Every day is the same…but different. Each week has its own rhythm…that changes. Consistency with flexibility are the hallmarks of Sing Education teaching. We use bespoke Schemes of Work to deliver consistent music education, yet we flex school assignments around teachers’ personal/professional commitments. Win for everyone.
Each day teaching with Sing Education brings its own unique challenges and rewards. While some elements of your day such as lesson timetabling or staff meetings can be anticipated, the way that your students will respond to a new song or learning unit is wonderfully unknown. This keeps the work interesting and engaging.
So what does a “typical” day look like? Well, as a curricular music teacher in a Sing Education school, your day would likely start around 8:30 or 8:45 AM. You would use the early part of the day to catch up with and prepare for anything special that’s going on in school that day. For example, you might need to manage arrangements for a concert scheduled that day or maybe accommodate your teaching to fit some timetable changes because of Sports Day. That done, you’d then likely participate in a schoolwide staff briefing, working alongside your colleagues from SLT and the classroom.
Finally, depending on the particular routine within your school setting, your day would generally consist of curriculum music lessons, singing assemblies, clubs, and after school clubs. As mentioned, each school has a uniquely designed music timetable – which you would be introduced to during your initial onboarding, placement and training process. There are some patterns teachers might expect though – for example, work might start with a half-hour singing assembly, followed by three or four curriculum music lessons up until lunchtime. You would then have your lunch break and during the school’s remaining lunch period, there might be a lunchtime club or choir for the children.
What would the afternoon hold? Well, there would be afternoon lessons. There might be dedicated time to enable you to lead a special educational needs and disabilities club, a SEND club or SEND group. And then at the end of the day, often there will be an after school club of some variety. This might be a recorder or a ukulele club. Alternatively, it could be a singing for pleasure club or even a school choir rehearsal.
When working with Sing Education, we strive to keep your weeks following the same pattern and routine. This is to encourage strong teacher-school relationships and to honour other professional commitments you may have as a working musician.
For this reason, when we assign you to a school on a particular day of the week that would stay the same throughout the academic year. We don’t chop and change between days and teachers and schools. It’s a regular permanent placement within a school. That said, the amount of days worked varies from teachers to teacher. Some teachers work just one or two days per week, maybe in one school or two schools, while other teachers who are working up to full time, may be working between three to four different (but consistent)r school placements.
One thing to note is that while you stay in the same school for the whole day – e.g. you wouldn’t be moving from school to school within a day. However, you may be moving between schools from day to day. Our part-time teachers enjoy this scheduling technique because it provides variety while still permitting them to fit their other professional music commitments around their teaching days knowing their Sing Education days are fixed.
Knowing they won’t have to compromise existing professional music engagements, private tuition, performance work, or other regular engagements means our teachers are happy with their work-life balance, secure in their employment prospects and impactful as ambassadors of Sing Education’s mission.
