Home schooling

At school. In those days, all schools had lessons and could borrow instruments. I am talking about a comprehensive school where he took music as an option. He always wanted to study music. He borrowed a clarinet first, and we bought him a saxophone because we could afford it by then, with both of us working full time. But he never had a private lesson.
But if the primary schools had not encouraged music, he might not have chosen it. His brother is also musical, and took music in a different school, but again never had a private lesson.
Bring back music for all.

How did your son learn to read and write music, durhamjen? Was it at school, or was he home educated?

My grandson started recorder lessons last September. He can now play 3 notes. Our local authority has just announced that it is axing all funding for instrumental teaching. Parents had to contribute and, as in little grandson's case, teaching was very patchy, but in future only the children of well-off parents will get any music lessons at all.

If my son could not read or write music, then he would not be able to teach it to pupils to go to the Royal College of Music from a state school in Sunderland.
He can listen to a piece of music, then write the score for others who do not have this ability to be able to play. He also has to write music for all instruments for all levels to play.
How would orchestras cope without the ability to read music?

I'm all for dance - all those girls who hate slogging round a wet hockey pitch and are therefore put of sport for ever will get the chance for healthy exercise whilst - heaven forfend! - actually enjoying themselves.

What is our school doing? - all children are playing recorders or ocarinas for the first 15 minutes every morning, during which they learn to read music; employing a music specialist one day per week, during which he brings the class teachers up to speed on what they should be doing with those instruments for the next week, upskills the teachers on the use of music in the classroom to enhance core subjects, teaches music in class, runs a choir, runs a singing assembly; using the Pupil Premium to fund instrument lessons for eligible children (these are the children on free school meals or in the care system); fund-raising for outdoor static musical instruments which the children will be able to use freely in break times and also as a focus for music sessions - and for much more: they have used their singing skills for the choir to raise some of the money for this, and I have found grant funding - the instruments will form part of a day workshop during which the children will have to assess the merit of each instrument and discuss how best they might be used, work out the costs of each instrument and think about what we can afford, be involved in the decisions about siting them and looking into the safety and construction issues; using the instruments as a focus for lessons on the physics of sound - I could go on! (and frequently do! ).

It is pure chance that this is happening - the lobbying of several governors and the receptive and open-minded head are what have brought this to fruition. The parents are thrilled with it all and the school has a real buzz around performance and making music, which has enhanced the cohesion of the school.

The presence of music in schools should not be a matter of chance, with children in schools that have enthusiastic heads getting opportunities that are denied others.

I went to music lessons outside school. I have distinction in all my theory of music exams, to quite a high level. I was excellent at it because I am good at maths and it is logical. I could find augmented 7ths, diminished 5ths, transpose music, but I haven't a clue what it sounds like or even why you would do it! Therefore I am rather sceptical about the need to be able to read it.
However, I am used to schools where they all play the recorder, so I suppose it has a practical use.

On the BBC news now- a feature about how essential it is for children to learn dance. As said, where does one stop?
Ballet and modern dance is great for balance, poise and confidence.

It is proven that learning foreing languages (my bee in the bonnet) from a young age has a clear effect on the brain too.

Our GCs do music at state primary school in the UK- and at home they have wall to wall music of every style, from classical to rock, and everything in between, and are constantly singing- GS is learning the guitar with his dad, the piano with his mum, and sure grand-daughter will too.

Thank you all, btw, for an interesting exchange on the topic. And as so often, we will have to agree to disagree. As Soontobe, I am hugely concerned about that 3rd group- that lack of supervision and checks is allowing to fall right through the net without any kind of education, discipline and socialisation, etc.

What sorts of things is your school doing Mishap?
I went through schools, and so did my children, which did teach music. And quite frankly I dont think that the school lessons were taught well. Very random. I didnt get the impression that they were of much benefit to the pupils in general. But it isnt something that could be quantified at the time.
[My kids and I all had private tuition, so it didnt make much difference to us personally].

Yes, that's what my son says, and he's a head of music. It's well known that music, science and maths are complementary. But it seems to be sidelined more and more.

My grandson has never really liked music, but yesterday he was singing along to a classical song. He's the only grandchild who is not musical, so I am just wondering if he's a late developer in this as with so many things. It will certainly please his parents. There is a piano and guitars in his house, and both his parents can sing and read music, but there would have been no point in making him have music lessons previously as he would wear ear defenders to cut out the sound.

The concept of music as a add-on that is implied in some posts is just the problem in a nutshell.

There is huge evidence that teaching music to young children increases markedly their achievement in core subjects and enhances their skills of co-operation, and their self-confidence. Some of the stats are eye-watering and should not be ignored. It is a simple way of increasing achievement, as well as giving pleasure and providing a rounded education.

It is not just "important to me" - it is central to raising standards and it is being ignored. I am watching this happen in the school I am involved with and it is extraordinary.

I enjoyed school and so did my children and their partners. The three granddaughters all enjoy school and are very bright.

My grandson is different. What we are doing is definitely in his interests, which is surely what education is about, to teach the individual.

Apricot, my autistic grandson had all the help he could get in the primary school, but because noise is one of his big problems, he could not cope with all the bustle of moving from class to class, and even getting into the school. He was just frightened all the time.

In fact, he loves having a timetable, and we are only rarely allowed to deviate from it.

If schools believe in inclusion, then perhaps they should be smaller, with smaller classes. He would probably have coped in a middle school.

Children need to have the chance to try music - if they never do it again after they leave school, that is fine - at least they have had the opportunity and that door is not closed to them. We do not take the same approach to sport - it is obligatory and there are special school grants for PE equipment, and OfSted has to inspect how that is spent. Why have that for sport and not for music? I am all in favour of the sports grant, but it is an imbalance - sporty children get the chance, and musical children do not - how can that be right?

