I don't know if I am in the right department, but I have a query regarding the practical element of the current GCSE syllabus.

I should point out at the outset that I cannot find a copy of the GCSE Music syllabus, and I am not even sure which exam board the school is using, so I am at a double disadvantage.

As above, the problem concerns the practical element of GCSE Music, which is taken in Year 10. Our son is a very keen organist, and is progressing well. He does play piano at home for 'note bashing' his organ music, but it is not his instrument of choice.

He, and we, were originally told that the music teacher would go with him to our church (where he plays), or to another church near the school, so he could be assessed playing the organ. However, since this time a new Head of Music has been appointed, and a week ago today our son was told that other pupils had been assessed at school (on their own instruments where appropriate), and the HOM didn't see why she should make exceptions. The subject of Health and Safety was also raised. He was told that he could “either play a piano, or a keyboard set to make organ sounds”.

Now, he would have happily played an organ piece on the piano (as he does at home), leaving out or substituting pedal notes as appropriate. However, he was told that this was not acceptable, as he would have to play every note on the score to be assessed. The teacher also said she didn’t want to hear any “funeral music” (referring to his church music generally). The alternative, he was told, was to sing - which was clearly not an option for a shy 15 year old whose voice is still warbling between Sub Bass and Alto!

This left only a few days to find and learn a new piece of piano music. Anyhow, the practical was held this week, and he was awarded just 12 marks out of a possible 25 for reasons that are, as yet, unclear.

Our son was clearly quite upset by this as he loves music, and is determined to get good grades in this subject if none other. Does anyone know whether this is normal practice for GCSE students, and is there any way that this assessment can be taken again, preferably on a pipe organ?

SB

I'm not involved in GCSE at the moment, but I do recall that as a student teacher on teaching practice going with the Head of music to a assess a gcse organ performance. We actually went to the child's home and were both a bit surprised to find that she kept her organ in her bedroom. The HoM was relieved to have another adult with him and also that the pupil's mum at home.

So it has been done (this was summer 1992) but a bit forward planning is essential.
I don't recall what exam board the school used then (they currently use AQA).

Thank you for that information. Clearly it was possible then, so presumably it is now?

We had understood that an organ assesment was possible around this time last year, so there was plenty of time to make special arrangements. There are Stewards on duty at the church during the day so I cannot see there being any problem with safety, child protection, etc.

SB

It doesn't say anywhere that it must be done in school only that the teacher sees the performance.

One of my pupils recently did her GCSE recording at my teacher's house, where there is a far better piano than at her school (where I normally teach her). She was taking her grade 6 at the house the following day, so she'd come over for an extra lesson there. Her head of music came over at 8.45pm to record it & had to drive 5 miles to get there, which I thought was very nice of him, but he is the sort of teacher who will put himself out to give pupils the best chance of doing well.

I understand totally how you feel after the endless problems we experienced with GCSE Music.

I think you need to discover which syllabus it is, the school should be able to tell you. If you don't tlike to ask then perhaps if you can provide more information about what is being asked of your son then someone may be able to work it out.

After sourcing the OCR syllabus I do know there have been some changes relating to the practical work. I don't think it applied to pupils taking the exam this year but I don't know about next. I think the suggestion is that all coursework be undertaken in school. I thought it was referring to the compositional element but I suppose it could be interpreted as the performance too. The current OCR syllabus implies that it is ok for the ensemble performance to be recorded off site.

There must be another opportunity for your son to record his Performance again. The rules will be in the syllabus and once you know which exam board it is it will be easy to find. The CPG books for the appropriate board are what we found very useful.

Sadly I think sometimes Child Protection gets used if a teacher can't be bothered.

Good luck!!

The child protection issue sounds like a bit of a cop out.
There would be no issue if a parent was in attendance. Did nobody suggest that?

Can you have a gentle word with the Head of Music about this, Swell Box? It does seem a great pity that your son has achieved quite a low mark which doesn't reflect his ability, and could leave him feeling negative about school music.

School music teachers are often under a lot of pressure to run after-school groups and be all things to all pupils, and not all are prepared to go the extra mile for GCSE. It's likely that your son's teacher is new to running a music department (though she will have taught before) and has found her first year quite tough, whereas the previous HoM already had that under his belt and was therefore more flexible when he spoke to you. However, by this stage of the term she is probably beginning to feel a bit better!

