Back in March I was invited to take part in a panel debate at The Music Education Expo alongside Jane Humberstone, Martin Fautley and Gary Spruce.

Watching the video of the session I was struck by how few solutions we as a panel were able to give.

The more sessions like this that I attend the more I hear the same questions being asked. What to do about written work, how can assessment be made more manageable, how can we escape from sub levels, how do we evidence progress if we don’t have books and so on…..

And despite knowing about these issues, as a sector we just aren’t coming up with any solutions!

So here is what I plan to do to try and search for some answers.

1) I will dig out and share my post pleading for someone out there to support teachers with some of the really key issues that are potentially jeopardising the future of music in our schools.

2) Over the next few months as I travel the UK visiting some of our Musical Futures schools and learning from teachers how they have worked to address some of these issues, I will write about what I find out there. Perhaps the answers lie not in discussion between various organisations within the sector about teaching and teachers but with teachers and by teachers in their schools as they go about the job of making music with their classes.

Meanwhile, have a watch of the classroom debate which really does articulate brilliantly some of the key issues that we need to work together to solve.