Music is a subject into which many newly arrived children can easily be integrated. Most children can express themselves creatively through music and children can learn to express themselves non-verbally through it. This can boost the self-esteem of newly arrived children because they can participate fully in lessons even though their English language may still be limited.

Valuing different cultural heritages

An individual’s interpretation of music is influenced by their cultural heritage.  Newly arrived children’s music is influenced by the culture in which they grew up. The codes and conventions that represent different ideas and beliefs are culturally specific. In some cultures, particular music may have significant meaning attached to it.

Children need to consider the value they may attach to music from different cultures and be aware of how they have come to these judgements. Music from different cultures does need to be considered in relation to its context rather than being seen as exotic or unusual.

Schools might focus on music from particular cultures as pupil intake changes.

Prior experience

Children educated in state schools in less economically developed countries may not have had the opportunity to learn music at school. A small number of children arriving in the UK may not have received any previous schooling or their education may have been interrupted because of war. These children will have fewer music skills than their peers. The 'Children with little or no prior education' area of this site provides guidance on this. Some children might need time to experiment with what is new to them before any directed activity is planned.

Some children may come from religious backgrounds where there is a music tradition, for example Zimbabwe. Other children may come from religious backgrounds where music was not an acceptable part of their culture, for example Afghanistan. It is important not to presume that all children will have had prior experience of any music.

Not all parents may support their children’s participation and progression in music. Some parents may view music as low status and non-academic. A very small minority of Muslim parents may discourage or feel uncomfortable about music and regard it as going against Islamic teachings.

The scales and musical notation used in the west are not the same as those used in many other musical traditions. It is possible there may be talented musicians in the class who have no prior experience of western musical notation but who have enormous potential. 

Teachers can discuss music taught in school with new parents and carers in order to allay concerns and promote the value of the subject.

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Challenging racism and promoting diversity

Music can be used to provide effective learning opportunities for pupils to value diversity and challenge racism. The 'Respect for all: music' area of the QCA website provides examples of good practice that focus on helping pupils to understand and appreciate aspects of cultural difference, context and change while challenging and extending their perceptions of themselves and other people.

The national curriculum programme of study and the QCA/DfES schemes of work for music provide starting points for valuing diversity and challenging racism in the classroom. The national curriculum statutory inclusion statement sets out schools' responsibilities for meeting the needs of all pupils and provides examples of how this can be achieved. The national curriculum for music places considerable emphasis on ensuring that all pupils experience, and develop understanding and appreciation of, a wide range of live and recorded music from different times and cultures. Whilst the national curriculum encourages an increasing breadth of awareness of other cultures there is also the opportunity to engage these new arrivals through exploring contexts and approaches which relate to their own backgrounds and experiences. Work with specialists from different musical traditions led to the formulation of three areas of knowledge and understanding that need to be taught if all pupils are to appreciate all kinds of music. These three areas relate to:

• understanding how music is constructed
• understanding how music is produced
• understanding how music is influenced by its context.

Music can be used to promote community cohesion in areas of tension. The collaborative nature of a music project can bring different groups together. In a number of schools music projects have been used to bring different groups together.

Between summer 2001 and spring 2003 Ofsted inspectors visited 37 schools in 11 local authorities to evaluate the impact of the arrival of pupils from asylum-seeking families. They found that many of the schools visited drew on diverse communities and already provided a ‘good range of opportunities through the curriculum to promote and celebrate the different culture, languages and backgrounds of their pupils’ (The education of asylum-seeker pupils, Ofsted, 2003, page 12).

Schools visited frequently used the creative arts to enhance awareness and promote different cultures and community backgrounds which included dance, drama and music from around the world. One of the LEAs visited had supported a project on world songs.

The Arts Plus (A+) project

This case study shows how two primary schools in east London plan for the inclusion of pupils with diverse learning needs, including new arrivals, through an innovative creative arts project.

Teachers of music may need to consider the following issues when working with new arrivals.

Adapting the curriculum

Teachers can consider adapting the music curriculum in order to enhance children's learning by providing them with activities that have been customised to meet their experiences, needs and abilities and to help them to make the best use of resources available in their school.

Below are examples of how QCA units of work in the music scheme of work might be adapted to meet the needs of new arrivals.

Unit 1 ‘Ongoing skills’
This unit highlights the musical skills that require regular practice and ongoing development throughout the key stage. It is the first of three units that focus on ongoing skills (also units 8 and 15). Children with little or no prior experience of learning music might benefit from this unit being included in an induction programme. The 'Induction mentoring' area of this site provides guidance on this.

Unit 2 ‘Sounds interesting – exploring sounds’
This unit develops children's ability to identify different sounds and to change and use sounds expressively in response to a stimulus. This unit could be revisited using a story, poem or play that reflects the cultural background of the new arrivals.