If you can go in and treat the situation as a problem for you and the HoM to tackle together, rather than blaming her for the change of policy, you might be able to make a difference. Try to explain your son's love for the organ, and disappointment at his low achievement on piano, and ask whether the HoM sees a way out of the situation. In general, this sort of approach works better than blaming the teacher; if she offers anything at all, tell her how grateful you are!

This doesn't work with every teacher, as notmusimum can tell you (!), but it does with some, so is worth a try.

Lots of good advice BM, Hopefully this music teacher won't be as difficult as our one, who I don't think is at all typical

Thanks again for the advice everyone.

I have not yet managed to speak to the HOM, but I will try again on Monday.

However, there seem to be a few things going on here, as I have since heard from another parent that their daughter also received lower than expected marks on the same day, even though she is a G5 pianist. Meanwhile, other pupils with more limited playing experience have received good marks.

Anyhow, I will report back when I hear more.

SB

Were you told in advance how the GCSE was going to be marked?

I think it's about how well you play your piece in the respect of how few errors there are. It's totally different from how the AB and other exam boards view candidates. OCR has 5 difficulty marks but they may be difficult to access if you don't score reasonably highly on the piece in the first place.

Playing a grade 3 piece very musically could end up getting the pupil better marks than playing a grade 5 piece ok.

We haven't been told our daughter's marks on any aspect of the GCSE. She played a Grade 6 Recorder piece. As it's one she has played quite alot with her Piano Teacher, who acted as accompanist. We knew it would go well (she's working towards Grade 8). We don't have a clue if her ensemble piece was of the right standard or not.

If you get no joy with the teacher raise the situation with management as it sounds like pupils have not been informed properly of the criteria amungst other things.

Things seem to be becoming clearer, and I think you may just have hit the nail rather squarely on the head.

I have now spoken to the mother of the girl mentioned above, who is herself a very accomplished pianist. It now transpires that she spoke to the HOM late on Friday afternoon, and was told that her daughter had been marked down for adding trills and other ornaments that were not printed on the original score. These, it seems, were counted as 'wrong notes'. The HOM agreed with the girl’s mother that appropriate ornamentation is an essential part of playing the piano, but felt that it was 'showing off' in a GCSE exam. Moreover, she said it was 'unfair to mark down inexperienced pianists for playing wrong notes if more advanced pianists are allowed to get away with adding ornaments'.

Having heard this explanation, we are fairly sure we know what has happened, although I am far from happy about it. From what I have been told, none of the exam candidates were informed that ornaments should not be played.

Anyhow, it seems the HOM has agreed that the girl can take her exam again this week, so hopefully our son will also be given this opportunity. However, we still need to resolve the matter of taking this exam on the organ.

SB

I've just skimmed this thread

but, if I have the right gist of it, I can tell you that i played organ for my GCSE music in 96. Two teachers (one being head of music) came out to my teachers house where i performed Root beer rag

I also had my band around there at the time where we performed an ensemble piece.

One of my students last year did his GCSE music and they were happy for everything to be recorded on tape and submitted. THis I wasn't happy with as I felt their should be a live performance element to it. I guess it depends on the school and maybe the board.

End of the day all efforts should be made for your son to attain the highest mark possible.

This sounds SO wrong! I have no connection with music in schools and therefore know very little about the GCSE system, but it sounds ridiculous to penalize someone for using ornaments and 'showing off'.

This does sound very wrong.

It almost appears that you can be penalised for being 'overqualified' for gcse.

But it is in fact the case. For GCSE marks are awarded for playing exactly what is printed on the score. It's not 'performance' but score reading. I now suggest my pupils select pieces where this isn't an issue (eg modern pieces) and avoid baroque pieces.

I didn't realise this was the case either, thankfuly Emsoboe did a modern piece phew!! It did switch time signiture but it was on the score. It seems a bit OTT expecially when you get marks for difficulty.

I have a piano student who recently got 23 out of 25 for a composition and the teacher told him that she took off the 2 marks because the piece could only be played by a 'virtuoso' pianist.

The more I hear about school music teachers I know there are some good ones on the forum but they are a rare breed.

Emsoboe scored 14/15 for her first composition (should have been marked out of 30). The teacher had given them a brief, which the composition didn't fit . No idea what the re-draft or second composition scored We have no marks for performances either at least knowing where the student stands me4ns they can do something about changing the situation if needed.

I had hoped to speak to the Head of Music today, but she has reported in sick, so no progress there.

