Does anyone here teach music in a secondary school?

I'm 14, started the flute a year ago and am grade 5. Started piano 5 months ago and am grade 2.

I'd love to play in an orchestra for a living when I'm older. But sadly I know this is unlikely to happen, so I thought I'd focus on one of the next best things.

How good to you have to be to be a secondary school music teacher? I'm taking music GCSE, and am hoping t take music at A level, and possibly study it at uni.

Any advice?

If you want to work in a state school then, broadly speaking, you have two options open to you after your 'A' levels in order to get Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).

i, Read for a music degree and then do a year's teacher training course to give you a PGCE. All this will take you four to five years.

ii, Read for a BEd in music education. This will take three to four years, depending on the course.

You can also sometime train to get QTS whilst actually working in a school after completing a music degree, but this is the exception rather than the rule.

If you've gone from zero to Grade 5 in a year and you're only 14, I don't see why you should give up your dream quite yet! Obviously there is a lot of competition, particularly if you're a flautist, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

Teaching is a great career, but not if it's only ever going to be second best.


I didn't realise such a thing as a BEd in secondary music education exists - are you sure about this??

Yes, it does - I'm doing one!! It's offered at the RSAMD - we get a BEd degree that qualifies us to teach in secondary schools or as music specialists in primary schools.

Aberdeen also offers some kind of joint degree thing, you do a BMus course for the first two years and then you can choose to keep doing music or do education - the website says it's a BMus Hons (Education).

I don't know about anywhere other than Scotland though!

I was, but you've suddenly made me slightly less sure, Tiddles! I still think it is, but am open to correction.

Is it then only offered for primary school education nowadays - perhaps with a music specialism? I only ask because I can remember teaching a bunch of BEd music students a few years ago. I certainly think that - at that time - they were training to be secondary school teachers.


Thanks!

I may have mentioned this in a post before, but to be honest, you hardly need any skill as an instrumentalist to be a secondary school teacher. I know this, because I have mentored PGCE students in their placements and I drew attention to the deficiencies in one candidate who was trying to teach some class singing. I mentioned that obviously not playing the piano (or infact anything suitable to lead singing, accordion, guitar etc.), thatwas the reason why the lesson had not gone down well. I was then told by the lady at the college that I wasn;t allowed to draw attention to this on the lesson evaluation form as playing an instrument wasn't part of the requirments for being a teacher.

Oh Lor'! Ridiculous, isn't it?!

I would have thought that singing would be suitable to lead singing. You don't need an instrument for that.

Well there you go!! No wonder there are some hopeless music teachers in secondary schools, especially the ones where music is not high on the agenda.

Surely, in order to read a music degree or a BEd in music education, you need to be able to play an instrument (obviously including singing)?!?!? or am i missing something here... I can see playing an instrument wouldn't be a requirement for actually being a teacher...but in order to take a music degree before a PGCE or for the BEd, you must need to be able to...

Not in all cases - some music degrees have no obligatory performance requirements, so the only proficiency which can be assumed is that needed to pass an A Level.

oh- sorry!

!!

It is, and you don't.

Can't help thinking that you need to be passionate about music, and surely that is going to be exhibited by a passion for singing or an instrument. There is a graduate training scheme which means you are paid as an unqualified teacher about £16-17k instead of approx £9k. Music teachers are thin on the ground, so if you have degree level qualifications go for it.

If you've got to Grade 5 in a short time there's certainly hope if your dream is to play in an orchestra. It's a bit different but I believe Andy Sheppard didn't take up saxophone until he was about 17 but then went on to become a virtuoso and a world class/world famous performer.

If you passed with merit or distinction I'd say there's definitely hope and you should consider going for it with everything you've got - this will mean hours and hours of practice, though, and finding the very best teacher you can possibly find.

If you scraped through, then get a better teacher as soon as humanly possible! And step up your practice time immediately!

Well, the requirements for the RSAMD's BEd are at the very least, grade 7 on your 1st study instrument, and preferably at least grade 5 piano - they used to let people in with less but keyboard skills are an essential part of the job and I think this year they've started cracking down on letting in people with poor keyboard skills. We have a keyboard skills class and exam and if you fail the keyboard skills, you have to take a year out before you can come back - so it's very important (here, at least)!

It's good to know that standards are now being set and it's not unreasonable to expect a school music teacher to be skilled.

I understand that singing can lead singing but to teach, in high school, there should be an expectation to be proficient in more than one instrument.

Son thought for a long time that being a secondary school music teacher would be his first choice of career.

Even if it's not actually required, keyboard/piano (or maybe guitar, accordion, etc etc) would be useful for any teacher and especially for a flautist. You may have noticed that singing while playing flute is quite tricky!

Son started piano at age 14, thinking that it would be hard slog starting so late, but knowing it would be useful for teaching or composing. It hasn't been too bad at all. Since you are already well established on flute, you might consider learning an instrument you can use for accompaniment in the classroom.

Oops, I thought I'd mentioned it in the initial post.

Because I was thinking about becoming a music teacher, I started piano 5 months ago. I'm taking grade 2 next month and am practicing like crazy to be able to play things which are more fun (and impressive )

Sorry, I thought I remembered your original post better than I obviously did!

Good luck with your G.2 exam!

Thanks

I'm terrified though. I've got grade 5 flute on the same day
Just hope they're not at the same time...