zone magazine issue 21

zone

In Colour

Life after Henley: ‘Now it’s up to us’

Cover feature

we

b &

mo

bile

march 2011 / digital issue 21

Hooray, Henley. Or has the music education sector lost the plot?

Henley Review

Special Issue

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3zone magazine digital edition 21 / march 2011 © zone new media 2011 / www.zonemag.net

zone

What’s next after Henley?

A special report on Darren Henley’s Review of Music

Education in England by Clare Stevens

p7

Education in the Big SocietyThe first music Free School?

p17

Singing for Water Choirs celebrate World Water Day

p20

Theta Music TrainerOnline aural training software reviewed

p31

we

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march 2011 / digital issue 21

‘Now it’s up to us’Katherine Zeserson fires our opening

salvo in the great Henley debate

p5

A Week in the LifeMultitasking with Brian Cotterill

p19

Q&AVoice in a Million at the O2

p23

Go FigureFigurenotes comes to Scotland

p26

Hear My MusicA new advocacy organisation

p29

zonemag.net

zonezonedigital edition March 2011

Editor

Cathy Tozer

Contributors

Katherine Zeserson

WaterAid

Thursa Sanderson

Nathalie Richardson

David Price

Liz Nicholas

Nicola McTeer

Nick Howdle

Brian Cotterill

Emily Carr

Deborah Annetts

Publisher

Ian Clethero

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4 zone magazine digital edition 21 / march 2011 © zone new media 2011 www.zonemag.net

Hooray, Henley?

The publication of Darren Henley’s Review of

Music Education in England on 7 Feb 2011

has caused a right ruckus at Zone magazine

– and in the wider music education world.

After receiving an initial flurry of relieved

press releases from the great and the good

in music education, we dug deeper and

found not a few in the sector who are

perplexed, sceptical and even downright

angry about a report that invites as many

questions as it provides answers.

In this Henley Review Special, we look at the

bigger picture. Journalist, Clare Stevens sets

the Review in context with an examination of

how it came to be commissioned and how

the government and the music education

sector have responded, before asking ‘What

next?’ (from page 7).

Director of Learning and Participation at

The Sage Gateshead, Katherine Zeserson

expresses concern about aspects of the

Review and reflects on ‘our national vision of

education itself’ (opposite, page 5) while

David Price, Senior Associate at the

Innovation Unit, Nick Howdle of Youth Music

and Deborah Annetts of the Incorporated

Society of Musicians contribute their own

responses.

Clare Stevens, David Price and Katherine

Zeserson continue the debate at

musiclearninglive!2011, Zone’s national

festival of music

education, which

takes place at the

Royal Scottish

Academy of Music

and Drama in

Glasgow on 3 & 4

March 2011.

Drake Music Scotland and Hear My Music –

both of whom are leading sessions at the

conference – have contributed articles to the

magazine on Figurenotes (page 26) and

Self-Advocacy in Community Music (page

29) respectively. Other contributions include

a report on Sing for Water by WaterAid (page

20), an interview with music teacher,

Nathalie Richardson about her proposal to

open a free state music Primary school

under the government’s Free Schools

scheme (page 17) and regular features,

‘A Week in the Life’ with Director of Music

at Lanesborough School, Brian Cotterill

(page 19) and ‘Q&A’ with aspiring rock

singer, Annalise Elgar (page 23). We

round the issue off with a review of the new

online aural training resource, Theta Music

Trainer (page 31).

So, are you a Hooray Henley or a brave

dissenter? Email us at

[email protected] and we’ll publish

the best responses online at

www.zonemag.net!

Cathy Tozer

Editor

Way To Do Music Education. In fact, no one had a

monopoly on what ‘music education’ even was.

The notion of partnership took centre stage, based

on the idea that to enable all children to fully

realise their abilities in and through music we’d

need a landscape of diverse provision that was

responsive, progressive and inclusive. Informal,

formal and non-formal sites of music-making –

within and without schools – were recognised as

having different and equal validity, or so I perhaps

naively thought. And that was when we started

talking about Hubs – partnerships providing a

variety of opportunities in a local area to include

all children and young people in making music and


‘Now it’s up to us’Nobody has a monopoly on The Right Way To Do Music Education, argues

Katherine Zeserson, Director of Learning and Participation at The Sage Gateshead –

Consortium Partner in Sing Up, the National Singing Programme – as she kicks off

Zone’s debate on the Henley Review.

For a Secretary of State for Education to

commission a Review of Music Education

that secures significant investment in

children and young people’s music-making at a

time of severe economic constraint is – without

question – A GOOD THING. For that Review to

stimulate rigorous discussions leading to improved

outcomes for children and young people in the

long-term would be an even better thing. Much of

that latter task falls to us and what follows are my

first contributions to the debate.

I think the single greatest achievement of the

Music Manifesto was the forging of a coalition of

partners (albeit a fragile one) across what we

began to call our ‘sector’. We started talking about

our different professional identities, practices and

objectives - community musicians, instrumental

tutors, classroom teachers, professional

performers, Higher Education colleagues – and

focussing on areas of common purpose. By the

2007 publication of Report No. 2, a core truth had

emerged – nobody had a monopoly on The Right

‘I have listened carefully for the voice of

children and young people in the Review

and am not yet hearing it.’

The Sage Gateshead’s Foundation Studio. Photo: Chris Duran

6 zone magazine digital edition 21 / march 2011 © zone new media 2011 / www.zonemag.net

‘If the education system as a whole reverts to

a Gradgrindian focus on facts, then our

concerns about music will be dwarfed by a

much greater crisis of culture, ethics and

citizenship.’

The Henley Review

Katherine Zeserson

learning; irrespective of economic circumstance,

musical taste or academic propensity.

So it is encouraging to find Hubs so firmly

recommended by Darren Henley. It is, however,

puzzling to read that they are likely to be led by

Local Authorities – I’m wondering on what

evidence he believes this will be the best way of

ensuring effective partnership provision? How

does this recommendation square with principles

of outcome-based planning and best value? Or

with open, transparent tendering processes?

Another key focus of the last five years has been

on the workforce – who is in it, how we are trained

and prepared, what our responsibilities are. Whilst

it is reassuring to see Review references to the

importance of workforce development, it does sit

at odds with – for example – nationwide

reductions in PGCE music provision. It also really

concerns me to see the focus on bringing

Conservatoire graduates – which in current UK

practice means predominantly classical musicians

– into schools. Don’t we want to see excellent

musicians of all kinds entering the teaching

workforce?

The Henley Review

And then there’s the pyramid of achievement... I

am always disturbed by models of music that look

like mountains we have to climb, with the weak

falling from the slopes as the going gets tough on

the ascent to the peak. Music is not a mountain, it

is a whole universe and we each have a lifetime to

explore it. Very few of us proceed in a straight line

or know where we want to go when we set out. As

a society, we must value the eagerness to

participate as much as the ambition to excel and

ensure that both are effectively resourced. If we

don’t do that, then we fail to include all citizens

equally – which is morally bankrupt.

I have listened carefully for the voice of children

and young people in the Review and am not yet

hearing it. I wonder to what extent the

recommendations account for their directly

expressed experiences and aspirations. I think it

unethical and unwise to discount their perspective;

we must work hard to ensure that children and

young people are included in the process of writing

the National Plan for Music...

And finally, I come to the classroom; not very much

focussed on in the Review. This is the real heartland,

isn’t it? Our national vision of education itself. We

must avoid subject sectarianism, so that in our

concern to protect an entitlement to music we do

not lose sight of the wider issues. What is the place

of creativity in education? What is the objective of

schooling? If the education system as a whole

reverts to a Gradgrindian focus on facts, then our

concerns about music will be dwarfed by a much

greater crisis of culture, ethics and citizenship.

So as we start to understand and implement the

outcomes of the Henley Review, and help write the

National Plan for Music, let’s keep remembering

the REAL point of ‘music education’ – to help

people grow into creative, confident and

collaborative citizens, whether they end up as

singers or surgeons... or both!

