‘This is not what I signed up for 20 years ago,’ writes one of my teacher friends, jokingly, on WhatsApp at midnight. But in the morning she will go in to school, reassure pupils, parents and colleagues, keep an eye out for symptoms of COVID-19 in her class, find new ways to inspire her pupils although they cannot use the equipment they need, and still find time to create new resources so that she can do the whole thing again the next day. All this while having to be ready to move the entire operation online at a moment's notice.
Teachers have been put on the front line during the second lockdown. The government has required that you make more sacrifices than many of your peers, and that you risk your health for the greater good. If you worked for the armed forces, there would be a literal medal at the end of it.
But there won't be any medal, and don't hold out for any direct thanks from the government. Once again, you have to grin, bear it and be the best of us. I am very grateful to the teachers who have taken the time to write up their lockdown stories for this issue, and I am inspired by their persistence, their inventiveness, and the positives they have drawn from it. I am grateful to the teachers that look after my two primary-age children (despite the tellings-off they give us parents for lingering at the gates. Conscientiously social distancing in the car park at drop off is making it increasingly socially awkward to gossip about who let their kids do what during lockdown, and who has caught what from whom). We are all grateful to all of you. Rarely in our times did so many do so much and for so long with so little recognition.
Speaking of recognition, the Music & Drama Education Awards are very much going ahead on the previously advertised date of 24 March 2021, in an online ceremony. But with the UK now under greater restrictions, MA Exhibitions, which owns and runs the Expo, has taken the decision to postpone Music & Drama Education Expo London 2021. The show will now take place on 24 and 25 September 2021 at its new home, the Business Design Centre, London.
Music Teacher is the UK's only magazine aimed at music educators from across the sector. It is a place where music is valued in and of itself, embracing all genres. We offer up new approaches to pedagogy through in-depth features, engaging opinions, lesson plans and schemes of work. We cast a critical eye over the latest research and products to help inform the conversations that shape musical teaching. This is a platform for raising awareness of the key issues affecting music teachers, and for championing existing efforts to ensure music education is accessible to all.
