The MTA conference has become a regular fixture on the MT office calendar. It's a chance to catch up with regular contributors, search out new ones, and simply put our ears to the ground. This year the conference was at Trinity Academy, a non-selective musical secondary school and part of Cathedral Schools Trust. In September 2021 Trinity moved into a £25m new building boasting a bespoke music wing, high-ceilinged halls, and dedicated performance spaces – this played host to 30 CPD sessions, a gala dinner, a trade fair and a concert given by Trinity students.
Volume
The conference has a reputation for friendliness, and this year was no exception. With impromptu get-togethers, plenty of free coffee and audience participation, the event was ideal for first-time attendees and teachers used to working in one-person departments. Delegates also met professionals from across the education supply chain – from membership organisations to exam boards, instrument manufacturers, and leading music tech companies.
Of the 147 teaching delegates present, 66 came from independent schools, 50 from state schools, and 31 from ‘other’ educational settings. A further 68 corporate delegates supported the trade fair, held in the main sports hall. These included representatives from Sing Up, Sing for Pleasure, British Kodály Academy, Music Mark, The Rodolfus Foundation and others; publishers Collins, Schott, OUP and Hal Leonard; and tech companies MusicFirst and Involve Education – both key sponsors – and Steinberg, The Ear Academy, and EarMaster. The hall was a treasure trove for perusing new resources and seeking out advice.
You could be forgiven for wondering why there aren't more state school teachers at the conference. The MTA, we know, is working hard to address this, recognising where help is needed most, perhaps; but we're also aware that some believe CPD should be delivered free-of-charge and in working hours, so there's a trade-off. A long-running debate.
DAY 1: Whole-school and primary
After registration and a tasty buffet, we were greeted by the MTA president, Catherine Barker. This was Catherine's last conference as president before handing over to president elect James Manwaring. Catherine made everyone feel welcome, as did the MTA committee members and Trinity's headteacher, Eiron Bailey.
Delegates then headed off to one of five talks, covering primary music to conducting school ensembles, and strategy. In ‘How the key to whole-school initiatives can be found in the music department’, Liz Dunbar and Simon Toyne explained that the aim of education is to unlock the whole personality of every child, despite music being ‘on the outside’ of current curriculum priorities. With no EEF guidelines in place for music, teachers were urged to remind each other why they do what they do, and be proactive in advocating for music on the grounds of the multiple skills it teaches. It was great to see established figures like Dunbar and Toyne leading the charge.
In another room, we learned how composition and performing were encouraged in different primary settings, whether in state or prep schools. In ‘Approaches to Primary Music Curriculum’, Kirsten Cunningham (of Horfield primary) demonstrated the untapped potential of original class songs, how ‘our song’ translates into a strong school identity. For performing, Horfield was ‘elevating children's music experiences’ both in and out of school, through local partnerships. These included the Gaia vocal-orchestral project in Bristol, at the cathedral, which provided the ‘awe and wonder’ required. Horfield has 40% of pupils taking instrumental lessons, and it was part of the Listen Imagine Compose Primary research project. Music is central.
Other speakers in this primary session spoke of the enduring effectiveness of Kodály in developing core skills – including reading notation – and of developing ‘confident rhythm skills’ as the main route to success. Mimi Munro (of Channing school), who convinced us of the latter, also gave examples of jumping-off points when it comes to composition, citing text and connections made through Chrome Music Lab. A broad range of helpful resources was discussed, for specialists and non-specialists alike.
Literacy and music tech
After refreshments, it was time for the second session, and an introduction to the Music Literacy Network – a panel discussion addressing ‘What is music literacy?’ This highlighted the network's work in influencing policy, and a new research project based on ‘musical phonics’. Far from being just about reading and writing notation, musical literacy was about comprehending the meaning of symbols and music more generally – it embraced improvisation, creating accompaniments to a melody, interpreting music, and developing holistic understanding. The musical phonics project, we learned, gave non-specialist EYFS, KS1 and KS2 teachers the skills to teach simple music literacy through principles shared with other subjects.