The Sage Gateshead

www.thesagegateshead.org

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9zone magazine digital edition 01 / mar 2010 © zone new media 2010

a barrier to low-income families. The then education

secretary, David Blunkett, paid heed to Rattle and

introduced the standards fund, allocated to LAs and

ring-fenced for Music Services. The national charity

Youth Music was founded, with a mandate to

ensure that children and young people from

disadvantaged backgrounds had access to musical

activities outside school hours. A campaign for

music education led by Evelyn Glennie and Julian

Lloyd Webber caught the attention of Blunkett’s

successor, Charles Clarke and schools minister,

David Miliband, who is married to a professional

violinist, and the result was the Music Manifesto,

published as an 18-page booklet in 2004 with Marc

Jaffrey appointed as its champion.

The Music Manifesto had five key aims:

• to provide every young person with first access

to a range of music experiences

• to provide more opportunities for young people

to deepen and broaden their musical interests

and skills

• to identify and nurture ‘our most talented

young musicians’

• to develop a world-class workforce in music

education

• to improve the support structures for young

people’s music-making

It was signed by representatives of government,

education, arts organisations, the music business

and individuals, all of whom pledged to support

and help deliver its objectives. Two much more

detailed Music Manifesto reports followed in 2005

and 2006, including analysis and proposals which

informed music education in England for the

remainder of the Labour administration. Out of all

this activity came initiatives such as the national

singing campaign, Sing Up; the three In Harmony

projects in Lambeth, Liverpool and Norwich,

inspired by Venezuela’s El Sistema; the KS2 whole-

class instrumental and vocal teaching programme,

Wider Opportunities; expansion of the

government’s Music and Dance Scheme with the

launch of new Centres for Advanced Training to

produce a better geographical spread; and the

It doesn’t take long for the dust to settle on a

music education report. My bookshelves are

crammed with them, from the Gulbenkian

Foundation’s Joining In: An Investigation into

Participatory Music (1997) through various chunky

National Association of Music Educators (NAME)

publications and three Music Manifesto reports to

the most recent Ofsted evaluation of music in

schools 2005-2008 – Making More of Music – and

a host of others. And that’s just from the last 15

years or so. Will the impact of the Henley Review of

Music Education in England, published on 7

February 2011, prove to be stronger or longer

lasting than any of these?

Background

Received opinion is that the era of New Labour was

a good one for music education in England. It was

certainly a time of unprecedented activity, ignited

by Sir Simon Rattle’s Channel 4 documentary,

Don’t Stop the Music, which highlighted the threat

to music provision posed by delegation of budget

management from Local Authorities (LAs) to

schools, some of which, it was feared, were not

prioritising music. The universal provision of

instrumental lessons in state schools free of charge

that had nurtured so many musicians of Rattle’s

generation was being eroded, with some education

authorities instituting fees for lessons that proved


Musical Futures project, funded by the Paul Hamlyn

Foundation and pioneering pupil-led music learning

at Secondary level.

The coalition government’s approach to music

education

While still in opposition, the Conservative party

indicated a high level of interest in music

education, albeit expressed more overtly by Jeremy

Hunt and Ed Vaizey of the shadow culture

department than by their opposite numbers at

education. In office, however, education secretary

Michael Gove turned his attention to music and,

last September, he asked Darren Henley, managing

director of Classic FM and chair of the Music

Manifesto Partnership and Advocacy Group (now

wound up), to undertake a three-month review of

music education, jointly commissioned by the

Department for Education (DfE) and the

Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)

and supported by an administrative team from both

departments.

Gove stated that he would like the review ‘to be

open and outward-facing and to take account of the

wide range of views and issues from across the

music sector’. However, he stipulated that Henley

should base his work on a number of specific

assumptions – for example, that public funding

should be used primarily to meet the government

priorities of every child having the opportunity to

learn a musical instrument and to sing, with a

clearly defined journey of progression; that delivery

models should meet the needs of children and

young people as defined by parents and schools

rather than being supplier-led; and that

recommendations should include thoughts on

initial training and continuing professional

development (CPD) to improve the skills and

confidence of both classroom teachers (a response

to Ofsted criticism) and specialist teachers and

orchestral musicians in teaching music in schools.

Gove also stated that, as proposed changes would

not be achievable before the start of the new

Plus ça change: What’s next after Henley?

The Henley Review of Music Education in England was published on 7 February 2011 after

much nail-biting by the music education establishment. Clare Stevens examines the roots of the

Review, its 36 recommendations and the responses from a highly fragmented sector.

continues on p 11

Darren Henley

Summary of Recommendations made by the Henley Review

Authority Music Services, Arts Council England client

organisations or other recognised music delivery

organisations. The focus for Ofsted’s work in this area should

be on the quality of teaching, leadership and management,

with the aim of raising standards and increasing levels of

achievement among pupils.

Recommendation 12

Arts Council England should fund its client organisations to

deliver Music Education programmes in accordance with the

National Music Plan. All of these programmes should operate

under the same quality framework, inspected by Ofsted.

Recommendation 13

Music Education in school and out of school should continue

to be funded through a mixed economic model. This should

include ring-fenced funding from central government, funding

from Arts Council England, funding from Local Authorities,

funding from the National Lottery and through fees from

parents. In addition, it is anticipated that funding will also

come for national and local projects from private sources,

including charities and foundations and through sponsorship

from industry and from philanthropists.

Recommendation 14

Schools, Local Authority Music Services, Arts Council England

client organisations and other recognised delivery

organisations should work together to create Music Education

Hubs in each Local Authority area. These Hubs should receive

ring-fenced central government funding to deliver Music

Education in each area following an open, advertised bidding

process. It is anticipated that there would be a lead

organisation (which is likely to be a Local Authority Music

Service in almost all cases, but in some cases could also be

an Arts Council England client organisation or other recognised

delivery organisation). This lead organisation would be directly

funded to undertake the leading role in each Hub. The

Department for Education should ensure that public funds are

invested to provide the highest quality Music Education for

children and young people efficiently and with the greatest

accountability for the money spent.

Recommendation 15

All partner organisations working together in Music Education

Hubs should be encouraged to make back office cost savings.

It may also be possible to make savings across a number of

local areas through the development of wider partnerships.

This could include the merger of senior management and

support functions over a number of Local Authority areas. It

may also be appropriate for particularly successful Local

Authority Music Services to undertake to offer Music Education

provision in neighbouring areas.

Recommendation 16

Currently, musical instruments are purchased on an ad hoc

basis by music services and schools. This should be replaced

by one centralised national purchasing system, building on the

recommendations of Sir Philip Green in his recent report to

the Cabinet Office about government procurement.

Recommendation 17

Youth Music should operate under a set of tightly targeted

objectives, defined and monitored by the Department for

Education, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and

Arts Council England. Its administration costs should be in line

with other lottery distributors and, like these other bodies,

Youth Music should be prevented from spending any

government or lottery funds on lobbying and public affairs

activities.

Recommendation 18

Youth Music should be required to maintain the central

resources of the Sing Up programme (the Song Bank and

website), which should be made available to schools to use on

an on-going basis. Funding for the four year Sing Up initiative

has always been scheduled to end in March 2011. However,

as part of the transition funding in the 2011-12 financial year,

a slimmed-down Sing Up should receive some funding to help

it to ensure that the legacy of the initial four years of

investment remains in place.

Recommendation 19

Both Arts Council England and Youth Music may wish to

examine the possibility of supporting an In Harmony style

model moving forwards, perhaps through the development of

a standalone charitable trust. Although In Harmony is an

expensive initiative, early evidence suggests that whole school

provision in a single school with a single lead cultural

organisation creates radical improvements in educational

attainment for the children involved. It is recommended that

existing projects be funded for a further transition year against

the membership criteria currently being developed by the

Department for Education and the Department for Culture,

Media and Sport. If these projects fail to meet the minimum

criteria, they should not receive further public funds.

