Music lesson for pupils with special educational needs

Tim Geddes teaches music to pupils with special educational needs at Glaitness Aurrida School, in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands. In this afternoon’s class he is working individually with three pupils who have profound and complex difficulties. He is seeking to develop the idea of cause and effect. He uses a switch program on the interactive whiteboard in which the pupil is encouraged to press a switch in order to stop and start an animation or visual presentation. He also uses Soundbeam - a program that converts movement into sound.

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Teacher profile

Tim Geddes has been teaching music for 23 years. He taught for 10 years at a special school for pupils with severe learning difficulties, based in London, while practising as a music therapist. Later he moved to Orkney where he was an itinerant music teacher working in primary and secondary schools. He started teaching at Glaitness Aurrida School a year ago and continues to teach music at other schools in Orkney three days a week. 

Tim is currently teaching primary pupils and pupils of all ages with special educational needs. Tim is very enthusiastic about the use of ICT in his teaching and applies it wherever and whenever possible He recently attended Masterclass residential training in Stirling and took part in the Scottish Education and Teaching with Technology (SETT) exhibition in Glasgow. Otherwise, Tim has developed most of his ICT skills himself by exploring different programs in his own time. 

Glaitness Aurrida School is situated in the centre of Kirkwall, in the Orkney Islands. The 20 pupils have moderate to complex learning difficulties. The modern single-storey building is currently shared with Glaitness Primary School and will be amalgamated with it after the 2004 summer holidays. 

The average length of teacher service is five years. There are 10 PCs connected in a local network, with one in each classroom. ICT training is available for staff, with courses run by the local education authority.