Need to do something about poor school music lessons

[antsinmypants]

DD has played piano since she was 6 and went to a primary school which excelled in music - she was also in the very good school choir there. She's now in year 9 in a secondary school where the head of music has been on long-term sickness absence for over a year. The substitute teacher seems hopeless - unlike most classes, it's not streamed, so there are a handful of kids like my daughter, who can already read music and play instruments, while the remainder have little previous knowledge and she says some are very disruptive..talking and preventing the others working. She tells me that the substitute teacher cannot control the disruptive elements and is often absent and then they have no work set and are just supervised by another non-music teacher. When the substitute music teacher is there, DD and her musical friends are sent off to another room to compose and play music themselves which they are then supposed to record and be assessed on - but they've had no assessment or recording of these pieces for some time. She has studied one composer; but has no book I can look at - everything is either on the school computer or worksheets which she says aren't kept. She would like to do GCSE music, but she and I are both worried that if this continues, she'll lose interest because she isn't being pushed or even being taught what she needs to learn now. She is continuing with the piano privately (doing grade 3 soon and studying theory). I'm not the only parent with concerns - only a handful of children are doing GCSE currently because of the poor provision in what is otherwise an excellent school and I've been talking to another mum who has already written to the school but who gave up and pulled her daughter out of GCSE. I'm going to see the headteacher, but could do with advice from other MNers about what DD should be having now and what I should ask for. Thanks.

[HenniPenni]

Hi AIMP. Will follow this thread with interest as we have similar issues with DD at the moment.

She has private keyboard lessons and is working towards her grade 2 (exam in a few weeks), like your DD she's in a unstreamed class with other children with little or no prior knowledge and most lessons are spent learning the basic which I fully understand the need for, however she is getting bored and also feels that the lesson is a waste of time. Her teacher knows that she can read music and which instrument she can play but so far has not set any alternative work for her.

[antsinmypants]

Henni - I'm going to move this to the Education list in the hope of some responses.

[Lilymaid]

If the school is hopeless, perhaps she could do Grade 5 music theory privately - probably more use to someone who plays music than the GCSE.