Music Education – In Defence of the ‘Generalist’ Primary School Teacher

I’ve just come out of the Music Mark ‘Big Meet’ to discuss the recent announcements about the upcoming curriculum review. Amongst the honourable mentions were the standard passing implication of poor practice amongst primary schools. It continues to be a huge source of exasperation that those who set the agenda in a manner almost designed to fail are able to deflect any criticism towards those struggling to make the impossible work. It also upsets me that people who obviously have the best interests of their subject at heart undermine their own arguments with their misdiagnosis of the root of the problem. With that in mind, and as a passionate advocate of the centrality of music in the curriculum, I would like to speak out in defence of some of the hardest working but most maligned members of the education community – primary school teachers.

Over the years, primary school teachers have come in for a lot of stick. ‘You spend your time playing with plasticine!’ is a common insult hurled in our direction from non-teaching friends. How I respond to this jibe depends on my mood. If I’m feeling charitable, I simply agree and smile. Otherwise, I offer to swap places if it is so easy.

However, unhelpful and ill informed criticism is also directed towards us from those within the profession. Since the institution of the National Curriculum in 1988, when primary schools were effectively rebranded as ‘secondary school lite’, each of the different subjects has been fighting for the undivided attention/devotion of primary teachers, and bemoaning the lack of ‘expertise’ in their subject.

The late, great Sir Ken Robinson once spoke about how if business were set up so that, every forty five minutes, staff would have to move rooms and change the entire subject they were working on, they would go under fairly quickly. He was drawing attention to the ridiculous nature of children’s high school experiences, but there is actually a place of work where it is the job of employees to be able to completely switch between providing expert guidance in completely different disciplines five or six times a day week in, week out – highly tailored guidance for several different levels of expertise simultaneously at that. I am of course referring to primary schools.

Research which I first encountered in John Hattie and Gregory Yates’s revelatory book ‘Visible Learning And The Science Of How We Learn’ suggests that human beings are designed to run on autopilot with the occasional ‘mid-course corrections’. If too much is thrown at you, cognitive overload quickly sets in. The most common way of dealing with this is to concentrate on simply doing the things that you are comfortable with. It would be interesting to know how many primary school teachers have any sort of musical training or experience (playing an instrument, singing in a choir, performing in a band, GCSE/A level or degree in the subject), as this would clearly influence how they each respond to the incessant demands of the curriculum. Let me explain…

In a typical primary school day, a teacher might have to teach 30 children of differing aptitudes and motivations five or more different subjects, involving practical knowledge of the skills and facets of the subject being taught, the steps that precede them (for children who are struggling). They will have to ensure that the relevant resources are provided to the children – including ensuring batteries are available, instruments are tuned, they have the appropriate number of balls are properly inflated for the PE lesson, the appropriate websites are available, etc. 

During the lesson they will make many different judgments about how to pitch the learning, when to speed up or slow down, who needs what extra support and how best to provide this. They will constantly have to ensure engagement and occasionally have to work out how to change tack if an activity doesn’t seem to be working in the way that they need it to. They will have to do this while dealing with ‘curved balls’ such as tasks that require completion at short notice or equipment suddenly deciding to ‘wander off’ or refuse to work. This is not an exhaustive list, missing out: safeguarding issues; after school clubs; dealing with parents; and the time spent before and after school on marking, planning and preparation. Over the course of a week, 10+ subjects need to have in-depth knowledge practically demonstrated and developed to a detailed level.

Just as an aside, the effect of the sheer amount of knowledge and ability to flit every day on primary teachers seems not to have been seriously considered – it is difficult to find any research from the teachers’ perspective. It is entirely absent from the literature released from the curriculum review committee.

So when I hear people from inside the education ecosystem ‘calling out’ primary teachers for not delivering pitch perfect lessons in their particular area of expertise, I despair. Come spend a week trying to do what we do, and when you demonstrate that you can deliver the pitch perfect lesson in every aspect of the curriculum on a daily basis, then I might be ready to listen…

Primary teachers, on the whole, do an amazing job of providing their students with an accessible and exciting classroom experience, developing their skills and knowledge in a dizzying array of different subjects. They are constantly assaulted by voices from all sides wanting ‘better test scores’, ‘phonics lessons delivered verbatim to a predetermined script’, ‘science lessons including this, that and the other’, ‘more fluency’, ‘hands on practical lessons’, ‘more time to talk’, ‘more whole class discussions’, ‘knowledge rich lessons’, ‘every lesson is a writing lesson’, ‘if it’s not in a book it hasn’t happened’, ‘written evidence’, ‘WRITTEN EVIDENCE’, ‘WRITTEN EVIDENCE’…

Far from scapegoating them, we should be celebrating their achievements and working together tirelessly to ensure they have a primary curriculum that is rich, varied and manageable. Give them that and watch what happens – you won’t be disappointed!

Let’s hope that those who have the responsibility of updating the curriculum will heed the many voices advocating a fundamental shift from short-term, quick-fix, blame-game, ‘education-as-a-production-line’ model to a more rounded holistic approach, where pupils are given time and space to grow, and teachers are trusted and valued for the immensely hard work they put into their teaching on a daily basis.

Mike

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