Resources

Jolly music is an amazing way to develop musicianship and musical understanding from an early age. The only instrument you need is your voice!

In our weekly Jolly Music lessons, course leader Emma Harding takes everyone from the age of 4 on a journey to nurture their musical talent

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Lesson 5

Lesson 6

Short course for making music at home with Music Education Islington tutor Julia MacDonell. For KS1 children and their families.

In this series of videos, Julia explores timbre, beat, rhythm, pitch and many more elements of music. 

Lesson 1    Worksheet

Lesson 2    Worksheet    Backing Track

Lesson 3    Worksheet

Lesson 4    Worksheet

Lesson 5    Worksheet

Explore this fun online course where you will learn how to rhyme and to rap. From beginner to highly experienced, this course will provide you with the skills to write rhymes and perform confidently to friends (and family!).

Course led by Donna Powell.



Module 1   Slides

Module 2   Slides

Module 3    Slides

Module 4   Slides

Module 5   Slides

Weekly courses led by Music Education Islington tutor Naomi Butcher. Designed for children at Key Stage 2 who have just started to play the clarinet all the way through to those who have been playing for one or two years and wish to extend their learning.

Beginner: 1  2  3  4  5 

Intermediate: 1  2  3  4  5

Advanced: 1  2  3  4  5

Weekly courses led by Music Education Islington tutor, Kevin Cahill. Designed for children at Key Stage 2 who have just started to play the ukulele all the way through to those who have been playing for one or two years and wish to extend their learning. 

Beginner: 1  2  3  4  5 

Ukulele Tuning Chart   

C Major Chord TAB

A Minor Chord TAB

G7 Chord TAB

Intermediate: 1  2  3  4  5 

F Major Chord TAB

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star resource sheet

You are My Sunshine resource sheet

Advanced: 1  2  3  4  5

Basic Finger Picking Resource

Twinkle Twinkle Advanced

Frere Jacques Advanced

In this series of videos, Music Education Islington tutor Ronald Long helps you to brush up on your violin skills depending on your current level. (Beginner is designed for those that have been learning about a year, Intermediate 2 years, and advanced 3 years).

How to Tune Your Violin with Carla Santos

Beginner: 1  2  3

Intermediate: 1  2  

Advanced: 1

In this series we are going to be looking at 4 contrasting songs, learning the words and the melodies and a little about the context of the music itself, and then combining the music with some body percussion throughout. All are very different, so there is something in here for everyone!   

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Explore this fun online course where you will learn how to rhyme and to rap. From beginner to highly experienced, this course will provide you with the skills to write rhymes and perform confidently to friends (and family!). Course led by Donna Powell. 

Module 1          Slides

Module 2          Slides

Module 3          Slides

Module 4          Slides

Module 5          Slides

This series of 5 videos presented by Fred from Let's All Create supports students aged 5-18 with special educational needs and disabilities to explore pitch, timbre, contrast and learn new songs.

Week 1

Week 2 

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

This series of 9 videos presented by Fred from Let's All Create guides you through how to get started with Charanga and incorporate this fantastic resource into your teaching. Charanga features a vast library of resources, songs, instrumental courses and creative apps.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Charanga is an online music teaching resource available to schools signed up to our SLA.

https://islington.charanga.com/site/

The National Curriculum for music as well as the recently published Model Music Curriculum aims to ensure that every student has access to the four key areas of learning – Sing & Chant - Listen & Appraise, Learn & Perform and Create & Compose, within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), Key Stage 1 and 2.

This document has been designed to give Primary schools an overview of all provision available to them through Music Education Islington (MEI), which meet these four curriculum areas. The provision outlined includes both in and after school provision, as well as out of school activities for teachers to recommend to their students.

A list of external organisations are included under each curriculum activity, where available. Each organisation has a different offer, so if you would like to know more about what these entail, please get in touch with us by emailing MusicEducation.Islington@gsmd.ac.uk

Here are some fantastic resources from Music Mark: 

10 Things Schools Should Know About Music | Music Mark

Primary Education recourses, including: 10 free songs from Sing Up!, Classical 100, Assessment Tasks in Music, Black History Month Listening Calendar Primary Teaching Resources - MarketPlace | Music Mark

Secondary Education recourses: including: practical guides to composing, DJ skills information and tutorials, Funding guide for music education in your school, Black History Month Listening Calendar  Secondary Teaching Resources - MarketPlace | Music Mark

BBC Ten Pieces for primary Ten Pieces - BBC Teach

BBC Ten Pieces for Secondary Classical Music for Secondary - Ten Pieces - BBC Teach

BBC Ten Pieces Trailblazers! Ten Pieces Trailblazers! - BBC Teach

BBC Teach KS1 KS1 Music - BBC Teach

BBC Teach KS2 KS2 Music - BBC Teach

BBC Teach KS3 KS3 Music - BBC Teach

BBC Teach KS4/GCSE GCSE / National 5 Music Teacher Resources - BBC Teach

Friday Afternoons is a Britten Pears Arts led singing project connecting teachers and young people with contemporary composers, through creating high quality repertoire, resources and training to encourage challenging and exciting music making experiences for all.
Snape Maltings' Friday Afternoons | FRIDAY AFTERNOONS (fridayafternoonsmusic.co.uk)

The Why Music Podcast was created especially for curious children and young adults who want to find out about a range of musicians from around the world. Join Nate Holder and a few special guests as we explore different musicians and their music throughout history!

The Why Music Podcast • A podcast on Anchor

A fascinating blog by Nate Holder
Blog | Nate Holder Music

This blog by Jenetta Hurst includes lots of great teaching tips: 

The Creative Educator Blog (thecreative-educator.com)

Shop | Nate Holder Music
Music and Musicians: Fiction & nonfiction children's books and activities | Start with a Book

13 Books for Kids Who Love Music | Scholastic | Parents

20 Kids Books About Music Every Kid Will Enjoy - Create Family Culture

Developing a School Music Development Plan is part of the National Plan for Music Education, published in June 2022 by the Department for Education and Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.

The following documents are there to help music leads, heads of department, curriculum leads and SLT to prompt wider thinking and formalisation of your school’s music provision. Considerations may include:

• How the music curriculum is developed and taught
• How progression opportunities are integrated
• Where and how a school can dip into the wider local music network to support children’s musical ambitions and opportunities

Please find MEI’s Self Evaluation Tool for primary and secondary schools to identify where you are with your provision and to reflect on where you want to be.

Please get in touch with us if you want any support in developing your next steps.

We are also sharing Music Mark’s Template for Primary Schools, and will share the template for secondary and SEND schools as soon as they have been published.

Music Mark comments: Even if Music leads have to follow a Trust or school format, we hope that this will prompt wider thinking. We would like to thank colleagues in the South West, London and Eastern regions for their feedback, and Vaughan Fleischfresser for permission to reproduce his questions.