Rob Jones

I'm not sure that teachers do teach with a national bias any more. Sure, there are text books about that contain overtly patriotic sentiments but todays teaching staff have more about them than to spout jingoistic claptrap to pupils. In music teaching actually I find teachers tend to shy away from the English musical heritage particularly. Interestingly, Welsh and Scottish music is alive and well in schools but English folk music is much neglected. No idea why this is but Oscar Wilde may have had the answer : "In life we should try everything once.... except perhaps incest and morris dancing "

Value added data is fine when it works for you. I know a couple of excellent schools whose value added score is appalling, simply because a couple of their feeder primaries over valued Science levels. When pupils arrived in Year 7, baseline tests revealed that pupils were at least one level lower than that reported in Year 6. The effect of KS3 Value Added is therefore pretty catastrophic. The marking for KS3 English tests last year was dodgy to say the least last year as well. Many schools sent their tests back to be remarked. Most of them came back at the next level up. Other schools however didn't bother to get them remarked so weren't upgraded. My view therefore is that there are too many flaws in the system for it to be credible. If it has worked for your particular school then great, but we can't assume that schools with low VA scores are failing pupils.

Well, tonight I went to my daughter's parents evening. It's the Year 9 one where teachers discuss courses that are open to them at KS4. Sitting on the other side of the table, for a change brought a new perspective to the educational experience of children. She's a bright kid so all options are available to her. The options for science particularly interested me. Apparently, she is able to do the 'regular' dual award science where she would end up with two GCSEs. She could also do an extra module after school so she would get a triple award (3 GCSEs). The Head of Science explained that the brightest pupils can do this but it is 'very demanding'. There was a third option. She could do a GNVQ in science, all within curricular time, which, he explained, is really geared towards lower achievers, so not really suitable for my daughter. If she did this, she would end up with four GCSE equivalents. I've always regarded GNVQ, perhaps cynically as a great thing to boost A*-C statistics. One headteacher was quoted in the TES a couple of weeks ago admitting that if it wasn't for the boosting effect of GNVQs on statistics, HMI would have shut his special measures school down. As a parent, I now see this from a different perspective and from my daughter's. She is insulted that pupils who won't have to work as hard will end up with more GCSEs. A simplistic way of viewing it, but I can't argue with her.

The £6000 training grant will be going to the DRB. How they use that money is up to them and the TTA have little say in how they spend it. To be honest, most DRBs don't provide mentor training (we do! but certainly some money from that 6K should be coming to the school to pay for time required to actually DO the mentoring. I would find out who in your school is the fundholder for money coming from the DRB and see how much money is coming in for mentoring and how to get your hands on some.

Generally, I would say that inclusion of such pupils works. It has to also work for the rest of the class though, and that is why the school procedures and policies for inclusion have to work. That means that pupils who need it, should be given in class support and should be subject to clearly staged behaviour programme if that is appropriate to them. Potentially disruptive pupils need to be handled with consistency, which is why clear school procedures need to be uniformly applied by teaching staff, otherwise those pupils will behave differently from lesson to lesson which will inevitably lead to confusion of expectations. Some children are indeed unteachable or are going through an unteachable phase which they need helping through. A decision needs to be made on an individual basis whether or not that pupil should be withdrawn from particular classes or all of them so that the rest of the class aren't adversely affected.

For a serious amount of Music clipart, visit this site which has virtually anything you want, except photographs.

The Northumberland Grid for Learning has some really excellent materials. The best thing on there is the Virtual Orchestra, where pictures of instruments and their sounds appear played by Northumberland's own Instrumental music staff. There's also a rather short but very nice flash game for KS2 pupils on identifying classroom percussion instruments which is downloadable. Inspirational stuff!

Training grants (£6000 per trainee) and Salary grants (£13000 per trainee) are given by the TTA. The school gets the salary grant, if one is available and training grants go to the DRB. We use training grants to pay for inset for the trainee, pay mentors and their school for supply cover and pay for supply cover for DRB staff. Some DRBs pay very little for supply out of training grants or nothing at all. Some don't budget at all for mentor payments.

I'm a DRB director in Hull with 100 trainees over all the subjects. I know that if you're the only GTP in a school you can feel a little isolated, so feel free to post your queries here. Take a look at our DRB website (URL below) that has lots of downloadable resources for GTP and SCITT candidates.