In another part of the building, Andrew Ferguson presented ‘Demystifying Music Technology’. Ferguson explained how FE and HE colleges now expect students to be fluent in DAWS, and that music tech was an instrument in its own right and a great leveller for access (a sentiment shared widely by speakers in other sessions, who celebrated the ‘classroom musician’). For delegates attending this talk because of pressure from schools, this probably piled on the pressure. But Ferguson demonstrated a wide choice of DAWs for all budgets, and pitched it well, sharing all manner of advice and resources, and useful ‘way-ins’. He recommended Bandlab for Education as an ideal starter kit, and showed how to scaffold working with DAWs, using ‘boiler pots’ for banks of sound and ‘picture piece’ tasks.
During questions at the end, one delegate spoke of the diminishing appeal of A Level Music Technology among staff and students, due to its emphasis on theory and physics. This session, by comparison, felt less scary and played up the creativity now associated with modern music tech.
Large Language Models
On Friday evening – after an uplifting performance by Horfield school's KS2 choir – we heard the first keynote address, delivered by Dr Jim Frankel. The brilliant ‘Impact of AI on Music Making and Learning’ entertained and alarmed in equal measure. No one was left in any doubt as to the creative power of AI, after Jim and delegates produced a song in ChatGTP in real time, having given prompts on style, topic, lyrics, mood. The resulting mash-up was never going to win Eurovision (although, that said…), but it did illustrate the scope for combining all manner of ideas while remaining in charge. AI was here to stay, it belonged to a pattern of technological advances, was the message, but we could still be teachers. It was an ally.
On that note we headed off to welcome drinks, a concert by Trinity Academy's horn ensemble, big band and individual vocal talents. Then a sumptuous curry in the dining hall, followed by a quiz that, for MT editors at least, separated the wheat from the chaff…
Day 2: Difficult conversations
First thing Saturday morning was ‘The ADHD Advantage: a choir designed for neurodiversity’. Karen Marshall shared her experience of teaching in a school where 27% of children have SEN and 30% in the choir have ADHD. We learned that 1 in 20 of the population has ADHD, that this number was rising, and that there are many positive characteristics associated with ADHD, not least being creative. The onus, then, was on teachers to adapt their techniques and repertoire to engage students and manage behaviour. ADHD might display itself through physical fidgeting, a lack of concentration, but ‘movement to a person with ADHD is like insulin to a diabetic’ – include movement wherever possible, was the key message. This talk gave other good examples of inclusive practice: allow students to doodle or draw while learning a song; structure every minute to retain attention; regulate room temperature; and, not least, maintain kindness.
After lunch and the second keynote speech – a joyful bout of singing under the accomplished leadership of Mark De-Lisser – we sat in on two hot-topic sessions. In ‘Courageous conversations: mentoring student and early career music teachers', Dr Rebecca Berkley, Mark Aitchison and Marion Friend led a practical workshop involving ‘mentee’, ‘mentor’ and ‘observer’ role play. In theory, a student or ECT was not meeting the professional standards required. We learned how to think professionally, paying close attention to the setting, seating, body language, eye contact and words used, and how to listen to the mentee – concluding that it was best to ask how they would do something better next time, rather than emphasise what went wrong or tell them how to do it right. Simple but effective.
The second hot-topic session was ‘Challenges and opportunities’ within the independent sector school music departments. Of particularly significance this year, of course, was the application of VAT to school fees. A panelled discussion, with directors of music from Bromsgrove, Loughborough Schools, St Paul's and Westminster, covered a recent survey of 450 directors of music and described the effect of the change and ways in which schools were adapting and trying to minimise the impact on music.
Nicky Bouckley, from Loughborough, described the effect as ‘catastrophic’, with one of their schools forced to close this summer as ‘the only way to remain sustainable’. Other heads were experimenting with ‘tiered lessons’, involving different price points and numbers of students per lessons; ‘added value’, demonstrating how lessons were part of a joined-up, schoolwide offer; and in-house graded music exams, to avoid the cost of sitting official exams at the lower levels.
Ending on a high
The last part of our whistle-stop tour was ‘Jazz in the Classroom’ led by Mark Armstrong, with Alex L'Estrange at the piano. This was a great introduction to jazz harmony and modes, with demonstrations of the Lydian, Blues pentatonic and so on, and which modes go with which chords. There was a generous handout of materials, and a nice joke to take away: picture a group of scientists in a lab, said Armstrong, looking at a rocket. ‘Don't fret,’ said the leader – ‘It's not jazz harmony!’
