‘Unsatisfactory’ lessons were just too enjoyable. Sue Learner reports
A school has been attacked by inspectors for making its music lessons too much fun.
Barnwood Park high school for girls in Gloucester discovered the need for a more solemn approach when an Office for Standards in Education report noted: “Pupils are under-achieving in music because the teaching is unsatisfactory. It places too much emphasis on fun rather than learning.”
The rest of the 587-pupil school was praised in the report for excellent leadership, good teaching and continuing improvement in pupils’ achievements.
Gill Moseley, the music teacher, said: “I feel fun is a light-weight term to describe what I am doing. A lot of the girls said to me they learn far more if they enjoy what they are doing.
“I think one of the problems is that I and the inspector have a fundamentally different approach to teaching instruments. He is a techniques man but when you have 30 pupils in a class you can’t just concentrate on scales. I like them to get on with playing the instrument so they have a feeling of achievement.
“Maybe he didn’t like the book of pop music on top of the piano.”
Mrs Moseley - who says she works a 60-hour week - saw her huge range of popular after-school and lunchtime clubs dismissed in a single sentence in the OFSTED report:“There is a good range of extra-curricular activities and instrument lessons.”
The inspector said she should spend more time on the “technical aspects of the subject rather than promoting enjoyment”.
Mrs Moseley has the full backing of her head Gill Pyatt who said: “She is very keen and very enthusiastic. She does a lot of hard work in appalling conditions.
“Gill was ‘gutted’ when she heard but she has had a lot of support from parents.”
Six years ago, before Mrs Moseley joined the school, there was no GCSE in music. This year the school had 40 per cent of pupils getting A* to C in music, higher than the average of 33 per cent.
The school has been waiting for two years for a music and drama block and meanwhile music lessons are taught in a damp, leaky room.
A spokeswoman for OFSTED said: “Music lessons should be fun but, unless pupils have a proper grasp of technical aspects, they can’t enjoy them as much as they could.”
