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A Singing SCITT For Singing Schools
In 2018 we began a partnership with Somerset SCITT to develop training for PGCE and School Direct trainees. The partnership is designed to empower trainee teachers, showing them how they can use music and singing to support learning across the primary curriculum. It also highlights how invaluable a tool music can be in aiding classroom management and promoting wellbeing. Three years later our training is now fully integrated into the SCITT programme in Somerset for PGCE and School Direct/PGTA trainees and we are ready to develop partnerships with other teacher-training organizations across the country.

‘We are very proud of our partnership with Out of the Ark Music. Music is a ‘golden thread’ running right through our course offering.’
Janet Limberg (Foundation Degree Course Leader and SCITT Programme Manager)
What’s included in our training?
National Curriculum For Music
Using songs to teach the National Curriculum for Music
Creative approaches to teaching composition
Using songs to develop learning across the wider curriculum
Curriculum planning and assessment
 
Music for Classroom Management
Using music to:
Create an effective learning environment
Influence mood and attention
Aid recall and develop working memory
Develop and reinforce routines
with signal songs
 
Music To support wellbeing, social cohesion and inclusion
Understanding the benefits of integrating music into daily classroom practice and the wider school
Developing prosocial behaviour, belongingness, enhanced relationships, collaborative learning and teamwork
 
Music to support Phonics and Literacy development
How active engagement with music can positively impact phonics
and literacy development
Music to support language
and creative writing

 
Music to support Mathematical Development
How engagement in rhythmic activities aids mathematical development
Teaching mathematical concepts through song and music
 
Music to support SEND
Forming strategies to create an inclusive environment for SEND learners
Developing the knowledge and confidence to apply a sensory learning approach and adapt resources to suit the needs of learners
 
Research
All trainees consider existing research into the impact of singing in schools and refer to this in their course assignments. In addition, they undertake their own action research into their own classroom practice.
Report on the Research About the Out of the Ark Music Singing School Project
Professor Susan Hallam, MBE
The Power of Music: its Impact on the Intellectual, Social and Personal Development of Children and Young People
(2010) Professor Susan Hallam, MBE
Trainees keep a record of the songs and musical activities they use, and the context they use them in, and reflect on their impact.
 
Resources
All SCITT tutors and trainees are provided with a set of music resources: Universal Access to the entire Out of the Ark catalogue (excluding nativities and musicals). This includes access to our online song player with Words on Screen™, lesson plans, activities and signing videos.