However, I spoke to one of the other music teachers a short while ago, who could not (or would not) comment on the matter, but stressed that the Head of Music was "keen to encourage all pupils, not just those who are lucky enough to receive private music tuition".

Methinks this has got more to do with 'levelling the playing field' than encouraging true musicality. Some might call this 'dumbing down', and I think I am beginning to agree.


SB

Go straight to the next level of the complaints proceedure. Nip this in the bud befor eit gets out of hand. I've been banging my head on the school wall for over a year and once they get an idea in their head it is difficult to shift. The good thing in your favour is the HOD not having been there too long. think about the future students once this becomes the norm. Get together with other parents who's children may be in the same situation. Who is this teacher to judge? We make sacrifices for our child to have private music tuition, as I'm sure many other parents do, this is not dumbing down it's discrimination.

Then everybody at one of our local schools must be marked down as they pretty well all tend to write very complex compositions (of which it's quite likely they would be totally unable to produce without software to play in to the computer).



So the solution is to have those who ARE learning to play an instrument play one that they are not learning in their exam? I wonder where it says that in the syllabus?

GAH. GAH. GAH.

If it is any consolation to you in England, the same thing happens here. The whole of the music option for the Baccalaureat has been arranged so that candidates not learning instruments are not penalised. In fact candidates are not officially required to be able to read a score either. In practice this is rubbish because they choose set works that require a fair amount of musical knowledge.

The same idea pervades - that candidates learning an instrument have an unfair advantage so must be penalised.

Last year one of my pupils- an excellent young pianist - failed his music option. All his classmates passed.
The joke was that as the class music teacher had not done his job properly and the other five were not adequately prepared, my pupil stepped in and gave his classmates a lot of help. He actually gave them several "lessons".

His parents wanted to take up the complaints procedure but the boy simply said he couldn't be bothered with it. He had lost faith.

I used to help pupils who wanted to enter themselves for this option as independant candidates - which they can do if their lycée doesn't do music. After some quite harmful experiences I now discourage my pupils from taking this option. Enough said.

Time for an update.

The Head of Music returned to school on Monday after two weeks sick leave. Having left several messages for her to call me, none of which were answered, I went in to the school this morning to speak to her directly. I must say I found her attitude rather disturbing, and at this stage I still don't know what the final outcome will be.

Firstly, she confirmed that she had indeed deducted points for trills and ornaments that were not on the original score. She said she expected experienced players to follow written scores note for note, and did not expect them to show off by adding (in her words) 'frilly bits'.

I pointed out that, in my view, the use of appropriate ornaments was all part of good musicianship. She agreed, but said there was no place for ornaments at GCSE, and that it was unfair not to penalise experienced musicians when she was expected to deduct marks from novices for playing wrong notes. She added, "I know very well that your son is receiving private music tuition, but that doesn't cut any ice with me. This is not a private school, and I have to give everyone the same opportunities".

All in all, I have come to the view that she has a 'problem' with any form of private tuition.

Anyhow, she has agreed that our son can re-sit the practical before the end of term, but would not commit to allowing him to play on the organ. One of her objections was that she was not qualified to teach organ, and could not be expected to watch him playing three 'keyboards' (her words) and pedals at the same time.

What on earth have we done to the education system in this country?

SB.

I'm so sorry but your post cracked me up. Not because I think it's in the least funny but it sounds so similar to the nut job that is supposed to teach my daughter. I can just imagine it being said. I wonder are they twin sisters?

It made me think of keyboard club where they all wear headphones and she looks at the fingers to see if they are playing it right Perhaps it's how they are being taught at teacher Training college these days

If you've read my thread in Parents you will see what I mean. School have even managed to make the poor Music Teacher a victim. Heard on the news this week Heads are getting more power. allowing them to become unaccountable means that this standard of teaching will continue in our schools.

In October 08 I sat in a room with the Head, Deputy and Music Teacher. Management nodded when she told me my child was no different form her peers. She was achieving a 4a in music at the time, the same as French which she had only started in September of the that year. Yesterday the same Deputy told me that she's way above the rest of her class. They must be doing a wonderful job as she's now a level 8 (on her report that I've not seen yet).

I also wonder what the education system is coming to.

Don't mess about complain to the Head and if nothing improves go to the Governors. In my experience they will drag it out as long as possible.

Good luck

This sounds utterly ghastly.

The words 'down' and 'dumbing' keep swirling round my head...and HOW can these things pass for 'music education' these days???

