change, the second has an element of ‘fingers crossed’ and the third looks forward to an opportunity to learn from each other.

1. New GCSE and A-Level Specifications

Yes, this is certainly going to be one of the big headaches over the coming months but, truth be told, I get a little bit excited about an opportunity to rethink things.  The new specifications give us the opportunity to ask two key questions of ourselves:
  • What do I really value in music lessons?
  • What’s the best way to instil those values in my pupils?
It doesn’t do us any harm to constantly review these two questions and a new set of specifications is as good an excuse as any.  

2.  The Announcement about the Future of Music Technology at A-Level

Regular readers will know that I recently ran a survey in response to Ofqual’s decision to put A-Level Music Technology as a proposal needing further development.  Pearson has since sent off it’s revised proposal and Ofqual is considering it.  An announcement is expected any day after the election.  
This has the potential to be very worrying but, again, I’m choosing to be positive today.  News that Music Technology is preserved as an A-Level would be fantastic.  News that it won’t be a revised qualification means a rallying of the profession to figure out what to do next – different courses, design our own courses, protest the decision?  Any gathering of music teachers is exciting to be involved with, especially when they have a unified mind.  Which leads me on to…

3. The Music Learning Revolution

I’ve been lucky enough to do some work with Musical Futures, so I was bound to be excited about this one.  With that little disclaimer aside, I’ll happily point to the list of workshops as a reason to be excited.  The festival has everything from singing to mashups via beatboxing on offer and Musical Futures Primary promises a peak at some of the great work being done by MF Australia.  Those in the talking mood will have panel discussions with Robin Hammerton, David Price and many others.

If that’s not enough to get you excited, then remember… it’s being held in a brewery.  Tickets anyone?

What are you excited about?

I’m aware that at least my first two items on this list might not be met with universal agreement, so please do tweet or Facebook your exciting moments – let’s make this General Election day one that looks to the future of music education regardless of who’s living at Number 10.