* Successful teaching starts with asking what an ideal student would be like at the end of the course. What skills should they have? What choices will they be able to make? Then break the course down into units that will teach those skills.
* Don’t be slavish about following the tramlines laid down by the B Tech.
Look at the project the students are working on and then look at which criteria in the diploma that they can get out of the project.
* The students need to understand that their job is to provide evidence that they have met the criteria. Your job as a teacher is to provide the framework that enables them to do it themselves.
* Get senior management to understand that, for a B Tech national diploma in the performing arts, a school concert is the same as a GCSE exam. You can’t postpone it or reschedule it, you wouldn’t dream of doing that with an exam.
* Music students, whatever their school setting, should be given time to practise. The more music they do, the more they will get out of it and the better they will be at their other work.
