Schools to teach rap and grunge in music classes ‘in bid to diversify curriculum’

School curriculum resources are being updated to cover rap and 90s grunge alongside Mozart and Beethoven in a bid to diversify lessons.

The Oak National Academy – an arm’s length body to help schools deliver curriculum content – has created new lesson resources for teachers that aim to represent the diversity of modern life.

The new curriculum materials for English lessons feature contemporary black British writers Andrea Levy and Winsome Pinnock alongside texts from the literary canon, such as Chaucer. It comes after calls to decolonise and diversify the curriculum in schools.

For music, the new lesson resources range from rap and 90s grunge to Mozart, and for history there are resources for interpreting the British Empire.

Research by Penguin and the Runnymede Trust in 2021 found fewer than 1 per cent of candidates for GCSE English Literature answered a question on a novel by an author of colour in 2019.

A separate survey in 2022 found that the majority of teachers in England believed more diverse and representative texts on the English syllabus would be of most help to their pupils.

Matt Hood, chief executive of Oak National Academy, said they had “paid particular attention to making sure that the curriculum represents the best of what has been thought, said, discovered, sung and danced”.

“We have selected topics that, when taken together, give pupils a rich understanding of the world and allow them to participate as educated citizens in modern society,” he said.

“I’m delighted that our new curriculum resources have gone live and look forward to feedback from schools and teachers.

“Our independent evaluation shows that seeing and discussing evidence-informed curriculum models is an important part of developing a teacher’s curriculum expertise.”

The resources do not directly determine what curriculum is being taught in schools across the UK but introduce more options to teachers wanting to diversify the topics in their classrooms.

In August, music streaming platform Spotify revealed that nearly a quarter of all streams came from the Hip-Hop genre, with the UK ranking sixth in the world for Hip-Hop streaming.

However, some have raised concerns over the Oak National Academy, with one union saying it could drive other providers out of the market.

“We recognise the work that has gone into developing these resources and the good intentions of Oak. However, the jury is still out on its usefulness,” Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said.

“This is a body that is backed by a considerable amount of taxpayers’ money and there is a lot of concern in the sector about whether it will actually end up driving other providers out of the market and reducing diversity, despite reassurances to the contrary.”

He went on to say many schools and trusts develop their own curriculum resources and it is “hard to see exactly where Oak fits in”.

He went on: “Moreover, Oak won’t be enough to reduce the workload pressures that are driving people out of teaching. Only the government can do that by improving education funding, addressing teacher shortages, and reducing the punitive nature of inspections and performance tables.”