Recommendation 20

The Music and Dance Scheme and the National Youth Music

Organisations should continue to receive funding from the

Department for Education, from Arts Council England and from

Youth Music. We should acknowledge their role in showcasing

the high level of talent that our Music Education system can

foster. The public funding for these organisations from the

Department for Education, Arts Council England and Youth

Music should be directed towards developing young people’s

musical performance to the highest level. Gaining a place in

one of our National Youth Music ensembles is a considerable

achievement both for the young person concerned and for the

teachers who have helped them to get there. It should be

celebrated as such. Given the considerable investment in the

Music and Dance Scheme, the Department for Education

should ensure that this continues to offer the best possible

value for money.

Recommendation 21

Much primary school classroom teaching of music is provided

by non-specialist teachers. The amount of time dedicated to

music in most Initial Teacher Training courses is inadequate


Recommendation 1

Schools should provide children with a broad Music Education,

which includes performing, composing, listening, reviewing

and evaluating.

Recommendation 2

Singing should be an important part of every child’s school life

from Early Years through until at least Key Stage 3.

Recommendation 3

All children at Key Stage 2 should have the opportunity to learn

an instrument through whole class ensemble teaching. Ideally,

this would be for a period of one year, but at the barest

minimum, one term of weekly tuition should be offered.

Recommendation 4

There should be a clear progression route for children after the

initial free opportunity for instrumental tuition is made

available. This route would be means tested, with parents

above an agreed income level expected to fund, or part fund,

tuition.

Recommendation 5

Music should continue to be offered by schools at Key Stage

4 and beyond, allowing pupils to gain GCSE, BTEC and A level

qualifications in the subject.

Recommendation 6

Schools should facilitate live music-making opportunities and

performances for children and young people. Arts Council

England funded organisations and other recognised Music

Education organisations should be encouraged to play a

meaningful role in providing these opportunities, however they

should link more closely to curriculum objectives.

Recommendation 7

Beyond the classroom, children should have the opportunity

to take part in vocal and instrumental ensembles. These

should either be offered in schools or by bringing pupils

together from schools in a wider locality.

Recommendation 8

The best model for Music Education includes a combination

of classroom teaching, instrumental and vocal music tuition

and input from professional musicians. Partnership between

organisations is the key to success.

Recommendation 9

The provision of Music Education should remain a statutory

requirement as part of the National Curriculum.

Recommendation 10

The Department for Education and the Department for Culture,

Media and Sport should work together to develop a national

plan for Music Education in England (The National Music Plan).

Recommendation 11

Ofsted’s remit should be expanded to include the reviewing of

standards in Music Education provided in schools by Local continues on p 12

The Henley Review

financial year 2011-2012, the review should

include recommendations for ‘a transitional stage

to take us from the current to the future landscape’.

Henley: The evidence and the verdict

Darren Henley’s first step was to issue a call for

evidence, inviting deliverers of music education,

both in and out of school, including public, private

and voluntary sector providers of music services to

children and young people, schools, parents and

carers to make known their views to him, focussed

by five consultation questions. Hundreds of

documents were submitted in response, all of

which were read by Henley himself. He also

discussed aspects of the review in person with 72

people in 55 meetings and visits to music

education settings across the country. Publication

of the review was delayed until ministers from the

DfE and DCMS had had a chance to consider it and

formulate a response which was published

alongside it and addressed each of Henley’s

recommendations.

Music Education in England takes the form of an

analysis of the current music education landscape

and 36 recommendations for change or in some

cases preservation of

the status quo – see

pages 10 and 12 – each

accompanied by an

explanatory note sum-

marising the thinking

behind them. In com-

pany with the authors of

so many previous

reports, Henley identified

the inconsistency of

provision across the


country from one Local Authority to another as the

main challenge that needs to be addressed.

Henley: The government’s response

The government broadly endorsed the findings of

the review and pledged itself to addressing some

of the issues raised immediately. Others will receive

further consideration while some fall outside the

government’s remit. Most importantly, the DfE has

now confirmed £82.5m funding for 2011-12, most

of which is for Local Authorities ‘for the purposes of

music education’ (though as several commentators

have pointed out this represents a reduction in real

terms to the current level of LA funding). It has

pledged £500k for the year to support In Harmony

and will also give some transitional funding to Sing

Up, which must become self-sufficient by next year.

The government will draw up a national plan for

music education, to be ready for implementation at

the start of the 2011-12 financial year. As part of

this process, it will agree a national funding formula

that over time will iron out the largest inequalities

in music education funding to Local Authorities that

have emerged over the last ten years or more.

So, Henley is out and there is much to

welcome. The report gives reassurance to

parts of the sector and forewarns others of

change. But, how will the Henley Review and

the government’s response move forward the

agenda for English music education?

We are delighted at the prospect that music

providers will work in genuine partnership to

create ‘Hubs’ where young people can

access high-quality music opportunities,

regardless of geographical or personal

circumstances. Stakeholders from across the

sector have already contributed to thinking

around local and regional provision which

could potentially assist Hub development.

However, as we build a National Music

(Education) Plan, we need to urge

government to recognise and consider issues

that are ominous in their absence from the

forefront of the Review.

Although ‘Special Educational Needs’ and

‘Looked-After Children’ are mentioned, the

Review makes little allowance for those

beyond the mainstream. Some fantastic work

has been done in this area – often delivered

by small, grassroots organisations – which can

be seen as appropriate to the Pupil Premium.

Despite initial reference to Creative

Industries, the Review itself does not contain

the word ‘creativity’. How will music

education feed the growth of those Industries

and the skills they require as well as

nurturing wider creative skills? The Review

places a great deal of emphasis on talented

musical instrumentalists but only 3% of the

thousands of people in our creative sector

(the UK’s 3rd largest export industry) are

performers. Recognising the high percentage

of young people who see themselves as

creators, Arts Council England stated in their

consultation paper for Achieving Great Art

For Everyone, ‘We want the music sector to

recognise young people as creators of their

own musical experiences’.

There is also little consideration of wider

music genres, including folk, rock, pop and

urban music, which are key parts of that

creative economy.

There is no sense in Henley’s Review that

children and young people have the potential

or creativity to contribute to their own

development. Instead, there is an

assumption that music education

experiences should be delivered to them.

In our experience, the most successful and

fulfilled young musical people take musical

journeys that are individually suited to them,

frequently swerving prescribed progression

routes. Discussions within our networks

confirm that it would be dangerous to assume

progression follows one standard route.

Quality is an essential ingredient to success

but if we want a diverse and creative musical

environment for young people, there cannot

be one single definition of best practice.

Many areas of practice have evolved their

own definitions of quality. We now need to

consolidate these to increase our

understanding and appreciation of the

incredible skills base we have at our

disposal.

We look forward to working with DfE, DCMS,

Arts Council England and others to achieve

the best possible musical outcomes for

children and young people.

Nick Howdle is Director of Programmes at

Youth Music

www.youthmusic.org.uk

Nick Howdle, Youth Music

continued from p 9

continues on p 12

Singing Playgounds. But for how much longer? Photo: Clare Stevens

musicians to spend two years teaching in schools before they

move onto their performance career.

Recommendation 27

Leadership training among the Music Education workforce is

at best patchy. It is recommended that a credible and

experienced management training provider be commissioned

to provide a nationwide management development scheme

targeted specifically at music educators.

Recommendation 28

All music teachers should be encouraged to register on a

national database, which allows them to use a kite mark. This

would provide parents with a base-level of quality assurance.

Recommendation 29

The existing place of graded examinations in school

performance tables should be better communicated to pupils,

parents, schools, Further and Higher Education providers and

employers.

Recommendation 30

To make it easier for parents to understand the full breadth of

music-making opportunities for their children, schools should

be encouraged to use their websites to communicate to

parents and carers the totality of Music Education

opportunities in their local area.

Recommendation 31

Arts Council England’s Take It Away scheme, which provides

loans for the purchase of instruments, should continue.

