Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the forums but hopefully you'll see me around a bit now :-)

My name's Pete (as you can tell) and I'm currently employed in the maritime
industry doing a very very dull boring job, the only thing I've ever really loved
is music so, this has led me to finally think about going to uni, and studying music
so I can become a Secondary school music teacher.

I did work full time as a guitar teacher for about 2 years, but I found that only focusing
on the one instrument was starting to put me off playing it for my recreation, and as my
"Getaway" from the stresses of the world :-(

So I'm hoping that becoming a music teacher would mean I could have a career in Music
and becuase it's such a wide and vast subject, I wouldn't only be focusing on the guitar.

I know that there will be a lot of hard work ahead if I chose to go for this as a career but what I would
like help with is letting me know what it's REALLY like to teach in schools. When I was in school
I found the music teacher was unencouraging, uninspiring and he didn't seem to have any real
passion for music. I'd like to think I could be inspiring to kids, I loved teaching them at guitar so I have
a small insight. But if anyone out there can offer me any advise at all, on what the real world of teaching is
like I would greatley appreciate the help.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post, sorry for poor typing :-)

Pete

Ahoy and welcome to the Forums!

I'm a peri in primary and secondary schools. Some schools I go to have brilliant teachers who envision and inspire the children (perhaps like yourself), some are the opposite. Partly it might be the type of school as well as funding etc etc that makes the difference.

Have you thought about doing a degree and PGCE with the Open University? That way you could continue in employment whilst you learn the new skills.

Some secondary schools I go to, I hear the teacher spending more time on class discipline than actually teaching! It's not for the faint hearted.

Others will no doubt give you their views on being in a secondary school.

Hi Pete,

I am a secondary music teacher and did my PGCE last year after several years doing some peri work. When I left Music College I wanted nothing more than to become a peri - ha - that little dream soon got boring.

As someone pointed out earlier in the thread you might find that classroom management is a big hurdle, but it really depends on what kind of school you are in and what kind of teacher/personality you actually are!

With all the planning and extra stuff a Music Teacher has to do the hours are very full on, most days I find myself returning from work, teaching my private lessons and then disappearing into the office to stare at the computer and plan plan plan! This is the soul destroying part, but you do it in the knowledge that you are laying the foundations for future years and therefore will not have to plan in as much detail as you do during your training and NQT year.

Sometimes it does feel like the school day just begins at 3.30 when the kids go home - you can then get on with sorting out your paperwork, attending various meetings, doing rehearsals, tieing up loose ends and... yes.. planning. the pastoral side can be very draining and time consuming and the hoops you have to jump through are at times abstract; nothing really prepares you for the amount of hoopage.

If your hearts in it - you will love it! - I found myself sat in the department office this morning when there was a sudden panic because a teacher who was absent had not set any work for the first lesson of the morning. My head of department went off to try and sort something out and I oh so very nearly volunteered to teach the lesson myself as I was on a free period! - Sometimes I make myslef sick. During my trainnig (towards the end when everything was under control and planned) I found myself getting itchy feet and wanting just to "teach a lesson". The actual teaching is the best part, that's where you are in control and if you are a creative person then your lessons will shine and you will look forward to delivering the ideas you have planned whilst sitting alone in front of that computer screen missing Eastenders.

Private message me if you want to know any specifics - I'll keep my eye on the thread and chip in where necessary.

Good Luck

Andy

If you go for it, you won't be the first person to have a total change of career, and I'd be extremely surprised if you were the last.

Before taking any drastic action, would it be possible for you to spend a few days shadowing one of the teachers at a local school? That would give you an insight into what really happens at the chalkface, and valuable experience on which to draw at any interview for a place on a teaching course.

Thanks everyone for your responces!

Regarding the OU, you cannot do a degree in music with them sadly you can only study
up to "Diploma" level music, in order to get a degree I'd have to take something like English
history, or one of the other Humanities. I'm not too keen on doing that really! So I think
it's looking like Uni (Bring on the debt!!)

Another thing I was wondering about doing a degree with the OU would be the conducting side
of orchestras. I assume you would have to go to a university to be trained in this?

Thanks for your support so far, does anyone have any recomendations for universitys? I am
still un decided whether or not to go down the ABSRM kind of route, or go somewhere like the
ACM and study contemporary music. Any advise there?

Thanks again every one

Pete

Being in FE only myself, I can't offer any advice but what I've found is that the best classroom teachers I've ever had are the one who've done something else before teaching, like yourself.

You'd probably make an ace teacher!

You can actually do a music degree with the OU, though it's called BA Humanities with Music.

Level 1: Introductory 60-point humainities course plus another 60 points, maybe from ATCL/DipABRSM diplomas in performance/teaching/directing

Level 2: The 60-point introductory Music course plus the 60-point Music Tech course (new)

Level 3: the two 60-point courses.

That's 360 points, therefore a degree's worth! And the OU does Secondary Music PGCE too.

As for the conducting, you could still do an OU degree and get conducting lessons from a teacher as an 'extra'. Might tie in nicely if you decided to do the DipABRSM in Direction to make up the level 1 points...

Just to tie in with this topic (loosely - thinking secondary school teachers and music here) - I was recently put on hold when phoning my mobile phone company and heard the theme music to the channel 4 series "Teachers". It would seem that this is actually taken from a song of some description - does anyone know what this music is???

Cheers

Ax