It started with a simple idea. What if Sing Education could produce the very best music education resources available to train young learners from nursery straight through to junior school (KS2) and then train up a cadre of excellent teachers to deliver their singing-led approach to schools across London? Done!
Over the last 10 years, Sing Education has invested heavily in the development, testing, training and rollout of our own bank of high-quality, bespoke curricular resources. This is one of our strongest elements of differentiation which sets us apart from individual peripatetic practitioners and from other music services. It is a distinct point of pride for the organisation.
Creating our own teaching resource library was certainly a big decision to take but, when we originally launched the business, we found that there were few “joined up” music resources in circulation capable of meeting our needs. Moreover we were disappointed by the lack of diverse music traditions, limited theory application and poor foundational skills represented in existing materials. So we set out to create a full curriculum to teach singing-led music, theory and instrumental musicianship from nursery straight through to ABRSM Grade 6.
By working with our own curriculum structure, resources and knowledge bank, we have been able to accomplish two aims…consistency across time and effective long- and short-term planning. For example, if one of our teachers is required to take over from another Sing Education professional, the new teacher is simply continuing what their predecessor has taught rather than chopping and changing the lessons. This reduces administrative friction in teacher handovers and even more importantly, transitions pupils seamlessly to their new musical instruction, rather than requiring them to make a fresh start.
In terms of our second aim – effective planning – at Sing Education we teach on the basis of a full-year curriculum. Thus, at any given point, we can readily set out for schools what their pupils will be learning throughout the academic year and from year to year as they progress with our service. We have a full plan that covers all of those nuances and within that plan sits our comprehensive bank of teaching resources.
Our teaching resources are tried and tested. They have been honed and revised over years of active teaching across multiple schools and with many teachers. As a result, the Sing Education curriculum is based on the highest quality lessons, tailored by grade level and configured over time to deliver the full National Curriculum for Music. These lessons include a broad variety of teaching modalities, such as singing, percussion and instrumental work, as well as allow for the development of inner hearing, the singing voice
From a practical standpoint, grade-based Scheme of Works are broken down into half-termly units, so each half term offers a specific learning objective, set of anticipated outcomes and assessment criteria. Individual year groups are studying different units made up of six or eight weeks of lessons, depending on the length of the half term.
Most importantly, you as a teacher are provided with start-to-finish lesson planning for every single lesson across the full years’ curriculum. And not just any plan, but a comprehensive and quite detailed guide to the day’s lesson, featuring every single activity, learning objective, development, etc. which is to be incorporated into your delivery. You get supporting teaching resources as well, including PowerPoint, musical scores, explanatory charts, etc.
