Leading an Outstanding Music Department

ABOUT THIS COURSE

This new Music Leadership course, led by Jane Werry, Director of Music and Specialist Lead in Education, is designed for current Heads of Music, leaders contributing to the management of a Music department and those interested in holding such a position. The course will consider what excellence in leading a Music department looks like, and the role of the Head of Music in helping to achieve and maintain such excellence. It will examine strategies for successful recruitment of students, for optimising teaching and learning, for managing teachers experienced and inexperienced, and for maintaining a high quality position for Music within a school. It will conclude with an overview of what the working year of a Head of Music involves, and of the opportunities and challenges the job presents at various stages

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BENEFITS OF ATTENDING

• Consider what makes a Music department excellent, and the role of the Head of Music in achieving excellence
• Take away a range of strategies for improving and maintaining recruitment of students
• Learn about how to create the right culture and environment to maximise teaching and learning
• Find out more about how to ensure, and implement excellent curriculum design from KS3-5
• Take away methods and approaches for secure rigorous assessment procedures to promote rapid progress
• Professional learning – practical approaches and strategies that achieve exceptional standards in high attaining students

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PROGRAMME

What Is A Successful Music Department?

10.00am

• Developing a culture of high expectations, high challenge and high reward across your Music Department
• Establishing a vibrant, dynamic music department with a ‘Wow’ factor
• What makes outstanding music leadership across a school?
• Achieving excellent quality of pupils’ academic standards and other achievements in music

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Break

10.45am

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Ways to Recruit Well for Music

11.00am

• Explore a range of strategies for improving and maintaining recruitment of students
• Ensuring your Key Stage 3 Music curriculum is attractive and builds the skills and understanding required to promote take-up at GCSE and vocational music courses
• Promoting, publicising and engaging interest in music at GCSE
• Creating the conditions for high standard, inspired learning and achievement
• Creating an inspiration setting for culturally diverse experiences, and for creative, imaginative music experiences
• The music ‘super-curriculum’ – Creating an ethos through curriculum and co-curricular activities

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Leading Outstanding Teaching and Learning in Music I

12.00pm

• Ways to create the right culture and environment to maximise teaching and learning
• Methods and approaches to establish highly ambitious subject and pedagogical knowledge
• Ensuring excellent curriculum design, planning and rapid progress from KS3-5
• Implementing rigorous assessment procedures to promote rapid progress
• Ways to get students to ‘buy-in’ to the assessment process and progress themselves with their own learning
• Forensically analysing the data

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Lunch

1.00pm

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Leading Outstanding Teaching and Learning in Music 2

2.00pm

• Professional learning – practical approaches and strategies that achieve exceptional standards in high attaining students
• Ways to extend student thinking and beyond the structure and assessment of examination requirements
• Developing effective strategies to engage, challenge and build the confidence and motivate students to stay the course, including setting tangible goals
• Developing excellent learning and study skills and habits appropriate to music learning

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Break

2.45pm

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How It Works: The Head of Music

2.50pm

• Managing one’s time and workload: variables and the work-life balance
• Managing your staff, from experienced to inexperienced teachers, NQTs and instrumental staff
• Planning ahead and finding time to do so
• Widening whole-school participation, including securing staff involvement
• Preparing for Inspections
• Department evaluation – Driving up improvements to enhance performance
• Maintaining freshness and enthusiasm: Professional and intellectual development
• Peaks, troughs and the long run: Responding to success and failure
• Working with the SLT; the confidence to champion and compromise

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Depart

3.40pm