It is like saying that children should not have the chance to study biology because they might choose to be an artist and therefore do not need to know anything about it. They need to have a taster at everything to open up choices. Learning to read music and enjoy music making at a young age means that the door is not closed to them if that proves to be their bent. If they never have that chance, then their choices are limited.

The class and income divide in musical opportunities is very wrong.

Or, as I have witnessed, a parent who hadnt much liked school themselves. So encouraged their child to leave it too at 13/14 when things became a bit difficult, and the parent preferred having them at home anyway.
So home educated. In a very loose sense indeed.

I think that there are largely 3 seperate groups of people who choose to home educate.

Those who think that they can do it better than school - they maybe can.

Those who have children with additional needs, or eg a school phobia or whatever, and the schools in their area are failing them - fair enough, home schooling may be better.

And the third group, which I have just mentioned at the beginning of this post. Those I truly am concerned about.

I think all groups should have monitoring though.

I can read music because my parents thought it a 'good thing'- personally it is very unimportant to me- everything is relative.

Prepared to accept your children are perfect- but what does one do when a teenager refuses to get out of bed and says 'I won't do it'- I just wonder?

Indeed.

Now, music is very important to you and is a priority. Fine. But for others it will be sport. And for others art- or further maths, or foreign languages, nature knowledge, travel or first aid skills, etc, etc, etc.

In a way, this adds value to the concept of individual, eg home schooling. But on the other hand- where do you stop? Should kids have 20 hrs school days? We tried to add all this to our kids education- and we were lucky we had the skills and finance to enable this one way or another- but there are limits- both in and out the normal system- timewise and financially and with training and paying of staff, etc.

It is absolutely true that 'middle class' kids do end up with the best of both, and yes, it is totally unfair. Our kids went to the local comprehensives, and we supplemented their education to try and cover all the above.

And homeschooling parents are not obliged to do anything at all!

That is good news Letitia - but the problem lies in the fact that schools are not obliged to do that.

You can't make blanket statements about 'all schools' in the way that you can't make blanket statements about 'all home educators'. In my area they all learn to read music from year 3.

Mishap it so depended on the importance placed on music by individual LEAs. The authority I worked for had an excellent Music Service which, among other things, offered free instrumental lessons to children and ran two wonderful junior orchestras.

My grandson, who is learning the trombone, is having to pay privately for lessons because there is no peripatetic trombone teacher in his authority.

I think the demise of strong LEAs has led to a terrible falling off in subjects like music. When the LEAs had subject specialist advisers working for them this allowed a team of salaried peripatetic music teachers which could be shared across the LEA by schools.

Now most schools are having to find these teachers for themselves, and because there are less and less of these salaried posts available, there are fewer instrument teachers, especially of certain instruments, willing or able to make a full time career from it.

As for the system for children with special needs - it is in disarray, as the examples above have shown - and my own experience within our family. A child who does not fit in is in a total bind - unhappy and unsatisfied and educational needs not being met. Again I have to say that I do not blame the teachers.

As an example of my concerns, children leave school in Britain unable to read music - unless they specialise. It is the only universal language we have and they are denied it. Instrument lessons are only available to those whose parents can afford it. Music is for all, but our schools perpetuate the idea that it is for the privileged few; and that unless you are exceptionally talented you have nothing musical to either offer or enjoy.

That idea has been knocked on the head at the school where I am governor - I have made everyone's life a pain by grinding on about it and sourced grants until each and every child in the school has these opportunities now. What a joy their recorder group is to the whole community - and the choir. Without someone to fight the corner for this none of it would have happened. It should not be left to the chance occurrence of a committed governor and a head who was willing to listen - it should be very child's right.

My heart goes to those who truly feel their childrens' special needs are not being met by the 'system'- and then decide to do their own thing. Truly.

But fortunately this is very rare. The issue certainly does provoke strong feelings and reactions. Was thinking about it last night- and realised that one of the reasons I feel so strongly is that the education system here and in the whole of Europe is so different. There are far less options, and the Baccalauréat(e) system means that students have to continue all main subjects (9 or 10) right up to age 18/19- and pass all exams at the end of the year together. Students in the 15-19 range here do 3 years for the Baccalauréat(e)- with maths, physics, biology, chemistry, their own language, 2 foreign languages, history, geography, art/music and pe at minimum. Fail one, have to re-do the whole year. So a home educated child is almost certain of not getting access to uni- unless the parents have a fortune for private tuition and/or have experience teaching at that level for those particular exams. The idea of picking 3 A'Levels of choice is a total anathema anywhere else in the world which is not a direct ex British Colony.

apricot you say that home educating needs regulating so children do end up educated but my DGC is theoretically being educated at school. The problem is DGC has been assessed as having needs but the school has no resources so no help given. DGC is not being educated as cannot understand the lessons and the teachers do not have time to help one child in the class who is so behind everyone else. They just want the child in school to keep the figures up but can't provide any support. Parents are in one long battle to try and get help as they really want child to go to school if possible.

durhamjen and all those who have offered advice, thank you it gives me hope.

One of my grandchildren is autistic, attended mainstream school but got very little help. Trying to get her to school, which she hated and feared, was a nightmare for eight years.
Both her parents work full-time so home-educating was not an option but, if she had been allowed to stay home, she would have stayed in bed watching TV all of every day. She was utterly disengaged from learning anything, but at least at school she had good friends.
I know a home-educated boy, very bright, who learned masses about the things which interested him but had no contact with other children and no friends.
Home educating needs regulating so the children do actually end up educated.