However, it should be focused on providing loans for those in

full-time education of any age.

Recommendation 32

It is recommended that the Department for Education

to create a workforce that is confident in its own ability to teach

the subject in the classroom. It is recommended that a new

minimum number of hours of ITT for primary music teachers

be spent on the delivery of Music Education.

Recommendation 22

All primary schools should have access to a specialist music

teacher.

Recommendation 23

Secondary school music teachers should be allowed the time

to work closely with their local Music Education Hubs and

feeder primaries.

Recommendation 24

A new qualification should be developed for music educators,

which would professionalise and acknowledge their role in and

out of school. Primarily delivered through in-post training and

continuous professional development, musicians who gain this

new qualification would be regarded as Qualified Music

Educators. It would be as applicable to peripatetic music

teachers as it would be to orchestral musicians who carry out

Music Education as part of their working lives.

Recommendation 25

Conservatoires should be recognised as playing a greater part

in the development of a performance-led Music Education

workforce of the future. All graduates from Conservatoires

should study the necessary components within their

undergraduate courses to enable them to leave with the

Qualified Music Educator award.

Recommendation 26

The Conservatoires should work with Teach First to create a

Teach Music First programme, which enables our best


examines how learning from the Sing Up and In Harmony

projects might be developed as a model for narrowing the gap

in attainment through the use of the pupil premium.

Recommendation 33

As part of the National Music Plan, further work should be

undertaken to develop a national plan for the use of

technology in the delivery of Music Education – and to ensure

that the workforce is up-to-date with latest developments. This

review should examine how technology could enable better

teaching of music (particularly in rural communities) as well

as ways in which new methods of creating music that embrace

technological innovation are taught in the classroom.

Recommendation 34

The Music Education world is fragmented and uncoordinated.

There are too many organisations that have overlapping areas

of interest. These organisations need to join together to create

one single body.

Recommendation 35

A review of charitable organisations working in the Music

Education sector should be undertaken with the aim of

ensuring that money donated to these charities is being spent

in the most efficient and effective way.

Recommendation 36

As suggested in the recent White Paper, ‘The Importance of

Teaching’, it is recommended that the lessons from this Review

be applied to other areas of Cultural Education including

Dance, Drama, Film, the Visual Arts, Museums, the Built

Environment and Heritage.

Summary of Recommendations made by the Henley Review

However, a decision on the place of music in the

national curriculum will not be made until the

curriculum review announced in January is complete.

A few days after publication of the review, Michael

Gove was interviewed by Tom Service on BBC Radio

3’s Music Matters. Describing himself as a fan of

music education, he confirmed that the £82.5m

funding for 2011-12 was designated specifically for

music and could not be used for, say, museum

visits or sport but said that ‘not all of it will go to

Local Authority Music Services because some of it

is for Sing Up and In Harmony’. He added that he

hoped the national plan would ‘involve those at LA

level, musicians and other industry bodies

including the Arts Council in making sure we can

guarantee that in each Local Authority area there

will be a music hub responsible for securing the

additional support that schools will need in order

to ensure that there is peripatetic instrumental

tuition, that there is scope for ensembles – singing

and playing, that there are sufficient and better

trained music teachers not just to maintain but to

enhance the quality of music education’.

Pressed about his position on music’s place in the

national curriculum and in the so-called English

Baccalaureate (E-Bacc), however, he refused to be

drawn. ‘People will have a hunch about where my

heart beats on this matter,’ he said, ‘but by

definition if you’re going to have to balance the

requirements for schools to teach certain things as

a matter of compulsion with a desire to give the

very best schools the freedom to set their own

priorities, there’s a balance to be struck.’

Henley: The music education sector’s response

Initial reactions from some movers and shakers in

the education world to the review were

enthusiastic. There was relief that the popular Sing

The full text of the Henley Review and the government’s

response are available on the Zone Magazine website,

zonemag.net.

continued from p 10

continued from p 11

Children from Sing Up, the National Singing Programme

Up campaign had been reprieved (though at the

time of Zone’s publication the level of support had

still not been announced) and that money had

been found to support Music Services. NAME

recognised the ‘care and understanding with which

Darren Henley carried out the review’ and

recommendation for a national plan for music

education, the government has shown its

commitment to work with us, schools and all music

educators to make Darren Henley’s vision a reality

– to provide all children with the music education


commended Michael Gove and Ed Vaizey for their

continuing financial support of music education in

the short term as well as for their

acknowledgement that ‘music is an enriching and

valuable academic subject’. The Federation of

Music Services said that ‘by backing the report’s

Was Henley Review Day such a great day for

music?

On Monday, February 7 the UK Secretary of

State for Education, in responding to the

Henley Review of Music Education, declared

it a great day for music and that everyone

involved in music in the UK should be

pleased with the government’s response.

Well, perhaps now that the sound of party-

poppers and backs being slapped has died

down, it might be an appropriate time for a

more objective consideration.

My concerns around the Henley Review are

threefold:

1. That it was largely discussing the stuff

around the edges and didn’t focus enough on

the core of music education. What goes on in

Primary and Secondary schools as part of the

‘core’ curriculum is where the bulk of music

in this country is made - by kids aged 5 to 14.

I lost count of the number of times I read in

the papers that week that music education

receives £82m per year. No, I’m sorry, music

education receives a heck of a lot more than

that - think of every classroom music

teacher’s salary for a start. The whole debate

pre and post the publication of Darren

Henley’s Review has placed the extra-

curricular work of Music Services’

instrumental tuition services above the core

provision in every Primary and Secondary.

There was more space spent discussing the

much-heralded In Harmony projects (which

currently run in a handful of schools at an

unsustainable cost) than there was on the

quality of the core entitlement in the

curriculum. Which brings me to...

2. That it was almost entirely uncritical of the

quality of current provision and structures.

How is it possible to do a comprehensive

review of music education and not refer to

the most recent OFSTED review of music

provision in school? Could it be because

OFSTED assessed music provision in Primary

and Secondary schools as less than ‘good’ in

half of schools inspected over a three-year

period? When does a review become a piece

of advocacy? I suspect it’s when myriad

representative groups bombard you with

pleas to mention their project/provision and

you produce a report which, as this one does,

praises everyone and therefore upsets no-

one. Why did the Review, for instance, not

mention that the notion of coordinated local

provision (‘Hubs’) was first mentioned in the

Music Manifesto report six years ago? If it was

approved then as a good idea - and it was -

and we have had Music Services charged with

creating Local Area Music Partnership Plans

for the past four years, why is it still necessary

to say we need better local music

coordination and recommend that the same

Music Services be responsible for it? The

unpalatable truth is that many Music Service

‘plans’ haven't been worthy of the name and

yet making the same call seems to be the

new ‘big idea’ of the Review.

Please don't get me wrong - I’m not having a

pop at Music Services. Some of them do

coordinate activities very well indeed but for

most of them it’s simply not what they are

good at, nor does their lack of external

connections make it possible. Their core

business is providing small-group

instrumental tuition and why shouldn't they

be left alone to do that? The Review is

essentially asking them to do what the Youth

Sports Trust does for sports in local

communities but with no recommendations

as to how to restructure themselves. Well,

here’s a radical idea, one I would like to have

seen in the Review: nationalise the Music

Service. A National Music Service with a single,

centralised (and cost-effective) back-office

function would not only save a ton of money

and prevent the patchy quality of provision so

frequently referred to in reports but also

ensure that priorities are common across

regions and best practice shared quickly.

3. That the lasting impression is that our

organisations are effective and the quality of

provision is excellent. Why, therefore, would

anyone feel the need to follow Henley’s

urging for a single national body speaking for

music? Fragmentation alone is not a good

enough reason - if it’s working in its own

slightly chaotic way, why the panic to fix it?

The net result of the Review and the

government’s response to it is a huge,

collective sigh of relief and, frankly, there'll be

little sense of urgency on this issue. There was

some classic political posturing before the

Review got published: everyone expected the

worst in terms of funding so that when Music

Service jobs and a few projects were

financially saved for another year (and it’s only

another year) we were all meant to be grateful.

