Overview

1. My philosophy and approach.
2. What I did at Feversham - whole school approach
3. The results…
4. What can be done for others?

• Revised Code of 1862) "payment by results," - school funding depended on pupil performance in examinations strictly limited to reading, writing, and arithmetic.
• incentivized teachers and schools to drill these basics exclusively, effectively sidelining any broader subjects
• "minimum of education" without waste on extras.
• Newcastle Commission 1861) recommended prioritising practical literacy and numeracy to enable Bible reading, workplace competence, and moral citizenship—not cultural enrichment seen as appropriate for middle/upper classes

Matthew Arnold

Objected to narrowing teaching to rote, superficial elements at the expense of broader instruction that could elevate and refine pupils.

The arts are vital for forming taste, character, imagination, and a love of beauty and truth, while fostering social cohesion across classes

Educating the poor would elevate their desires and expectations, making them unfit for manual labor and dissatisfied withtheir station.

Bernard Mandeville

instead of teaching them subordination, it would render them factious and refractory... it would enable them to read seditious pamphlets, vicious books, and publications against Christianity; it would render them insolent to their superiors.

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Davies Giddy

Thank Goodness nobody thinks like that today

The OfS should therefore reduce funding by 50% for “high-cost subjects”. We would then potentially seek further reductions in future years.”

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Gavin Williamson

Matthew Arnold

Objected to narrowing teaching to rote, superficial elements at the expense of broader instruction that could elevate and refine pupils.

The arts are vital for forming taste, character, imagination, and a love of beauty and truth, while fostering social cohesion across classes

Humans are Musical Beings

Music can not be separated from physical movement and social development

Zbikowski (2023):

• Rhythmic entrainment and vocal production learning provide a means to facilitate, negotiate and solidify social relationships.
• The capacity for recursive pattern matching allowed humans to move beyond the basic interactions afforded by rhythmic entrainment and vocal learning to use sound to represent emotion processes, physical gestures and the patterned movements of dance.
• Using patterned nonlinguistic sound in these ways was important for the formation and maintenance of cultural groups that were key to successful collaboration.

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Every Child Begins life as a Musical Being.

Music for Cognition and Literacy.

• Evidence suggests that musical learning can promote structural and functional changes in the brain (e.g. Tervaniemi, 2009; Moore et al., 2014)

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• Evidence suggests that music and language are processed in similar, as well as distinct regions of the brain (e.g. Patel, 2010, Koelsch, 2012)

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• Evidence suggests that joint music-making can have a positive impact on social skills and feelings of well-being (e.g. Kirschner & Tomasello, 2010, MacDonald et al., 2012)

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• Evidence suggests that other conditions related to timing issues in the brain will see similar improvements from active music learning (Slater & Tate 2018)

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So what went wrong?

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societal emphasis on talent often leaves adults disengaged.

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"non-musician" self-perceptions, making it hard to reclaim

modern societies undervalue everyday musicality (e.g., through focus on elite performers),

Funding:

• Over a third of schools reporting less than £1,000 annually
• Parental contributions exclude low-income families.
• Music hubs - frozen government funding since 2015-16 (despite rising costs)
• Reduction of 80 to 43 hubs
• local authority cuts (e.g., 100% in some regions) lead to higher fees and fewer opportunities.

That the economic crisis is the cause of everything?  Everything will be set right as soon as the economy is in order?  I do not think so.  Penury may hamper development but wealth does not always promote it either.  Money does not produce ideas.  Anyhow, there would be sufficient money here if only it were always spent on what is needed. 

• Teacher Shortages and Lack of Specialist Expertise: Missed Recruitment targets in 11 of the past 12 years
• 27% of postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) places filled last year
• 60% shortfall in secondary places
• Music teacher numbers have dropped from 8,000 in 2011 to 7,184 in 2023,
• Peripatetic teachers sometimes face low pay, insecure contracts, and limited professional development - leading to high staff turnover. Often spread thinly across several schools.

Reduced Curriculum Time and low prioritisation.

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• Reliance on External Agencies: Music often depends on music hubs or private providers, leading to inconsistent quality and barriers for underserved areas, with poor transitions from primary to secondary further eroding progress.
• Lack of Continuity neglects integrated, school-led provision, making music vulnerable.

