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.