ABSTRACT
This chapter explores setting up a classroom environment to support creative music making; providing meaningful, daily and directed support to pupils; interacting with a broad community of musicians and artists. Even in schools with strong commitments to music and the other arts, the political pressure to raise standardised test scores and the lack of ongoing professional development serve to weaken teachers' efforts to teach music, particularly when music specialists are no longer present in schools. One deceptively powerful way of making music a part of the regular school landscape is the once-a-week Breaktime Concert. Once the teacher has demonstrated how to conduct the body orchestra, children can take turns conducting – an incredibly enjoyable, creative act. The body orchestra idea is an extension of an introductory Dalcroze exercise where each participant is asked to say his or her name while at the same time 'playing' the name with some part of their body.
