Training for success: London Music Masters PGCEi

For many instrumental and vocal teachers, the first time they learn anything about teaching groups is… the first time they are faced with teaching a group. Although conservatoires and university music departments have been offering modules based on experience in real settings for a long time, a new teacher with a BMus and a new teacher with a PGCE will feel very differently when faced with, say, 10 eight-year-old new violinists.

Most instrumental and vocal teachers do not have PGCEs, and if they're working in state schools, group teaching is the norm. Rob Adediran studied at the Royal Academy of Music and later at Cambridge. ‘I taught while I was a student and a young graduate and absolutely loved it! But I always felt a bit like I was making it up as I went along. The training I received as a student in a performance-focused conservatoire didn't prepare me for the challenge of the classroom,’ he tells me. ‘Being an excellent musician does not make you an excellent teacher – so I should probably apologise to my early pupils!’

About London Music Masters

Adediran is now executive director of London Music Masters (LMM), a music education charity founded 12 years ago by Victoria Robey and Itzhak Rashkovsky. ‘They had a bold idea to transform the musical landscape in the UK, both for children starting out on their journey and young artists who had set their sights on international performing careers,’ Adediran says. LMM now teaches 1,300 children the violin, cello and musicianship each week across six schools in inner London. ‘If even one student earned a place at a junior conservatoire on their own merits through such inspired access it would prove that any child, no matter what their background, can succeed with a sustained, excellent learning programme’, Robey said at LMM's 10th-anniversary celebration.

LMM's latest project is focused on ‘teaching the teachers’. Its ‘PGCEi’, launched in September 2019 in partnership with Birmingham City University, is the UK's first PGCE programme for group instrumental tuition.

‘Group teaching is fantastic,’ says Adediran. ‘If done well then it is, in our experience, the most effective way of working with young people, particularly those who are just starting out on an instrument. You have a ready-made ensemble for a start, and there is a constant sense of performance, which can mitigate performance anxiety. It is also a lot of fun, and children are used to learning in groups so they are comfortable with the format.’

LMM's mission is to reach children who may not have musical opportunities available to them, and he hopes that the PCGEi will equip teachers to offer high-quality music education to ever larger numbers of pupils. ‘It is in groups, rather than one-to-one tuition, where the vast majority of the UK's children will have their first experience of playing an instrument, because it is cost effective to schools with extremely tight budgets. And it is those children, in those schools, that we are targeting’, he says.

Adediran knows both the difference that high-quality, dedicated music teachers can make, and the responsibility that they bear. Sometimes LMM teachers are the only professional musician on the school premises all week; as well as teaching they have to advocate for music and music education.

Meet the students

Fifteen students make up the inaugural PGCEi cohort. They come from around the UK and have a range of different backgrounds and professional experience. Some are in their first year of teaching, while others have been teaching for more than two decades.

Sarah Plummer studied at Wells Cathedral School and York University before specialising in baroque violin at the Royal College of Music. She freelanced as a performer for many years, taught in schools and privately, and is currently schools music leader at a London music education hub. ‘Stepping into the role of student again while holding a managerial role in an organisation is quite humbling’, she tells me. ‘The students on the course are an amazing group of people. The enthusiasm for what they do is inspiring in itself. The opportunity to discuss areas and exchange ideas and experiences has definitely been a highlight’.

Violin teacher Lucy Melvin has been teaching for more than 20 years. She teaches in two secondary schools and runs a chamber music summer school. ‘I wanted to be in an environment with like-minded professionals who can inspire each other as well as renew my thoughts, fuel my ideas and give me fresh ideas for my teaching’, she tells me. ‘The first week was incredible. There was so much laughter and happy times with such inspiring people.’

What the course involves

The one-year course is designed to fit around the students’ pre-existing teaching commitments, and features a balance of theory and observation, both of outstanding practitioners and the students’ own teaching practice. While it is based in London, the structure – one intensive week, four weekends and 18 weekdays over the year – enables students from around the country to fit it in around their teaching commitments. Teacher-mentors travel to where the students live and work to observe them.

The course is led jointly by Karen McGrath, associate professor at the Birmingham City University School of Education and Social Work, and Roz De Vile, director of learning at LMM. Course lecturers come from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives; some are current LMM teachers, some are school senior leaders, and others are academics from Birmingham City and other universities. ‘The School of Education [at BCU] has some of the foremost thinkers and practitioners in music education in the country and our students can access that depth of knowledge through this course’, says Adediran.

Students learn about the role of music in the National Curriculum, and about key education issues such as child protection, managing behaviour and inclusion. They are required to submit assignments, deliver presentations and keep a reflective journal.

They will also cover current theories of teaching and learning. As well as exploring how theory applies to instrumental teaching, they're encouraged to develop their individual teaching styles and ethos.

One area where class teachers with a PGCE have the edge over conservatoire graduates is in their understanding of learning itself and how to assess it. The PGCEi students have the chance to explore both how children learn and what the impediments to learning can be. They learn skills in assessment and planning, and ways to promote independent learning for life.

‘Being a student is challenging for me’, says Plummer. ‘It has been 18 years since I did my first PGCE’. Melvin agrees: ‘I am not someone who is used to academic rigours, but I am enjoying the practical aspect of it all’.

For now, the course is focusing on string teaching, but there are plans to open up to a wider range of instruments. ‘I'm a trumpet player myself and can't wait to have our first brass players on the course,’ Adediran tells me.

Registration for the September 2020 intake is already open, with some bursaries available. The current students are already looking to the future. ‘I am fortunate that my role in a music hub places me in a position from which I can instigate change, both in the offer of instrumental tuition for schools in our borough, and in the support and training that I can look to develop for our teaching team’, says Plummer. ‘I am hoping that the course, as well as informing and developing my own teaching, will have wider impact.’

Adediran also has big plans. ‘Although we are starting in London, we plan for the PGCEi to have a truly national footprint’, he tells me. ‘We will partner with music education hubs across the UK to establish local training centres for students, which will make the course even more accessible. Our ultimate goal is for children across the country to be able to access teaching delivered by musicians with incredible teaching skills’.