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“Out of sight, out of mind”

• Over-Reliance Without Adaptation or Understanding: No adaptation. Not alert to pupils' prior knowledge needs or progression models. Leaders sometimes lacked clarity on precise learning content, treating it as a "plug-and-play" solution without deeper engagement.
• Stifles Teacher Development and Musicianship: A minority of leaders viewed schemes as eliminating the need for teacher subject knowledge development (e.g., one leader stated: "they just follow the commercial scheme we have provided").
• Passive Delivery Limits Depth: Schemes provide structure and security (e.g., via videos and resources), but without in-house expertise, delivery can become superficial—prioritizing "doing" activities over building progressive musical thinking, especially in weaker areas like composition.

“Out of sight, out of mind” - part 2 - schemes

What if it were literacy and numeracy?

So What Happened When we took music THIS seriously?

• No fear of expression - using the voice and body.
• Able to sing in tune and group harmony
• Able to keep time well and follow musical structures
• Able to play with music (compose & improvise)
• See themselves as musical humans
• Able to read music, musically
• Able to work things out “by ear”
• Good grounding on a range of instruments with opportunities for continuation.

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What we did:

• Weekly Music Assemblies - live band, big sing, student performances
• 30 min specialist curriculum lesson
• 5-10 minutes daily singing
• Lunchtime Clubs
• After school clubs
• 1 year of piano lessons.
• 1 year of guitar lessons.
• 1 year of choir
• 1 year of drum lessons.
• Whole school training

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Playing an instrument vs Singing/Movement

• Instrument specific techniques are not necessarily transferable
• Children from poorer households may not even benefit from free tuition offers.
• Consider expenses and opportunities for practice.
• Are we building on firm “universal” musical foundations? (i.e awareness of pitch, pulse, speed etc?) or simply instrumental techniques
• Singing and movement help enormously with expression, improvisation audiation and deep, primal understanding.

The forgetting curve.

Music Assemblies

The Whole School Approach

• 30 minute lesson with a specialist/trained deliverer (internal)
• 5-10 mins Daily Singing
• Free Instrumental Lessons - 1 whole year on guitar (Y3) Piano (Y4) Choir (Y5) Drums (Y6)
• Musical Routines KS1- Tidy up, make a circle, slowly slowly
• Playground music leaders.
• Using music in other lessons.
• Whole staff development/CPD – everyone a musician.
• Musical Nurture/Therapeutic sessions for special needs children.

Cultural

Omnivores

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Speech &Language Development

Musical Activities Programme (MAP)

For supporting children with dyslexia

The Music Education Eco-system...

After: A few weeks

Noticeable improvement in the school’s atmosphere.

After: A few months

Improved attendance.

Improved confidence - children and teachers.

Quality of musicianship starting to improve.

Non-specialists start to see the benefits.

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• Special measures - “inadequate” to Outstanding in 7 years.
• Our results for disadvantaged pupils are well above average.
• SATS results spectacularly above the national average
• Attendance improved from 90% to 98%

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After: A few years

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• We are now in the top 1% of schools for pupil progress
• .SSATS awards for results
• Nominated for TES Primary School of the Year 2018.
• Headteacher nominated for TES Head of Year 2019
• Headteacher awarded an OBE 2020
• Global Teacher Prize Finalist 2019
• Shortlisted for T4’s “World’s Best School” Prize, 2023
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After: A few years

The Guardian......

BBC WORLD SERVICE

The One Show...

House of Lords

Shortlisted for Global Teacher Prize 2018

“Our age of mechanization leads along a road ending with man himself as a machine; only the spirit of singing can save us from this fate.  .... It is our firm conviction that mankind will live the happier when it has learnt to live with music more worthily.  Whoever works to promote this end, in one way or another, has not lived in vain”

Stay in Touch!

Twitter - @musicedu4all @fevershamschool

Email - jrotheram@fevershamprimaryacademy.org

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/bring-the-noise/articles/zfnsscw#:~:text=In%20this%20film%20Jimmy%20Rotheram,children%20the%20key%20musical%20concepts.