Greater Essex Music Hub - Summer Term update

Across the Greater Essex Music Hub we work in partnership with schools and arts organisations to provide Continuing Professional Development to fulfil the aims of the National Plan for Music Education. From early years, primary and secondary right through to post 16 we work together with schools to provide a high-quality music education putting young people’s needs at the heart. It is vital that we enable the next generation to have the opportunity to make musical progress through the key stages and beyond into the music industry, should they wish.

Since September, we have worked with 555 schools across the region to support teacher development in music. Some of our annual sessions include:

GCSE Composition

On 10 June, over 40 secondary music teachers from across Essex met online for a CPD session with specialist Music subject leader Liz Dunbar. The session focused on learning how to empower students to become autonomous composers at the GCSE level. The highly informative session provided effective strategies and techniques to nurture student creativity and independence in music composition.

DJ training

We have seen a sharp increase in the number of schools offering DJ lessons following our DJ workshops thanks to funding from the Essex County Council's Year of Numbers. On 17 June at our summer secondary network meeting, we will be joined by Marie Besant from OCR and Elise Arnold from Eduqas to share examples of good practice when using DJing for GCSE as well as our county DJ tutors to offer practical advice. We have also created bespoke hands-on training for teachers who want to further their knowledge with their DJ equipment in school.

Primary Leaders

Supporting Knowledge for Transition is a key part of our primary Subject Leader course. Ensuring that teachers understand the curriculum across the key stages is a strong feature of the training session. We have a wide and varied training programme covering many aspects of primary music teaching delivered by our primary specialist curriculum officer Sarah Goldsmith and our professional partners.

Greater Essex Music Hub Music Teachers Conference - Tuesday 8 July 2025

At our Curriculum Conference on Tuesday 8 July at Hylands House in Chelmsford, teachers from primary, secondary and SEND settings will have the opportunity to network work together as well as find inspiration, actionable ideas and strategies in dedicated sessions for each teaching phase.

Our morning session will include Hazel Baxter from UCL sharing her groundbreaking research on sustainability in music education, Martin Hathaway, a renowned jazz expert, leading a practical starter session as well as a fireside chat with representatives in music education, discussing sustaining yourself as a music teacher and the National Plan for Music.

Dedicated phase sessions in the afternoon include: Sue Nicholls - Making and creating music from junk, Max Wheeler of Yustudio - Practical advice on basic mastering skills, and looking at accessible instruments for SEND sessions.

Academic Year 2025-26

We will continue to offer sessions and support to teachers over the next academic year, enriching the lives of young people and ensuring that music is present in their lives.

For more information and details of our services for schools, please see the Essex Music Service Schools Brochure 2025-26.

You can stay in touch with the latest news and support via our newsletters and our termly online music network meetings, or visit our website: