• Adding atmosphere to lessons,
• Assemblies,
• School performances,
• Adding sound to children’s ICT / multimedia work,
• Addition to a school website / VLE.

www.teachingideas.co.uk/english/dramasoundeffects.htm

I’ve also recently discovered www.freesfx.co.uk which has lots of free sound effects which you can also use.

www.freesfx.co.uk

What are your favourite sound effect resources? How do you use them in the classroom?

www.ncem.co.uk

They also run many projects for young people which have included collaborating with Sing Up!, jazz workshops, widening access to music for young people at risk, special needs projects, and tours bringing world class musicians to work with children in schools. Details of all their projects and resources can be found in the Teaching and Learning section of their site.

‘Fame Idle is the story of three kids who are confused why everyone around them seem obsessed by celebrity culture and they are not. It’s a musical comedy with a moral message… “Fame ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.” It has a modern score and a witty script that follows Bobby, P.J. and Smudge as they discover what friendship means when faced with a chance of fame – but at what cost?’

Here is a video which highlights some photos and audio from the production:

Many schools have already put on their own performances of the musical and received extremely positive feedback. To find out more for yourself, visit www.fame-idle.co.uk.

www.cyberkidz.net

The site has recently been translated into English, so even more children are now able to take advantage of these resources.

The organisation promotes singing as a cross-curricular tool, in line with the National Curriculum. They also provide training for teachers to lead inspirational singing activities with young people. The site has a huge collection of songs, lesson plans, games and activities which teachers can take advantage of in their classrooms.

This Youtube video gives more information about the Sing Up materials.

‘Heroes of Troy‘ is a music resource for school children aged 9 to 11 and offers 7 songs to learn, each linking to an episode of the Trojan War. The website is audio-based, but also includes Teachers’ Notes, words and music for the songs, backing tracks…and well-known music presenter David Grant is on hand to teach all of the songs.

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/troy/

It’s intended to target a range of music objectives at Key Stage 2 but also links to the history topic Ancient Greece while offering opportunities to link music with literacy and performance.

Winged Sandals offers animated versions of different Greek myths, along with games and other online activities to try. This has always been popular with children whenever I’ve used it at school.

www.wingedsandals.com

Research shows that engaging in music is beneficial to children’s development in a number of areas, ‘including language, numeracy, social skills, physical development and emotional intelligence.’

The government is hoping to double the number of children in KS2 (aged 7-11) who are given an opportunity to learn an instrument for free by 2011.

What is your school doing as part of the ‘National Year of Music’?

Image: ‘needs to be played‘

The site is expanding at an incredible rate. I try to update the RSS feed regularly, and this week over 50 new ideas have been added, with three brand new presentations! If you haven’t seen the site yet, take a look… if you haven’t contributed to one of the presentations, please get in touch the creator – their details are usually on the first or last page of each presentation.

UPDATE – There are now more than 1000 ideas to inspire on the site!

The new website gives teachers a chance to sample song clips, read full plot summaries and study character lists from around 30 musical productions to help them choose the perfect musical to suit their school. Schools can order the musicals on-line and they will be despatched within 48 hours, followed by an invoice to the school.

Edgy Productions produces modern, witty musicals for primary schools with the subject matter firmly based in school and about the humorous events that happen there. The names of the principal characters – head teachers, teachers, TAs, pupils and parents can all be changed to fit in with individual schools making it possible for teachers to tailor make the production especially for their own school.

Edgy Productions founder and songwriter Andrew Oxspring commented:

For more information go to www.edgyproductions.com or call 0845 8333348

A pledge to give every primary pupil the chance to learn an instrument has backfired in some schools, which have dropped individual tuition in favour of whole-class violin or recorder lessons to try to meet it. Nervous teachers struggle to identify pupils with real talent, Ofsted says.

The report says that where lessons are going wrong, teachers often "talked too much", leaving little time for children to make music. They are also failing to teach pupils to listen to music properly.

But in the best schools music is a crucial way of helping pupils build self-confidence and self-esteem, the inspectors say. The report is based on inspectors' visits to 84 primary and 95 secondary schools in England between 2005 and 2008.

Link: http://ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/News/Press-and-media/2009/February/Too-few-schools-are-hitting-the-high-notes-in-music