Introducing Classroom 200 - a free online resource for school teachers working with students up to the age of 14.

Queen’s I Want to Break Free, Think by Aretha Franklin and Rag ’n’ Bone Man’s Human are to join favourites by Mozart and Holst after being selected to help reinvigorate school music lessons across the UK.

The tracks are amongst 200 featured in a landmark new classroom tool developed by the Royal Schools of Music examination board, ABRSM, to breathe new life into music lessons for 5 to 14-year-olds, by connecting with them through music they already know and love. The free online resource, www.classroom200.org, will include pop, folk, rap, jazz, TV and film themes and world music as well as classical. It was designed by a panel of teachers to give other teachers with an interest in music quality, ready-made lesson content which can complement curriculums across the UK and combine technical rigour with music familiar to a far wider range of children.

ABRSM Chief Executive Officer Chris Cobb said:

“We know from our own evidence that an incredible 86% of children are actively making music today, and that’s fantastic.

However, we also know that many teachers lack the confidence, budgets and time to properly support or inspire children to keep learning music – and that just a third of 14-year-olds are involved in classroom music lessons today. There is also a marked decline in children playing instruments as they get older.

Classroom 200 builds on our unrivalled legacy of working with classical music to help address these issues. It gives teachers free, ready-made lesson plans and content and is designed to inspire pupils by connecting key learning and other musical genres to the kind of stuff that they already listen to.”

Classroom 200 helps teachers with:

• Exploring a world of inspirational music – there are 200 pieces to get stuck into.
• Encouraging creativity in the classroom, supported by a diverse range musical styles.
• Planning is made easy with ready-made lesson plans, resources and activities
• Linking activities in the classroom directly with the Model Music Curriculum, the Curriculum for Wales and the Curriculum for Excellence and the National Curriculum in Northern Ireland.

Classroom 200 is a collaboration between ABRSM, Universal Music Group, and Classic FM with support from the English Folk Dance and Song Society, NYJO, NYO, Berlioz 150, Trac Cymru and Bristol Beacon.