Grumpy Old Cyrilla

YOU ARE JOKING !!!!!!

On the other hand, I can believe it.
Once again (without hi-jacking the thread) I was asked to "assess" a person (elderly but I'm NOT age-ist) who was being considered to teach electronic home organ for an adult education department.
My assessment revealed his repetoire of THREE chords regardless of what key the right hand was playing in, and that he had played by ear for 20 years.

PLEASE, PLEASE BEAM ME ONTO A REAL PLANET WHERE REAL PEOPLE REALLY DO PLAY THE ORGAN

I have to say, this is not the first such incident that we have suffered.

Shortly after the new Head of Music started last year, she set the class an exercise playing a simple tune on keyboards (with pupils wearing headphones). This went on for two or three weeks, and progressed to a point where simple chords were being introduced. There are a handful of children in the class who take private music lessons, and after the first week they were clearly finding this rather boring.

Anyhow, during the second lesson the teacher reportedly left the classroom for ten minutes or so. Whilst she was away our son and two or three of the others decided to play their own music on the keyboards. When the teacher returned to the classroom she was livid about it, and took them to the Head of Year - but said nothing to those who were 'messing about'.

Now I would have expected any music teacher to be delighted to hear their Y9 pupils playing Bach, Vierne or Chopin; but apparently not.

Ironically, the same teacher is quite happy for these pupils to play the piano during school assembly.

It seems we just have to live with this culture of ‘dumbing down’ in our schools, and in society as a whole. But if we snuff out talent at such a young age where will the next generation of musicians, engineers*, surgeons, scientists and other learned professions come from? And might this explain why there are so many people frm other countries working in our health service?

* (I don't mean mechanics or fitters.)

SB

There are too many similarities here to our situation . My child has been isoleted, sent to the back as punishment, ignored and had no teaching. This is over a 3 year period. They do a similar thing where they get a piece of porpular music. The keyboards have the letter names written on in indelible marker, the music has the letter names written under. They spend about 4 weeks playing one hand of the piece and then it's spun out another 2 weeks with a recording and evaluation. Everyone in the class evaluates every single piece, they are not allowed to make the same statement more than twice.

Diapason I am not joking! The teacher laughs about how her former class teacher, tells the children in detail, how keyboard club was run. It's exactly the same as she runs it now

Thankfully I don't think our situation is anywhere near as bad as yours Notmusimum, but I do know that our son (and others) have been 'sent to the back' in music lessons on many occasions, and have been told to read a book "whilst the others catch up".

From my perspective, I find it interesting that our son loves music, and that we only have this problem in music! He is good (though not outstanding) in most other subjects, and that seems to suit the school well. However, I know two other parents whose children are particularly good at maths and science, and they also feel they their children are being deliberately held back; but the situation is nowhere as bad as in music lessons, which seem to suffer badly from 'dumbing down' syndrome.

The only subject that pupils seem to be encouraged to excel is these days is sport. The reason, I am told, is that it "provides an opportunity for underprivileged and intellectually challenged pupils to shine." But given that we are paying very heavily for our children's education through taxation, why should they be held back so that those with no interest in learning are not too upset by their failings?

As it happens, our son has very little interest in sport, and cannot see the point in chasing an inflated pigs bladder around a muddy field, although he is perfectly fit, and enjoys a 20 or 30 mile cycle ride when we have the opportunity. (Rugby is another matter entirely, but that is discouraged by the school as it is considered too dangerous). He really doesn't care where he comes in a 400 metre race, but the school staff always try to put the slower runners together to make them feel better.

On a completely different, but related subject: about ten years ago I offered to produce the Brochure and New Starters Handbook for our children's primary school. This offer was gratefully accepted, but when I took the job on, the first thing I had to do was to correct the appalling English used in the original. Apart from incorrect use of apostrophes throughout the document, 'their' was used instead of 'there'; 'to' instead of 'two' or 'too', and so on. And this from one of the highest ranked primary schools in the county!

However, when I returned the first proof of the Brochure to the school I was asked if I could "make it read less like a public school prospectus, as it may put some parents off." I was sorely tempted to say that that might actually be a good thing; but I do feel that it sums up the attitude of our modern educationalists rather well.

SB

I started secondary school (a comprehensive) some thirty years ago and this was already the case then. I can remember on occasion being sent to the library to read a book while the others "caught up" (and this wasn't in music but in the "main" subjects and continued into the sixth form).