This always generates a heated debate! Personally, I think teaching staff notation at KS3 and to some extent at KS4 is largely a waste of time. Time is precious at KS3, so we should be optimising that time by doing practical tasks and teaching pupils to be analytical about live and recorded music. You don't need notation to be creative with sound. Take a 4 bar syncopated rhythm for example. You can get a Year 8 class to copy and be creative with it but writing a syncopation is hugely complex for them. Sure, some recognition of staff rhythmic and pitch notation is desirable, but it should only be tackled when the creative work has been done.

I thought it might be a good idea for us to say what our most useful web links were. 8 notes.com is a brilliant resource featuring riffs which you can use with classes as starters or end of term wind-downs or even as part of the hooks and riffs scheme of work.

I've noticed a decline in composing standard over the past few years due mainly I think to sequencing software. Do we teach pupils enough about harmony, melody, structure and texture, or do we now tend to sit them in front of a sequencer to experiment? I'm a principal examiner for GCSE composing and all too often I hear compositions that have a plethora of synth sounds creating a confusing wall of sound with little substance. Candidates who have 1000 or more sounds at their disposal can be like kids in a sweetshop and use all of them at once. How can we address this issue without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

I've worked with lots of mentors and trainees over the years. Sure, there are bad ones who do it for the cash or a perceived easy life. It should be up to the provider to ensure these people aren't asked to do it again, since the mentor is a crucial partner in the training process. Unfortunately this doesn't always happen and the problem returns year after year. The majority of mentors I work with are utterly dedicated professionals. These mentors do it because mentoring trainees gets them to evaluate their own teaching and to consolidate and develop their own educational philosophy which as John says, is sadly lacking in many experienced teachers. I s'pose the money's not bad either

Nick, I suppose your DRB has just left you to it with virtually no guidance. No surprise there then. Most are in it just for the money! I'm a director with Hull Citywide DRB (URL below). You can look at our website which has lots of materials for mentors and trainees. The stuff on there is just as good for you and your trainee, since everyone is assessed in the same way in the end. Do let me know if there is anything you need particular help with. I might be able to help.

It can be a cop out. I think we've all seen examples of truly awful content which has been ill conceived, rushed or simply pays lip service to blended learning. Graham is right of course, we don't want to use computers at the expense of everything else and I think there are times when we should actually ban pupils from using computers for certain tasks. The best kind of blended learning is not when the teacher is simply replaced by a machine, but when computers can consolidate the kind of face to face interaction that we human beings need. I've created a series of Flash lessons for music harmony. Pupils work with me while I go through the points on a whiteboard (not an interactive one!) then they can go through the lessons again at home or in the school library.

I host the Music Teacher's Resource Site where you can find free teaching materials, a panel of mentors to help with (almost) all your problems, equipment reviews and lots more

Rough guides are pretty good for a CD collection too. There are lots to collect and they do a little discount for quantity orders. My personal favourite for GCSE listening tests is the Rough Guide to Cuba CD

Hi, I've taught music at several schools around Hull. Was Head of department and Head of Arts. Became Advanced Skills Teacher in 1999 which involves me in a lot of very interesting work including pre and post Ofsted visits, teaching in primary schools and supervising trainee teachers in lots of subjects. Done work for BBC, Becta, DfES, TTA. Given courses for SfE. In 1996, started MTRS Publishing which publishes on line teaching materials and has grown larger than I ever imagined Websites I've written are in the footer

Yes, this is long overdue. QCA once brought out a CD with exemplar standards which became a National joke since they were way beyond anything most schools could produce. I've been doing video of standards for KS3 work since September by filming pupils doing work of different standards. Teachers seem to find this very useful. Moderation between schools is a very good idea if you can get them all together which I've found difficult. I'm making a DVD with all the film clips on then distributing it to schools which should get round the problem of getting everyone together.

I was an AST, Head of Music at various schools around Hull. Now working as an independent consultant doing various projects. On-going work includes training and assessing Higher Level Teaching Assistants and I am currently also a director with Hull Citywide DRB running the Graduate Teacher Programme in Hull. Have written a few websites for myself and some mates, including one on cookery! Oldest website is theMusic Teacher's Resource Site which has been running since 1996. Have worked a bit for national training providers such as SfE giving courses on such things as World Music, Music technology, composition and motivation of pupils. Have written materials for the OU and tutor students on their PGCE course. I have developed and written GCSE syllabi for AQA where I am also a senior moderator-cum-agony aunt! Run own music publishing company, MTRS Publishing distributing teaching materials in an electronic format. I co-wrote the BBC Bitesize GCSE Revision guidefor music, with Liza (see below and visit her brilliant site)

The Music Teacher's Resource Site has been running since 1996. It includes on line mentors, reviews of equipment used in music classrooms, lots of free and subscription resources for teaching etc.