If the music community had attended the

recent Whole Education event, there might

have been a new sense of urgency instilled.

For they would have heard Mick Waters

(former head of curriculum at QCA and a man

well used to reading the political runes)

strongly suggest that music and other arts

subjects will be taken out of the compulsory

core curriculum when the National

Curriculum Review concludes in two years

time. We’ve already seen large numbers of

schools taking steps to remove their music

options post-14 so as to funnel students into

the new English Baccalaureate subjects. So

it’s entirely possible that we could lose music

at all stages of the curriculum in most of our

schools by 2013. We know that the

government is determined to reduce the

number of subjects within the core

curriculum: cue subject pitted against subject

in an unseemly scramble to make it into the

pen before the gate closes (which is why

having a single voice for music education is

so pressing).

I’m not a conspiracist by nature but I believe

there's a very real possibility that the hidden

agenda behind the government’s support for

the Review is to get it off the political hook

when such a scenario occurs. Having

supported all the stuff which goes on outside

school hours, it can claim that kids are still

getting a ‘rich cultural experience’, it’s just

that second period on a Thursday is reserved

for 'real' academic subjects, not mucking

about on guitars.

But that's the problem. Fewer than 10% of

kids access music instrumental tuition. If you

add up all the kids who take part in all the

other stuff - projects in the community,

playing in their local orchestras etc - you

might get that figure up to 25-30%. Music in

the Primary and Secondary curriculum is the

only place where every young person gets

exposure to music education and, please

take note, media outlets and politicians:

there is much more to music education than

learning to play a musical instrument!

So, will we still look back on Henley Review

Day as a great day for music if, in a couple of

years’ time, it's preserved for the minority but

lost as a universal entitlement for everyone?

David Price is a speaker, advisor and trainer,

working in education. He is a Senior

Associate at the Innovation Unit.

This article was taken from his blog:

davidpriceblog.posterous.com

The Henley Review

David Price

‘It’s entirely possible that we

could lose music at all stages of

the curriculum in most of our

schools by 2013.’

continues on p 15

Following consultation with our 5,500

members, the ISM submitted a substantial

document to the Henley Review of Music

Education and we are pleased to see that

many of the recommendations we made

were taken on board.

The Review itself made a number of excellent

recommendations in support of music,

including the protection of music within our

curriculum, that music must be available at

Key Stage 4 or GCSE level, recognition of the

professional standards of music teachers

and a commitment to support Local Music

Education Hubs.

We welcome the government’s response

acknowledging music as ‘an enriching and

valuable academic subject’ and committing

to funding Music Services in the coming year.

However, questions over future funding and

models remain uncertain as does the place

of music in the curriculum and whether or

not Michael Gove, Secretary of State for

Education, will reconsider his decision to

exclude music from the English

Baccalaureate.

This is something we at the ISM are very

concerned about because the current

exclusion of music from the English

Baccalaureate is having an immediate

impact on its place in schools. We have

already been contacted by members who are

faced with GCSE Music being sidelined as

Head Teachers scramble to increase

attainment figures across the five subject

categories included within the qualification.

This could be potentially devastating for our

current generation of young people. Exposing

children to music throughout their Primary

and Secondary education is critical: music-

making improves children’s achievement in

other key areas of education such as literacy,

numeracy and social skills. Taking part in

music at school also ensures that we

generate both the audiences of the future

and the talented musicians who work in our

constantly growing creative and cultural

economy. We also know that the public

supports music in schools: in a recent

YouGov poll commissioned by the ISM, an

overwhelming 97% of adults who expressed

an opinion thought that children should be

taught music in schools.

The ISM has launched a campaign calling for

music to be included in the English

Baccalaureate and we are asking our

members and everyone who cares about

music to help.

In the meantime, the government will be

introducing a National Music Plan which is

expected to be published toward the end of

this year. This plan will provide a more

detailed response to Darren Henley’s

recommendations and the ISM will be

working hard over the coming months to

ensure that music retains its rightful place at

the heart of our young people’s education.

Deborah Annetts is Chief Executive,

Incorporated Society of Musicians and Chair,

Music Education Council

www.ism.org www.mec.org.uk

Deborah Annetts, ISM


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they deserve’. The ABRSM described it as

‘unprecedented in its holistic perspective on music

education in this country’ and praised its emphasis

on a clear progression route for children who show

aptitude in music and its call for a new qualification

for music educators. Arts Council England

concurred with the view that ‘an over-reliance on

projects rather than sustained activity has

sometimes contributed to a lack of clarity on all

sides about how to focus that activity on a common

objective’.

But there are dissenting voices, expressing concern

about issues such as the challenge of

implementing Henley’s plan for local music hubs

when Secondary heads of music are so stretched

that they cannot look beyond their own school

gates or about the swing away from creativity

towards a more traditional, didactic interpretation

of what music education is. They note the limited

discussion of music technology, popular music and

world music in the review.

Some of the most trenchant observations have

come from bloggers Jonathan Savage of

Manchester Metropolitan University and David

Price, founding director of Musical Futures. Savage

welcomes many aspects of the review but is

sceptical about the government’s response. He

believes that Michael Gove will ignore Henley’s plea

for music to be kept in the national curriculum; he

thinks the wording of the £82.5m funding

announcement leaves a lot of ‘wriggle room’; and

he has concerns about Henley’s suggestions about

teacher training, particularly regarding

conservatoire graduates being persuaded to join

the Teach First programme. David Price criticises

the review for ‘largely discussing stuff around the

edges’ and seeming to equate music education

with learning to play an instrument rather than

focussing on what goes on in Primary and

Secondary schools – ‘where the bulk of music in

this country is made’ – as well as for being almost

entirely uncritical of the quality of current provision

and structures. He fears that because the review is

largely positive and Music Services and some

projects have been saved by a short-term injection

of an inadequate amount of cash, the net result is

‘a huge sigh of relief’ and little sense of urgency.

Henley: The sting in the tail

But it was the NUT’s response that really got to the

nub of the matter. ‘Many Music Services have

already been hit by cuts to Local Authority budgets,’

said its general secretary, Christine Blower. ‘With

Inflation running at near 5%, the freezing of funding

does not ‘protect’ Music Services as the

government claims. This is a real terms cut which

will be compounded by the possibility of Local

Authorities losing up to 10% of their music budgets

as the government moves towards a national

funding formula. There is no point in pontificating

about the benefits that music brings to children

and young people if you do not fund it properly.

Securing funding for just one year does not give

schools the confidence to invest in something they

may not be able to fund the following year.’

The NUT’s concerns were borne out by reports as

this issue of Zone went to press of one council

meeting after another voting to make drastic cuts

to Music Service funding. Given that they are also

cutting basic public services such as street cleaning

and lighting and care for the elderly, not to mention

libraries, it is hardly surprising. There are also

reports of vociferous demonstrations by students

and parents forcing councils to look again at their

budgets but many Music Services are considering

options for working on completely different financial

models. This may not, of course, be a bad thing –

different need not necessarily mean worse. But it is

likely to mean the loss of genuinely open access.

What next?

Richard Hallam, who, as national music participation

director, has been at Darren Henley’s side through

the review process, told Zone that the responsibility

for raising the starting tape on the next stage of the

process, the development of a national music plan

to take us beyond March 2012, lies with the DfE’s

Angela Ruggles. ‘At present, all of her time is being

spent sorting out the technical details of the funding

for next year which is obviously of pressing

importance,’ he says. ‘I am sure she will get

information [about the national plan] out to the

sector generally as soon as possible – not least

because everyone I know is wondering about how

they will get involved! I think Angela is really hoping

to get things sorted by July so that 2012 to 2015 can

be sorted out earlier than circumstances have

dictated for the 2011/2012 funding.’

