Music Teacher at published in the Chartered College of Teaching journal

HK SUPER STAR! Mrs Hayward, Head of Music at Heathfield Knoll School, Kidderminster has been published in the Chartered College of Teaching journal called ‘Impact’.

Mrs Hayward answered an article requesting a call for papers from a teaching perspective on assessment. She stated “The option of submitting a ‘teacher perspective’ piece appealed as I’ve always been interested in academic writing but haven’t had much opportunity to since completing my master’s degree. I have had to change so much this last year about how I teach music that I thought the option of writing about it might be quite reflective and help me to make sense of how I am to proceed from here.” The Music teacher from the independent school used her first hand experience of lockdown learning to help discuss how music teaching is a constant informal assessment to direct practice and personalise learning. The use of Chromebooks helped her provide feedback to pupils and helped to teach them music outside musical space. During lockdown learning, many practical subjects had to adapt their methods and try new ways of allowing pupils to access the curriculum. As not all pupils had access to physical instruments at home, Mrs Hayward used this lockdown learning time to access music technology to fill the void of practical in-person lessons. Cloud-based software such as Soundtrap, Focus on Sound and Noteflight, as well as virtual keyboards, allowed pupils to enjoy creating their own music from home. When asked what inspired her to write such a piece, Mrs Hayward said “When I was a student myself, and when I was training to be a teacher, there were those that said “one day students will all be sitting here with their own laptops to work from”, and at the time, it felt like a lifetime away. However, here we are, and I’m lucky to be in a technologically rich environment. I can explore what this means for my subject and stay ahead of the technology curve. There are other music teachers out there for whom the class sitting with their own devices to use is a pipe dream still, so I have wisdom that I can pass on.” At Heathfield Knoll, we are very proud of all the hard work staff, pupils and families put into education during the lockdown period. As we are now fast approaching our last half term in school, pupils are back in lessons and thriving with the help of some of the new techniques found during this challenging period.

14th May 2021

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