Unit 3 ‘The long and the short of it – exploring duration’
This unit develops children's ability to discriminate between longer and shorter sounds, and to use them to create interesting sequences of sound. During the unit children explore the duration of vocal and instrumental sounds. Working with durations of sounds used in music from both their and others’ cultures allows aural traditions to be explored

Unit 6 ‘What's the score? Exploring instruments and symbols’
This unit develops children's ability to recognise different ways sounds are made and changed, and to name and know how to play a variety of classroom instruments. Using musical instruments and notation from different cultural traditions would also enhance this unit.

Unit 16 ‘Cyclic patterns – exploring rhythm and pulse’
This unit develops children’s ability to perform rhythmic patterns confidently and with a strong sense of pulse. In this unit, children learn basic rhythmic devices used in many drumming traditions. They play a variety of sounds on percussion instruments and learn how to use timbre and duration to add variety to their rhythmic ideas. They invent and improvise simple rhythmic patterns. Working with pulse, tempo and rhythm from both their and others’ cultures will allow aural traditions to be explored.

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Buddying

Buddying and befriending schemes can be important in music, especially if children are working collaboratively or using new equipment. The 'Peer support' area of this site provides guidance on this approach. 

Supporting children’s English language acquisition

Music can be used to support children’s English language acquisition, in particular their oral skills. The collaborative nature of some music projects can also support English language development. Access and engagement in music: teaching pupils for whom English is an additional language describes useful strategies for supporting EAL children in music. It suggests that music teachers introduce and explain new vocabulary and it also provides some useful examples of writing frames to support children in evaluating composition. The 'English as an additional language' of this site provides guidance on this.

The DfES publication Aiming high: guidance on supporting the education of asylum-seeking and refugee children gives numerous examples of good practice, many of which relate to teaching and learning in all subjects. Examples related specifically to music include:

• using resources from a wide range of cultures
• teaching all children songs in the various languages of the children in the group. Parents who speak different languages might be invited into school to teach songs from different cultural backgrounds
• using pictures and labels in different languages to label musical instruments
• using dual-language books and tapes
• recognising the contributions of musicians from different cultural traditions.

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Useful weblinks

Please note: QCA is not responsible for the content of external sites

Ancient futures
A site dedicated to the exploration of new age music. There are links to artists from different countries.

DfES: Aiming high: guidance on supporting the education of asylum-seeking and refugee children 
This good practice guide (2004) has been produced to support teachers in their work with asylum-seeking and refugee children and contains information ranging from the role of LEAs through to advice on supporting individual communities.

DfES: Access and engagement in music: teaching pupils for whom English is an additional language
This guidance suggests strategies to help teachers support pupils at different points of learning English to:

• develop their understanding and use of the English language
• enhance their learning in music lessons.

The guidance also considers how pupils’ self-esteem can be developed. This guidance is for music teachers, subject leaders and ethnic minority achievement (EMA) teachers in secondary schools. Although the guidance applies the principles of the key stage 3 national strategy to the teaching and learning of music for EAL pupils, much of it is equally applicable to primary teachers.

Global Gateway
The Global Gateway is a new international website, enabling those involved in education across the world to engage in creative partnerships. It is a one-stop shop, providing quick access to comprehensive information on how to develop an international dimension to education. Go to the 'Teacher zone' and use the search facility to find out about interesting music projects. 

Mantra Lingua
Mantra Lingua produces a range of resources including books in two languages that could be used in the QCA scheme of work unit 2 ‘Sounds interesting: exploring sounds’. Other resources include friezes and CDs (see examples below).

Mantra Lingua: Mantra’s multicultural songs
This is a multicultural CD-ROM of songs. Children explore an interactive map of the world, find out facts and figures about each country (population, religions, languages) and click on a country to go to its song. It contains songs from around the world, shown in their original language and translated into English. Children can hear musical scores played on the keyboard or can print them out to play themselves.

Mantra Lingua: Asian nursery rhymes: Itchyka-dana
A collection that has been turned into English rhymes. This is available in a book and cassette format. The cassette is in English with Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati and Urdu.

Ofsted: The education of asylum-seeker pupils
This 2003 report includes examples of headteachers and staff working hard to ensure that their schools adopted a truly inclusive approach to pupils and their parents.

QCA: Respect for all: music
This area of the QCA site provides ideas of how music can be used to challenge racism and promote diversity.

ShivaNova
ShivaNova offer workshops to schools. Some of the musical styles on offer are jazz, big beat, calypso, drum and bass, dub, Indian folk drumming and dance, Indian traditional classical, jungle, salsa, South American folk dance and urban dance beats. Instruments used in education work include bongos, Chinese dulcimer, Chinese pipa, congas, dhol (Indian folk drums), djembe (African folk drums), flute (jazz and Indian), ghatam (south Indian drums), keyboard, kora, mbira, santoor, sarangi, saxophone, sitar, steel pan, tabla, violin and voice.

To different drums: Musica, the language of our cultures
This page can be found Arizona State University website. It links to websites that offer information on musical instruments used in different parts of the world.

Worldwide internet music resource
This music research database contains references to, and listings for, many different genres of music both past and present. It can be found on the University of Indiana website.

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