Teacher’s book amp; Music CD from Yamaha

Product code: YRIC 1

Price: pound;24.99

www.yamaha-music.co.uk

I hope a lot of teachers go for Yamaha’s Recorders in Class package, for three reasons. First, it’s an excellent product. Second, it’s very good value. Third, music provision tells you a lot about how we’re doing on the bigger school issues like inclusion and curriculum balance.

The school recorder was once the entry point to learning an instrument. Recent news reports have tended to suggest that tootling reedy tunes is a dying art. And orchestras are having a tough time tracking down trombonists lately. Could there be a connection? Is music too much bother for children in 2002?

I asked two children. From their point of view it seems obvious that low-tech instruments will struggle to compete with their keyboard that plays itself - and the fact that they want to be pop idols and recording stars, not recorder stars.

I asked two teachers. Teachers have too little time; too little choice or autonomy. Surprised? Our mornings in May involve a pastime called national tests, but lessons do little to create budding writers or nurture a future Stephen Hawking. An average afternoon sees creative work becoming the victim of curriculum overcrowding. You’re lucky if we get karaoke in the classroom since Miss Warblethwaite retired. And the hall piano is kept safely under wraps.

And yet Yamaha may start a recorder comeback. Recorders in Class is well written, with clear language, clear layout, clear illustrations and strong photographs to illustrate the lesson being taught. It’s easy reading and pretty easy to use for trial lessons with Year 4. All the lesson planning for a year’s work is broken down into six ready-made, half-term units.

Learning objectives, help points and extension work are there on the page. Group flashcards are provided for early lessons and a small sample of simple music for the later units, keeping photocopying costs and preparation time at a minimum. The CD provides more than 90 soothing snippets of backing music to guide the playing.

The style of the Yamaha package takes recorder tuition deep into personal development territory, with a good ethos and accelerated learning all wrapped up in a plastic tube. The teaching, which flows from the ready-made planning, has all the best elements of the literacy and numeracy strategies. These lessons focus on manageable key skills.

They also improve listening skills and involve working together, “warming up” and remembering prior learning. They focus on manageable key skills. The children’s learning is about sharing clear goals and celebrating achievement from an early stage.

There is some essential advice for teachers, which helps sort out the nuts and bolts of organisation, seating and messages about instrument care and hygiene. Any special musical words are explained simply for non-specialists.

I’m sold on it - to the extent that I’ve decided to have a go myself. On Tuesday afternoons, think of Year 4 flourishing their brand new set of Yamaha recorders in translucent punkish pink, blue and green, and all because of this teaching pack. Keep music live!

Jon O’Connor is a primary headteacher in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire