Hello, I am Kathleen (Kate) Picken and live near Kirkcudbright, a beautiful town on the South West Coast of Scotland.

I studied music at Aberdeen College of Education and started my teaching career in secondary.

After a break when my family were young, I took up a post of teaching music in primary schools, in the area in and around Kirkcudbright, a job I have been doing now for over 35 years.  I am the Choir Director of Kirkcudbright Community Choir, Kirkcudbright Junior Choir, The Farmers Choir and sing in a vocal group ‘Taste of Country’.

I enjoy creating and developing music resources which show clear progression across the levels in Curriculum for Excellence (the national curriculum for Scottish schools for learners from the ages 3–18) to help support teachers in the delivery of music to their students. I have delivered several music workshops at the SAME Conferences over the years along with presenting online.

My work currently involves teaching music in primary (age 5 – 11),  running ‘after school’ music workshops on group piano/keyboard, bucket drumming, leading a junior choir and creating and developing primary music resources.

Check out the Resource page: there is instant access to downloadable fun and engaging music resources for age 4 – 11 : Chair Drumming, Bucket Beats, Body Percussion, Go Compose! The resources are in Music Resource bundles which include a Teaching Plan/Guide (which have very detailed notes to help support teachers in the delivery of the resource) and a PPT resource along with links to video demonstrations of the activities which can be used for teacher reference and to help support students. Each resource, delivered as part (20 mins) of a weekly music lesson and followed up with 2 x 10 min lessons during the week would take 6 – 8 weeks to be ready for a performance in a class assembly or a concert item.

To find out more about each resource, just click on the product to see a full description.

Also, please check out the CLPL (Career Long Professional Learning) page – if there is anything there that you would like to find out more about or indeed would like to have more than one aspect covered in a workshop, please get in touch.

I was very honoured to receive an MBE award for services to Music, Education and Charity in January 2020.