Chris Warren

How long have you been working with Musical Futures?

I found Musical Futures when searching for a new scheme for my school. The scheme we had been using throughout the rest of my time at the school didn’t meet the needs of our pupils and teachers, and music lessons were becoming a little stale. I loved the resources from Musical Futures instantly. They were engaging, exciting and easy to use and I loved the mastery of instruments involved, something very lacking through the old scheme. I set up a free trial and began using it in my lessons, as did some colleagues and we noticed fantastic progress in attitudes towards music in our lessons. I was keen to roll it out across the whole school, so sent a tweet to Musical Futures asking about their future plans with the primary curriculum, when Fran asked if I would like a chat to share my ideas. We’ve been talking and sharing ever since.

What do you do?

I work part time in two different jobs, one as a class teacher at St Matthew’s C of E Primary in Ipswich and the other for a company called Love2Sing, where I teach whole class music lessons across three schools. At St Matthew’s I am the subject coordinator for music, but only teach it to my class, meaning that regular discussion with colleagues and sharing resources is crucial. Managing budgets and finding opportunities for pupils is a constant challenge, so Musical Futures has been a wonderful resource for the pupils, giving them the chance to learn new skills in a fun and engaging way. With Love2Sing, being able to teach across multiple classes is something I have always wanted to do and is a complete joy. It is a thrill to see the progress and developing confidence of the pupils I teach, whilst sharing my passion with them.

What is your background?

Other than having keyboard lessons in my early teens I am entirely self-taught with no musical qualifications or grades to my name, other than a very hard fought B at GCSE. I have always enjoyed listening to music and have been writing songs since very young, but found an outlet for it at University, where I taught myself to create music using my laptop, producing for theatre productions. Since completing my primary PGCE in 2012, I have written and produced songs with all of my classes, including a now annual Christmas song, gaining attention from local and national media. All of our creations can be found on the school’s Youtube channel above.

After great success in 2019, winning a competition on Virgin Radio with Chris Evans, then having him present his breakfast show in our school hall, I have been keen to make music with more pupils and give opportunities to wider audiences. The Christmas song project last year involved 21 schools and nearly 1,000 pupils. Hopefully this year that number will be even bigger, watch this space!

Five Words that sum up Musical Futures

Accessible, engaging, logical, progressive, fun!

What music are you listening to at the moment?

All sorts, from Frank Sinatra, to Fatboy Slim, to Oasis and everything in between.