Comments on: how confident are generalist primary teachers to teach music?

By: lilbabyadam

lilbabyadam — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:06:59 +0000

At our school one of the HLTA's (Higher level teaching assistant) teaches all of the music. I know a lot of schools who do this, and another area where they tend to use HLTA's is for DT and art. HLTA's tend to cover for the teacher whilst they have their PPA (not sure what exactly stands for but means paperwork and preparation time etc.) time out of the classroom, and if the head finds out they have a particular skill then they exploit that by getting them to plan it and teach it in all the lessons they cover. Good for the kids and means they get a more skilled person doing it, but not good for the HLTA's who end up doing the teacher's job without the money or status.
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By: minerva2

minerva2 — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:18:59 +0000

Not very. Hopeless without a scheme. Even then technical knowledge is hard to apply with any confidence. Lucky we don't have to at my current school.
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By: Ilkie

Ilkie — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:47:59 +0000

Um.... do you mean confident or competent? Slight difference.
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By: lazlouz2001

lazlouz2001 — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:37:59 +0000

In my experience, a lot are not as confident as they could be, even though the majority are teaching music perfectly well – they just think they can’t. With the introduction by most schools of schemes such as Music Express or LCP you can’t really go wrong, though obviously those with more specific training are likely to be able to develop the resources more confidently to teach it their own way, as I do. Hope this helps!
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