March's Signatory of the month is Liz Sharma, an experienced music teacher and prolific composer who is rightly proud of her zero drop-out rate for music at the Ealing primary where she works.
As the pupils at Vicar's Green prepare to perform a new piece Liz has specially composed for the school's 70th anniversary, she shares her secrets for successful primary music teaching.
"I studied composition at Trinity College of Music, but became a head of music in comprehensive schools. I ran choirs, orchestras, dance groups, steel bands, Indian music groups, and in response to student demand, Turkish, Somali and Chinese groups. I composed prolifically for my students, but the heavy workload prevented me from composing anything much else.
"For seven years I was music co-ordinator in a special school, and wrote music for students with learning difficulties. I now run a performing group at a centre for adults with mental health problems, and teach all the music at Vicar's Green Primary School in Alperton, Ealing, two days a week.
"The children at Vicar's Green, some from troubled parts of the world and unable to speak English when they join the school, are a delight to work with as they are very enthusiastic and everyone wants to be in everything we do.
"I apply the same principal as I did in comprehensives, ie. everyone learns an instrument, or several. Obviously they have to be of the cheap and cheerful variety, which means recorders, and also steel pans from year 3 upwards. I own a large enough set of pans to enable every child in the class to participate, as long as they take turns, which is excellent for reinforcing listening, coordination and cooperating skills and the kids love it.
"I can honestly say our drop-out rate is zero, in every musical activity we undertake. We concentrate on instrumental teaching during each class's half-hour lesson and sing as a whole school, from year 1 to year 6, with just me and another teacher to act as crowd control. We also have a large choir as an after school club, and a large recorder orchestra.
"I start whole-class recorder teaching in the third term of year 1. They clamour to start earlier because they see what the older children can do, but realistically they need a couple of terms to learn to make instrumental music as a group. They learn to play percussion rhythms at the right time, as a class band, and how to work as a class handbell team. With these experiences introduced in advance, when they start recorders, they can concentrate on controlling their fingers, which are often barely able to cover the holes on their instruments. In nursery and reception classes we concentrate on singing and dancing and having fun.
"I treat them as musicians and give them 'proper' music from the beginning. There is a piano accompaniment, and they learn to count rests etc. I write or arrange all their music, so that children who only know three notes can still join in and play them at the right time, in the right order, and at something approaching the right dynamic.
"Each year, nine or ten musicians from Ealing Chamber Music Club give their time to perform a joint concert, thus allowing choir, orchestra and every class, including nursery and reception, to experience the excitement of performing with adult musicians. These concerts always include a medley of tunes composed by the children, which I orchestrate for the musicians.
"This year we have created a special work, Wind Dragon, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the opening of the school, which incorporates tunes composed by children in years 5 and 6. Everyone in the school is involved, as usual, and there is a real buzz of excitement in anticipation of the performance on 2 April.
"The more flexible work pattern I've had since 2001 at last allows me time to compose for music courses, summer schools and adult and youth ensembles, and I feel that I now have the perfect musical life. I do realise that I have several advantages: I no longer teach full time, so I don't have to do all the pointless paper work that plagued my life as head of music in comprehensives.
"Also, as a composer, I can write or arrange suitable music, which is accessible, but progressively stretches the children with each concert. However, it's not rocket science to find classical or other tunes that they will love to play - even if they can only play edited highlights. The object of the exercise is to develop confident children who love music."
If anyone would like to make use of the material Liz has created for the children at Vicar's Green, get in touch via lizsharma@aol.com