Group Dynamic
Group Dynamic
This article was first published in the June 2007 issue of Music Teacher Magazine and is reproduced here with the kind permission of the editor.
Grades 1 to 8 or Copper to Platinum? In the first of two articles David Forbes explains how the Associated Board’s Music Medals scheme for rewarding progress in group teaching situations can change your life.
David teaches flute in maintained junior and secondary schools in Hertfordshire, working with Year 3s to Year 11s. He is the Music Medals Trainer for Hertfordshire Music Service which has over 100 registered Teacher-Assessors.
I started teaching flute, clarinet and saxophone firstly with Haringey Music Service in 1976 and then for Hertfordshire Music Service in 1980. As was the case in most LEA Music Services, tuition was centrally funded with little or no charge to schools or parents, and tuition was confined to violin in junior schools, with the other instruments being added at secondary level. So, up to 1992, I was dealing with secondary woodwind pupils who were usually starting from scratch. My pupils, all individually taught, were entered for Associated Board (ABRSM) graded exams at the appropriate time for each.
In 1992 everything changed. And did it change! The new funding arrangements meant that all instruments could be taught in all schools, paid for either by parents, or via a small devolved budget, or with a combination of both. I moved from teaching in three large secondary schools (using ABRSM graded exams for assessment) to three secondary and nine primary. None of the primary schools had had any woodwind teaching prior to this and I had had no experience working in junior schools or with groups. My PGCE teaching practices at Trent Park (later Middlesex Polytechnic, then Middlesex University) were both secondary.
I very quickly discovered that tackling the Grade 1 syllabus was not easy for a beginner group of four Year 5 flutes with a half-hour lesson. There were, of course, some groups that could manage it after about 18 months or so, but they were few and far between, and I found that the normal process of teaching came to a halt when exams were being done. Cassette tapes of the pieces and accompaniments were provided (need I mention tuning issues?) and scale schedules issued. Tapes of aural tests were made and remade. It was all stressful stuff, not to mention the actual exam. Over the years, as parents opted for shared or individual lessons, it became easier, and on one occasion, Grade 4 was possible with a clarinet pupil who had started in Year 4. But it was the beginners who really needed something to work towards in their first year.
So the announcement in 2002 that Hertfordshire Music Service was going to be part of the pilot for Music Medals, a new scheme from the ABRSM, was exciting. Although I was not actually part of the pilot, I had some experience using video and was asked to be the Hertfordshire Music Service Music Medals Trainer at their full introduction in 2004.
So why are Music Medals different? What makes them appropriate for beginners and early learners?
The ABRSM has started with a blank piece of paper, albeit manuscript paper. It has considered each aspect of what teachers do and the circumstances in which they teach. And, most importantly, who we teach. The success of Wider Opportunities, which offers wholeclass instrumental tuition, means that pupils are moving on to group and shared lessons in Years 5 and 6.
The most important thing to realise is that Medals are not instead of graded exams. At some point, most teachers will want to move their pupils on to graded exams but the decision to do that is with the teacher.
In Hertfordshire, we have made few entries at the Platinum level but hundreds of Copper and Bronze tests have been successfully taken.
By now it will be fairly obvious that, as an experienced woodwind teacher, I am quite keen on Music Medals (and I don’t work on commission from the ABRSM!). They play an integral role in the way I teach and in my pupils’ learning process. And the pupils love them. They wear their medals with pride and, although graded exam certificates will be lovingly framed on the living room wall, a nine-year-old prefers something more personal.
Who can do Medals?
Pupils having lessons in maintained schools and music centres playing the following instruments:
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Woodwind - flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, recorder and saxophone
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Strings - violin, viola, cello and guitar
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Brass - trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn,
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Eb horn, French horn, baritone, trombone, euphonium and Eb tuba
The introduction of keyboard medals is imminent.
So how does it work?
Performances at copper, bronze, silver, gold and platinum levels are videoed, marked by the teacher and moderated by the Board.
First of all, technology is used whenever possible. There are two reasons for this, the most important of which is to keep the cost down. A copper medal costs just £8 to enter, compared with £27 for Grade 1. The entry process is described as ‘easy on-line’, two words which never go well together, but those familiar with the on-line graded exam entry system will find it very easy and those new to this method are guided through. It is also dealt with comprehensively during the training and Music Medals trainers are only a phone call or e-mail away.
The ABRSM has come up with something new when it comes to payment. In addition to the usual credit/debit card and cheque, they have added tokens. Parents, relatives and friends can purchase tokens on-line and are issued with a unique number, which is given to the teacher. This is used when the pupil is entered. From a teacher’s point of view this is very important – I have never been happy paying parents’ cheques into my own account and paying for the exams with cheque or credit card.
Having made the entry you then have a maximum of eight weeks to do your download (more later) and a further eight weeks from then to do the test. There are no set dates or exam periods. Within reason you do the test when the pupils, and you, are ready. In fact, this is just what classroom colleagues have been asking of the SATS testing regime for years!
So the maximum from entry to test is 16 weeks, the minimum about 10 minutes! The results arrive by e-mail in about two weeks, closely followed by commentary, certificate and medal through the post.
