Resources for schools

Having a variety of resources in your toolkit for teaching music is always important, as well as refreshing the creativity of teaching and learning music.

Please let us know of any top tips for resources by emailing us on surreymusichub@surreycc.gov.uk.

Find out more about funding ideas

Music Making and Covid19 Information

Digital Resources for Schools

Surrey Music Hub is able to offer a variety of digital curriculum resources to help support your classroom practice. This includes subsidised and funded licenses for Surrey Schools.

Charanga

Award winning scheme of work and digital resources aimed at Primary Schools. Free trial available.  

Surrey Arts Interactive – Charanga

Sparkyard partner with Surrey Music Hub for Surrey school discount 

Sparkyard is a singing and curriculum resource that can be used to support schools to deliver the expectations of the revised National Plan for Music Education and put singing at the heart of your school. Through this partnership we are able to offer Surrey schools an exclusive 30% discount on Sparkyard subscriptions. 

Out of the Ark believes that singing changes children’s lives, and has a profound impact on learning and wellbeing. Sparkyard is a subscription service from Out of the Ark, which gives primary school teachers nearly 1000 songs, and countless resources to allow those songs to be used in every part of a school’s life: in curriculum lessons to support learning, in assemblies to develop community, in classrooms and playgrounds to enhance wellbeing, and much more. It also features an innovative, flexible, skills-based primary music curriculum designed to enable every primary teacher to feel confident teaching music – whatever their experience level. 

Sparkyard has recently been named as the “Outstanding Music Education Resource” at the 2023 Music and Drama Education Awards.  

Sparkyard Features: Sparkyard is an intuitive, easy-to-use subscription service jam-packed with songs, assemblies, resources, a flexible music curriculum and much more. It all starts with a song! 

Sparkyard is from Out of the Ark – a leading publisher of songs in Primary and Early Years settings.  Putting singing at the heart of your school day. 

A Sparkyard subscription gives you access to a variety of resources including: 

Ideas and activities that support wellbeing, PSHE and social cohesion 

·       A library of over 1000 songs and a bank of resources for all curriculum subjects 

·       Inspirational values-based and topic-based assemblies 

·       BSL and Makaton signing videos 

·       A comprehensive, flexible Music Curriculum 

Find out more by trying a 30-day free trial 

Learn more about Sparkyard, what it includes and how it could work in your school. You can also sign up for a 30-day free trial without obligation to purchase. 

30 Day Free Trial

Exclusive 30% discount 

Through the partnership between Surrey Arts and Out of the Ark, primary schools in Surrey are able to access a 30% discount on a subscription to Sparkyard.  

Surrey schools can access this exclusive 30% discount on a yearly subscription of Sparkyard by using the discount code:  SURREY30 at checkout when you purchase your license,  or by contacting Surrey Arts Schools Team at surreyartsschools@surreycc.gov.uk  

You can purchase your license from the BUY NOW button on www.sparkyard.com, or from the manage account area within Sparkyard itself (if you are already on a free-trial.)  

Focus On Sound: Music First

A digital curriculum platform aimed at secondary schools. Currently used by over 500,000 users worldwide. Surrey Music Hub is able to offer a limited number of funded licenses for Surrey Schools for 2019-20. These would be free to schools for the year. (We can also offer current users an extended license instead). To find out more and apply for a license please contact alex.bondonno@surreycc.gov.uk 

The Music First Classroom is the only comprehensive learning management system (LMS) for Key Stage 3-5 music education. It combines a learning management platform with engaging content and powerful integrated software to help you monitor your students’ progress, make lesson plans, and create assignments. Each subscription to the MusicFirst Classroom includes access to an expansive library of lessons, assessments, content, and complete courses, curated by experienced music educators. Choose from popular packages:

  •  Secondary General Music
  • GCSE & A Level
  • Music Theory
  • Or customise your own.
Focus On Sound: Music First

Focus On Sound Instruments First 

Instruments First is a new junior product launched in August 2017. The program is aimed at 8 to 12 year-olds and covers the basics of music, as well as instruments and music theory. It can also be used by even younger students. It is full of questions and pop-up answers, as well as suggestions for activities. Students can use it on their own or teachers can use the special class display mode to show it to whole classes. It can even be used by non-specialist teachers – answers to all the questions are always available immediately.

Surrey Music Hub is able to offer a limited number of funded licenses for Surrey Schools for 2019-20. These would be free to schools for the year). To find out more and apply for a license please contact alex.bondonno@surreycc.gov.uk

Focus on Sound: Instruments First

Singing Playgrounds – Start Your Journey

Surrey Arts is bringing the award-winning project “Singing Playgrounds” to Surrey primary schools through a new online resource created by Ex Cathedra Education. Includes a series of interactive teaching films, demonstrations, 30 KS1 and KS2 lesson plans, and instrumental backing tracks.

Schools enrolling on the pilot programme will receive one year’s access to the online resource at a discounted rate of £50 (half off the usual £100/year). Your one-year subscription will start from the beginning of the Autumn 2021 term. Click here to register your school with the special Surrey Arts discounted rate.

Singing Playgrounds
Register with Surrey Arts Discount

Connecting the Dots

BBC Ten Pieces: Get Creative with Classical Music. Bringing together schools and BBC musicians for free uniquie musical encounters.

BBC Ten Pieces: Connecting the Dots

Elephants in the Custard – London Philharmonic Orchestra’s new musical film for children aged 5 – 7

A free 25-minute musical film for Key Stage 1 children (age 5-7) based on the book Elephants in the Custard

Using a play on the ‘elephant in the room’ metaphor, the story explores how it feels to have a worry, and the importance of making time to talk to each other. The film is presented by animator Rachel Leach, interspersed with music performed by a brass quintet from the LPO, and includes a brand new song for to sing along with and lots of other fun ways to join in, plus extra resources for teachers to use in class. The storyline also gives a good starting point for families and teachers to start talking to children about wellbeing, anxiety and mental health.

Elephants in the Custard

Express Yourself – London Philharmonic Orchestra’s new film series exploring emotions in music, for KS2 children and families

For centuries, composers have used the orchestra to explore their innermost feelings or to reflect the world around them. After a year of heightened emotions, the London Philharmonic Orchestra presents Express Yourself, a series of three short films of contrasting musical moods, to channel feelings both positive and more difficult. Aimed at children aged 7–11 and presented by award-winning musician and broadcaster YolanDa Brown, the series explores music to express feelings of joy, anger, sadness, playfulness and more. Each film comes with free written resources for teachers, offering ways for children to explore the music and emotions further.

Express Yourself

ConductIT

ConductIT is a MOOC created as a collaboration between University of Stavanger, the Royal Northern College of Music, the University of Aveiro and The Open University as part of an ERASMUS+ project. It is a short course is designed as a free-standing introduction to the art of conducting. You do not need to have conducted any kind of ensemble to be able to complete the course, although you will have to be familiar with music notation in order to engage fully with the technical and analytical aspects of the course.

ConductIT

Some more we recommend

Curriculum

Schemes of work

Assessments

Other Music Organisations

Workshop and other providers

Surrey Performing Arts Library

For access to over 6000 music/vocal sets visit the Surrey Performing Arts Library

A short video from the mighty Marylebone School, which has always had a formidable reputation for its music and arts provision, explaining precisely why it is the arts are so crucial to them, to all young people, and why they keep creativity at the heart of their school at all times: