Assessment spreadsheets are very popular in some schools, giving quantifiable data to track children’s progress throughout their time in school. They can be made even more exciting when they are colour-coded leading to the possibility that the most artistic element of arts education within that setting is the Excel document itself. In Year 1, child x could sing a minor third; in Year 2 they were singing songs with six notes etc. Assessment takes place in the final week of every half term during the end of topic assessment lesson. This document can be safely stored on the system, ready for Ofsted or the leadership team to look at without the children even being aware it exists. Job done – assessment complete albeit a time-consuming process and taking up one-sixth of curriculum time.

This style of assessment in music education has little or no impact on progress and, quite often, is not musical. Far more beneficial, and indeed what Ofsted would be looking for, would be a series of recordings demonstrating the children’s work over time which also shows the musical progress the children have made. For example, listen to how well these children were pitch-matching a minor third at the start of Year 1 – beautiful singing. Now look at this – the same children at the end of Year 2. Hear how well they have progressed with their singing. The children can listen and compare their progress too.

Comparative recordings demonstrating the musical progress the children have made over time is exactly the kind of assessment information that Ofsted are looking for. Listening back to their own and their peers work will enable the children to give feedback to others, reflect on their own work and progress, and improve their own musicality.  

(Clarification of what Ofsted are looking for in inspections and Deep Dives in music has been received in several public talks over the last couple of years by Mark Phillips HMI, Ofsted’s National Lead for Music such as ‘What effective music education looks like’ Available at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMaUHh2sGr4&ab_channel=Ofstednews (Accessed 7 October 2021.))