To those of us watching from the sidelines, there is

an obstacle to progress that sadly may be more

fundamental than funding issues and it’s one that

Darren Henley clearly identified. ‘The music

education world is fragmented and uncoordinated,’

he said bluntly. ‘There are too many organisations

that have overlapping areas of interest. These

organisations need to join together to create one

single body.’

As these organisations have published their

reactions to Henley, each focussing on their

particular area of interest, that fragmentation has

been all too apparent; the words ‘turkey’ and

Christmas’, not to mention ‘cats in a sack’, come

to mind. But unless vested interests and conflicting

ideologies are set aside, the sector will never speak

with the single voice necessary to produce a

coherent national plan for the future. If it doesn’t,

the Henley Review may well become just another

forgotten document on the DfE’s bookshelf.


The Henley Review

continued from p 13

What’s in it for them? Katherine Zeserson argues that the Henley Review is biased towards classical music. See page 5

‘Unless vested interests and conflicting

ideologies are set aside, the sector will

never speak with the single voice

necessary to produce a coherent national

plan for the future.’

Visit zonemag.net/henley for all weblinks

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musiclearninglive! comes back to Scotland in 2012. Register your interest online.

Presented by Zone New Media

We’ll be back!mll2012.com

musiclearninglive!2012

The UK National Festival of Music Education

CT What inspired you to consider opening a free

state music school and what is your prime

motivation?

NR I’ve been running Step Up Music Theatre School

in South London for 15 years and currently have four

branches in Blackheath, Sydenham, Bromley and

Essex. I also run after-school clubs in local Primary

schools and teach singing and piano privately. As a

result, I’m aware of the impact of music on the lives

of my students and have encountered many children

from different backgrounds whose lives have been

dramatically enhanced through access to good tuition

and inspired teachers. I’m also aware and of how little

music some of them learn at school. Even if they do

quite a lot of music, it’s often not taught by specialists.

My interest in music began with free tuition at

Primary school where I started playing the recorder.

I also learnt the guitar and moved on to the piano

when I joined London’s Centre for Young Musicians

(CYM). I was very lucky to have this amount of

access to free music tuition and feel it should be

an entitlement for all children – not just those who

can afford to pay.

As well as access to free music tuition, my main

motivation is to provide a school in which music

tuition can positively influence teaching in the core

academic subjects. The skills that children learn

through music set them up for life whether they

choose to pursue music as a career or not. Playing

an instrument requires focus, discipline and

commitment and these skills can be applied to all

academic subjects. In my experience, music

classes provide a cross-disciplinary approach to

learning (for example, mathematical and reading

skills are improved by learning rhythms and

decoding notes and symbols) that is invaluable.

CT How long have you been planning the project?

NR I’ve been planning the RIMU Primary Music

Academy – to be based in Greenwich – for two

years. The Free Schools scheme has given me the

opportunity to develop the concept of a music-

focussed Primary school. The idea behind the

scheme is not just to provide much-needed school

places but also to have the freedom to create a

school that is unique and will offer an alternative

choice of education.

CT How will your school differ from other Primary

schools and what will it provide that other Primary

schools don't already?

NR Every day, all children at RIMU will have their

normal core academic subjects, plus French from

Reception and Latin for Years 5 and 6, combined

with a specially devised music programme which

will include Kodály, Rhythmics, recorder and

keyboard tuition, vocal and instrumental

ensembles, theory of music and performance

workshops. All students will have drama and dance

in their weekly timetable as well as the opportunity

in Year 5 to study verbal and non-verbal reasoning,

giving them the chance to apply for Grammar

schools if that’s the path they wish to pursue.

Our aim is that each subject, including music, will be

taught by specialist teachers, although all teachers

at RIMU will come from a musical background.

CT Free Schools are a very new and somewhat

controversial concept. Why do you think your school

should be funded? Isn’t there a danger of taking

money away from ‘conventional’ schools?

NR I believe there is a clear need for a school that

will not only offer school places in Greenwich but

also a unique choice of education to parents who

want greater access to a musical education for

their children. I have had confirmation from

Greenwich Children's Services that there is a need

for more school places in the area. I am also aware

that Music Services have been greatly reduced by

many Local Authorities due to lack of funding. As

far as taking money away from ‘conventional’

schools is concerned, the children will fulfill the

same academic criteria as in those schools.

CT Could you explain how funding works?

NR The core principle is that Free Schools are

funded on the basis of equivalence with the

funding of maintained schools and academies in

the same Local Authority area.

CT Is the RIMU Primary Music Academy based on

any particular established model, for example,

Hungarian schools? What kind of music curriculum

will you embrace? For example, will you follow a

particular methodology or musical ‘style’?

NR Although I’ve been influenced by schools in

Europe as well as some UK schools who work hard

to include a varied and interesting programme of

music, RIMU is very much my own idea based on

my experience of teaching music and my

experience with my own children who are both

currently at Junior Guildhall. My son, who is four, is

on the Kindergarten Course and my daughter, who

is six, has just started on the String Programme

playing the violin. It was through their experience

with Kodály and Rhythmics that I became really

interested in both these teaching methods.

Cyrilla Rowsell, who teaches on the Guildhall String

Programme and is Secretary of the British Kodály

Academy, has been hugely inspirational and has

kindly agreed to be a patron of RIMU. The school

will be very much driven by singing which I believe

is key to developing a child’s musical ability. We will

embrace many musical styles from classical to jazz,

world music and musical theatre.

CT Your own background in school management is

with private after-school stage schools. How do you


Freedom to Choose – Education in the Big Society

We’ve all heard teachers and parents bemoaning the lack of music in certain Primary schools but how

many of us would put our money where our mouth is and place music at the heart of the Primary

curriculum? Music teacher, Nathalie Richardson plans to do just that by opening a free state music Primary

school under the government’s Free Schools scheme. Cathy Tozer caught up with her at the proposal stage.

feel this equips you to run a successful

‘mainstream’ school?

NR The children who attend Step Up come mainly

from mainstream state schools. My team and I

work hard to give them as much variety as possible

in courses and performance experience and many

have gone on to have great success in their chosen

careers. We currently have children performing in

West End shows, we appeared on Don’t Stop

Believing on Channel 5 in July 2010 and continue

to have students who leave Step Up to go on to well-

established organisations such as the Guildhall

School of Music and Drama and Mountview

Academy of Theatre Arts. Two students recently

won scholarships to their chosen colleges.

Running a business requires the same skills as

running a school. You have to be highly organised,

good at communication and able to manage

budgets and interact professionally with your staff

and clients. Most importantly, you have to create

the most special and wonderful environment that

you can for the children. I have achieved this at

Step Up and believe that, with the right staff and

support, I can achieve the same thing at RIMU.

CT What about your team? Who are your staff,

managers, governors, partner organisations? How

do you select them?

NR My business partner, Lorna Mullard, came on

board last September and will be Director of

Curriculum while I will be Head Teacher and

Director of Music. Lorna managed a team for many

years when she worked for City and Guilds. As all

of her children have attended Step Up and two are

members of acts that I manage, she understands

from a parent's perspective the commitment

required.

There are four other members of the steering group

at RIMU: Lucy Tregear has helped with the

development of the literacy aspect of the timetable

and Philip Viera with business planning; Andrew

Hayler and Stacey Shepherd Williams have both

worked at Step Up for many years and have a huge

amount of experience in teaching music and the

performing arts. Stacey is currently Head of Drama

at a Secondary boys’ school and is very

experienced in the workings of the state system.

In addition, Blackheath Conservatoire, CYM and

Trinity Laban have all confirmed that they would like

to be partner organisations. Conductor, Charles

Hazlewood and Cyrilla Rowsell have agreed to be

Patrons of the school and will be lending their

support and expertise to the project when required.

Andrea Spain at Trinity Laban and James Thomas

at Hackney Music Service are both interested in

helping with recruitment. I also have a great deal

of experience of recruiting staff but the most

important thing is finding the right teachers with

the same ethos and end goals as myself.

CT How will you recruit pupils?

