Opinion: The new Classical 100 is useful and free - a brilliant resource when budgets are stretched

Although I was familiar with the original Classical 100 resource, I didn't use it when it first came out. I have a good knowledge of classical music and access to streaming music as well as my own collection. I didn't really see that it had an awful lot to offer me.

So when I was asked if I'd be interested in being involved in the launch of the new version of Classical 100, I was intrigued to see how it had been changed and whether it would now be a useful tool in my classroom. ‘You'll have to teach two purposeful music lessons using it,’ my hub's head of music told me: ‘One with Key Stage 1, and one with Key Stage 2.’ OK, I thought, let's have a look at the pieces and see what I can come up with.

The most obvious change is the addition of a challenge to accompany each piece of music. These challenges have been written by music educationalists, and are mainly composition based. Straight away I found an activity that linked perfectly into an existing project: Year 4 had tried composing music for film earlier in the year and the Lights, camera, action! challenge followed on perfectly. Next year I will definitely incorporate it into our film music project as a task across several lessons.

The other challenge we explored was the USA challenge with Year 1, based on Sousa's Liberty Bell. This challenge asks the children to work in small groups, playing different patterns of bell sounds. At first I wasn't so sure about this. It seemed a little simple, perhaps a short activity rather than a purposeful focus of a lesson. However, it turned out that there was a lot we could do with it and I was able to differentiate the task easily, with great results. As a bonus it proved a good chance for children to practise their conducting and following skills, and some groups took the challenge off in directions I hadn't thought of.

Part of the agreement for our day of filming with the ABRSM was that the class teachers had to be involved in planning and delivering the lessons alongside me. I think it's fair to say this was outside of the class teacher's comfort zones. After all, that's why the school employs me as a music specialist! Both class teachers quickly saw how much of the work was done for them, and how easily they could use the resource in class themselves. They really enjoyed being involved in the music lessons and seeing a different side to the children – and have both said they would feel confident using Classical 100 in their classrooms themselves.

Other than the challenges, one of my favourite aspects of Classical 100 is the way that I can arrange the pieces depending on what I'm looking for: by element, instrument, nationality, historical period and so on, all labelled with tabs at the top. This is a useful time saver when I want to find a piece of music to demonstrate pitch, or the brass family, or to find a selection of music from Italy for example.

There is also a ‘mood changer’ where you can say where – on a scale of energetic – to calm you would like a piece of music to start and end and are given several recommendations, a feature which I can see being useful in numerous situations, from assemblies to PE lessons. Throw in the ‘story-telling’ and ‘movement’ Top 10 buttons and there's a way for Classical 100 to be useful in most lessons. Oh, and perhaps the best bit of all – it's free! At a time when schools are feeling the pinch, especially in the arts, to be able to get a resource which gives you lesson plans, top-quality recordings, and has made all your resources for you, is utterly brilliant.

I've been a classroom music teacher for over 15 years, and it's fair to say that I have seen a fair few resources come and go. The resources I return to are those that give me flexibility and that I and the children enjoy. They engage the children and challenge them appropriately. So far, Classical 100 fits that bill very nicely and not one lesson has finished without the children wanting to know when they will get to try their next challenge – so I think they are happy too!

ABRSM is looking for ‘a simple and original idea for a musical challenge’. The winning 100th resource will support the music of Carl Orff's ‘O Fortuna’ from Carmina Burana. The winner will receive a Yamaha Clavinova CLP-635 R for their school. Entries close on 6 July.  

www.abrsm.org/classical100