Penny Smith teaches Year 2 'Apple Class' at White Oak School in Swanley, Kent. She doesn't have a lot of experience teaching music, but in this programme Penny and her teaching assistant Marion Dowell work on a composition task with the class and show how any primary teacher, regardless of their musical ability, can do the same. First of all, Penny and Marion do some planning work with Gwynneth Johnson, the School's Music co-ordinator, and composer Stephen Chadwick, but the approach demonstrated here can of course be used without this level of support. In their literacy class the day before, the children have drawn pictures of some story endings: a robot falls down stairs; a car crashes into a wall. Stephen and Penny looked through these pictures to find those most suited to the musical task they've selected where pairs of children work to create a simple sound pattern which continues and then suddenly stops.

Video Series: KS1/2 Music
Release Date 2006