NR We have set up a website where parents can

register interest. We will also advertise in the local

press, in education journals, through various

websites, in local nurseries, doctors’ surgeries and

churches and by direct leafleting.

CT How will you ensure that the school remains

genuinely inclusive and doesn't become a ghetto

for pushy middle-class parents?

NR As a Free School, we will still be bound by the

strict rules of the admissions code. However, if the

proposal is accepted and we are sure RIMU is to

open, we will make the concept of the school

known to less privileged parents by running

meetings at local parent groups and working with

existing organisations that provide activities for

families in need of financial assistance. We have

already made ourselves known to music

organisations working in deprived areas (such as

Greenwich and Lambeth Music Services) and they

are happy to assist us in making our school known

to disadvantaged children.

CT What kind of provision will you make for (i)

children with special needs or learning difficulties?

(ii) children who are gifted and talented?

NR We will have extra teaching assistants to deal with

children with special needs. Any gifted and talented

children will have access to further music tuition

through our partnerships with Blackheath

Conservatoire, CYM and Trinity Laban. We are looking

at external funding from other charities to help us

fund this, such as Awards for Young Musicians.

CT Your ambition is to open other similar schools.

How realistic is this and what is the timescale?

NR We intend to open RIMU in September 2012

and would like to see further music-focussed

schools open in the future. We would also like to

see the music aspects of the RIMU timetable

incorporated into existing Primary schools. I am

interested in developing a teacher training aspect

to the school so that more teachers can be

equipped to teach music at Primary level. I believe

this is the key to improving music in schools.

RIMU Primary Music Academy - www.rimu.co.uk


MondayThe alarm wakes me at 5.00am and I arrive at

school shortly before 6.00am. Coffee, photo-

copying, replying to emails, assessment admin,

more coffee and then I set up the classroom for the

Cathedral Choir morning rehearsal at 8.00am. For

the rest of the school, it’s Hymn Practice today

instead of Assembly so a good opportunity to run

through some new material. Four periods of

curriculum music lessons this morning ranging from

Year 3 to Year 8 before a speedy lunch followed by

School Choir rehearsal for most of lunchtime.

Three more periods of teaching in the afternoon and

then the School Orchestra rehearsal after school,

practising items for a performance next week. A

Year 6 Parents’ Evening rounds off the day and I’m

home at 9.00pm. We’ve got school inspection next

week and I must organise my lesson plans for the

inspectors. Tomorrow, I think.

TuesdayI arrive at school at 6.00am again but I’m hopeful

that today might be a little easier than yesterday.

The Cathedral Choir is sounding in great voice this

morning. A really enjoyable Year 4 lesson on

Ostinato and Canon then an exhausting Year 8

lesson on Tribal Groove (African body percussion)

but I do manage to sit and chat in the staffroom for

10 minutes at breaktime today – a rare treat.

School Choir rehearsal at lunchtime and then I’m

off to a local Primary school to do Sing Up work. We

run the Chorister Outreach Programme for the

Guildford diocese and I run two singing sessions

with a local school in preparation for our termly Sing

Up concert at the Cathedral next week. The children

are in good spirits and sing well today. Back to

Guildford in time for Choral Evensong at the

Cathedral – an oasis of calm at the end of another

day. I still haven’t done my inspection lessons plans

though. Tomorrow, I think.

WednesdayAssociated Board exams in my classroom today so

the Year 4 string groups will have to move to the

Hall. All boys in Year 4 learn either violin or cello for

a year and they are all performing in an informal

concert at school this evening. The exams seem to

go well but I do find the concentrated accompanying

rather tiring.

I usually do Games on Wednesday afternoons but

the exams prevent that today. The evening concert

is a great success with some memorable individual

performances and the string groups in fine form.

When am I going to get those lesson plans done?

Tomorrow, I think.

ThursdaySomething of a lie-in today in that I don’t get to

school until nearly 7.00am. I sort out some

timetabling issues for one of the piano teachers and

set up for the Cathedral Choir morning rehearsal. I

remember just in time that the Guitar Ensemble is

rehearsing in the Library this morning and hurriedly

organise music stands for them. The singing in

Assembly this morning is wonderful – the boys

certainly sing some hymns better than others! Both

of today’s Year 6 curriculum music lessons are hard

work though and I’m not sure why – is it the boys or

is it me?

The Senior Rock Band plays as loudly as possible at

lunchtime but they’re actually becoming rather

good. Wonderwall is quite challenging for some of

them but they’ve really worked hard recently. The

Staff Meeting after school is all about next week’s

inspection and reminds me that I still haven’t done

those lesson plans. Tomorrow, I think.

FridayI’m in school early again as I have to put my

assessment grades onto the school system before

9.00am. It’s straightforward but time-consuming

nevertheless. One of the instrumental teachers has

phoned in unwell so there’s a bit of sorting out to

do with that. The morning’s lessons go well and I

enjoy covering a PE lesson. At lunchtime, the Junior

Instrumental Group is depleted because of pupil

illness but we have a good go at things anyway.

In the afternoon, I take 15 boys to a local retirement

home to perform a concert for the residents. The

boys sing and play well and are rewarded with

staggering quantities of chocolate and biscuits.

After school, I rehearse the Surrey Songsters – our

junior choir which has grown out of the Sing Up work

– and then it’s home in good time. And what about

those inspection lesson plans? Well, I suppose

that’s what weekends were made for, isn’t it?


A Week in the Life of... Brian Cotterill

As Musical Director of the Surrey Songsters, choral director, composer, organist and South-East

Representative for NAME, Brian Cotterill still manages to teach five days a week as Director of Music at

Lanesborough School, the choir school of Guildford Cathedral. Where does he find the time?

Sing for Water helped us to raise our game.

With a little bit of extra work, we realised

that we could be really, really good.’ That’s

the verdict of choir leader, Valerie Whitworth from

Omagh, Northern Ireland who joined the growing

network of singing events in aid of WaterAid.

Val has been leading a community singing group for

over ten years. She was inspired to set up her own

event after hearing about Sing for Water at a voice

camp in Dorset. Val was excited about the idea of

bringing many singers in her area together for a

special one-off performance.

Having moved to Ireland from London, Val knew

instantly that it was singing that would make her feel

rooted in her new environment and so set about

bringing like-minded individuals together. The group

numbers about 30 in total and follows the Natural

Voice style of singing where all songs are taught by

ear and practitioners abide by the inclusive

philosophy of ‘if you can speak, you can sing’.

Val draws on an eclectic range of music from around

the world that can be sung in parts – from African to

Eastern European to traditional English folk. When

planning Sing for Water Omagh, she chose songs

which would help everyone to focus on water –

something we often take for granted here in the UK.

According to Val, ‘When I first heard about Sing for

Water and found out that a child dies every 20

seconds due to lack of clean water, I knew I wanted

to do something to help. My passion for singing

means that I thought setting up Sing for Water Omagh

would be the best way of giving something back.’

With the help of resources supplied by WaterAid,

Val set about rehearsing her small but perfectly

formed choir who were

joined by singers from

Belfast, Donegal and

other parts of Ireland.

Their Sing for Water

performance took place

in Strule Arts Centre last

year and raised more than £5,000 for WaterAid’s

work.

Victoria Rouse, Community Fundraising Manager

at WaterAid, was delighted. ‘It costs just £15 to

give someone access to safe water, hygiene and

sanitation so the funds raised by Sing for Water

Omagh really will transform lives in Ghana and

Malawi.’

‘Everybody had a lovely evening, singers and

spectators alike,’ said Val. ‘Putting on a

professional show made us have to take our

singing more seriously; I did have a bit of a panic

that I hadn’t conducted in public before but it was

just last-minute nerves and everything turned out

just fine on the night. It was such a great

experience that I can’t wait for next year now and

am already talking to a choir in southern Ireland

about joining forces. We had 40 singers this year

but wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could get to a

hundred next time?’

