Music in the School

Dr Janet Mills began her career teaching music (and mathematics) in a comprehensive school in West Yorkshire. Subsequently, she was a teacher educator at Westminster College in Oxford and the University of Exeter. Her work as an HM Inspector of Schools included observation of more than 1000 instrumental lessons and the development and implementation - with instrumental teachers - of the first national system for inspecting Local Authority Instrumental Music Services. Along the way, she learnt violin and singing, and taught herself to play several other instruments. Janet Mills was a Research Fellow at the Royal College of Music in London and in 2004 won a National Teaching Fellowship. She wrote Music in the School (2005), Music in the Primary School (1991), and many articles in books, magazines, and research journals.

Music in the School is a stimulating book that should be read by all involved in music education, and particularly by its main target audience: those who teach music in schools. Janet Mills brings to her writing a wealth of experience as teacher, researcher, author and inspector. Her prose is accessible, good humoured and contains much wisdom. It draws on a range of research evidence and integrates this well with examples of classroom practice.

• Introduction ; All change? ; Teaching music musically ; Creating, interpreting, and responding to music ; Making music ; Teaching instruments musically ; How not to teach music musically ; The musical student ; The musical school ; What music? ; Making progress in music ; The other eighteen hours ; Why is music so boring? ; Learning from research