Sing for Water was initiated by composer, Helen

Chadwick as a project to raise money for

WaterAid at the Mayor’s Thames

Festival in London. Large and small

groups of singers have raised money

in many different ways including a

concert on a pier, 'Sing & Swim' in an

outdoor pool, performing at local

festivals and as part of mass choir

events in London, Bristol, Newcastle

Gateshead, Leicester and even at the

Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Every September, hundreds of people take part in

the original Sing for Water event – a mass choir

performance at the Mayor’s Thames Festival in

London. The

performance is now a

key part of the

festival and attracts

big crowds. ‘The buzz

of that many people

singing together is

quite breathtaking,’ says Victoria. ‘You can’t help

but to feel uplifted and inspired. There’s something

very beautiful and happy about it.’

Throughout the year, choirs around the UK have

been inspired to organise other unique Sing for

Water events. Often, they are a great opportunity to


Singing for Water

It’s World Water Day on 22 March and WaterAid are inviting choirs to join their Sing for Water campaign

to help raise funds for clean, fresh water in Ghana and Malawi.

All songs are taught by ear and practitioners

abide by the inclusive philosophy of ‘if you

can speak, you can sing’.

One of the biggest Sing for Water events outside

of the Mayor’s Thames Festival takes place in

Bristol. In 2009, over 600 singers from across the

West Country and beyond united and raised

almost £40,000 for WaterAid. Organisers, Chris

Samuel and Ali Orbaum and a team of volunteers

spearhead the event which is taking place again

this summer. Sing for Water West will take place

on 9 July 2011 at the Bristol Harbourside

Amphitheatre. Choirs and singers are invited to join

up and be part of the big event.

Ali Orbaum said, ‘Putting on Sing for Water events

has proved to be a great way of getting new people

involved in singing as well as raising money and

awareness for a fantastic cause. Knowing that

every £1 we raise will help to give clean water and

sanitation is an inspiring incentive to come

together as a community of voices.’


link up with other choirs and learn from each other.

Each Sing for Water performance raises funds for

WaterAid projects in Ghana and Malawi through

ticket sales, sponsorship or public collections.

Helen Chadwick says, ‘Sing for Water is all about

people creating events under their own banner

and in their own way. Anyone who enjoys singing

can join us.’

‘We really let people run with their creativity on the

project,’ explained Victoria. ‘After all, it’s a fun

music event for everyone who loves to sing and

we’ve had some fantastic events involving whole

communities.’

envelopes and a film we can show as part of

the evening.

I hope that we can raise a significant amount

of money for Water Aid – just £15 can really

improve someone’s life – and also that it will

be a celebration of singing together, perhaps

the first of many.

Liz Nicholas

Sing For Water Sheffield – 7.30pm on 21st

March, Abbeydale Grange School, Hastings

Rd S7 2GU. £2 on the door in aid of Water

Aid. Singing is not compulsory but is

encouraged. Tea, coffee and cakes for sale.


WaterAid is looking for more people who love

to sing to organise their own Sing for Water or

join in with an event on World Water Day on

22 March 2011 and throughout the year.

For information on putting on your own event,

free singing resources and information on

upcoming events including Sing for Water

West in Bristol on Saturday 9 July 2011, visit

www.singforwater.org or email

[email protected].

To join Sing for Water in London at the

Mayor’s Thames Festival on Sunday 11

September 2011, please contact Kate Forde

by emailing [email protected].

Carfield Community Choir

Help, I seem to have started organising a

Sing for Water event! I am haunted by

nightmares where either nobody comes at

all, I have ten people on stage, we sing

everything we know and it’s still only 8pm –

or the alternative where we are besieged by

people wanting to sing, they underestimate

their running time, it goes on for three hours

and the audience loses the will to live...

March 21st 2011 is the date of our Sing for

Water event in Sheffield this year. It’s being

organised by Carfield Community Choir which

is based in the Heeley/Meersbrook area in

the south of the city.

We are a small, local community choir with an

age range from 10 to 70-plus. There are no

auditions and no requirement to read music.

On our own, we will never be able to fill an

entire evening’s programme and we will never

sing the Verdi Requiem. We like joining in with

other musicians to celebrate or mark

particular occasions but so far it has always

been somebody else organising the event.

We sing at several local churches and in

sheltered accommodation at Christmas; the

Walled Garden in Meersbrook Park invite us

to sing for their summer Garden Party and

Autumn Apple Day; and we have had great

fun being part of the local Low-Carbon

Cabaret (no amplification, no heating,

spotlights courtesy of volunteers on a

stationary bicycle).

At our first rehearsal in January, one of our

members said she had heard about World

Water Day and it seemed a very good reason

to get people singing together.

WaterAid is a fantastic charity for bringing

people together – it’s such a basic human

right; it has no religious or political affiliations

and, if you think just for a minute or two

about what it means not to have clean water

or sanitation, it reminds us how lucky we are.

Our event is the day before World Water Day

but we chose it for the very practical reason

that several of us do other things on a

Tuesday, but Monday is our normal rehearsal

day so we knew everyone was free.

We have several other small groups taking

part now and we are also offering the

irresistible attraction of a cake stall. We will

start the evening by singing a few rounds –

everyone, audience and singers – then each

group will do a short set, finishing with the

Sing for Water anthem. I’ve got my fingers

crossed for that one – stamp on beats one

and three, clap on two and four, sing triplets

over the top...

WaterAid’s central office has been great,

supporting us with posters, collection

Sing for Water in Sheffield

World Water Day is a key moment in the year in the

fight against poverty. Around one in eight people across

the world have no access to safe water and a stagger-

ing two fifths, that’s 2.6 billion people, live without

basic sanitation. In 1992, the UN declared every March

22nd to be World Water Day to highlight the shocking

truth and to galvanize governments and all people

across the world to take action.

In many parts of rural Africa and Asia, women and chil-

dren, mostly the girls, are tasked with collecting water

for the whole family. This can take hours each day,

walking miles in the baking heat to collect water from

any available source. It is not uncommon for this water

to be visibly dirty and teaming with parasites. In fact,

the diarrhoeal diseases caused by unsafe water and a

lack of sanitation kill more children under the age of

five than anything else.

Each year, thousands and thousands of people mark

the event by campaigning, fundraising or putting on

events to do their bit to make a difference. This World

Water Day, WaterAid is asking choirs to get together

and Sing for Water, raising vital funds to help people

take their first step out of poverty.

Helen Chadwick

Annalise Elgar

CT Hi Annalise, I hear you’ve always dreamed of

singing at the O2 Arena.

AE It’s not so much about the O2 – although singing

there was an amazing experience – just about being

on a big stage and singing to lots of people. I’m

inspired by programmes on the Disney Channel like

Camp Rock. My favourite singer is Demi Lovato and,

along with the rest of my friends, I’d love to make a

living singing and dancing like Mitchie Torres

(Demi’s character in Camp Rock) or Hannah

Montana!

CT How did you get involved in the VIAM concert?

AE I got involved through my school (Horsell CE Junior

School in Surrey). Every Year 6 in the Senior Choir was

invited to take part – 28 of us in all – and our

teachers, Miss Oakley and Miss Benton, rehearsed

the songs with us and took us to the concert.

CT How many singers were at the O2 and how old

were they all?

AE There were seven and a half thousand singers

there. They were all ages from 8 to 18 and every

single one was listed by name in the programme!

CT Were you given the music and words in advance?

How much was there to learn? Was it easy or hard?

AE The school gave us a CD so we could practise at

home and we rehearsed every week during Choir

Practice. We did about six rehearsals altogether and

we had to learn 13 songs, some in unison but most

in harmony. It was hard work but a lot easier with

the CD. My favourite song was Oh Happy Day and

my least favourite was Tears in Heaven because it’s

quite sad. I also liked Don’t Stop Believing and

Sweet Child of Mine – probably because my

favourite music is rock!

CT Was there a rehearsal at the O2? Who ran it?

What did you think of them?

AE Yes, there was a rehearsal in the afternoon. The

person who ran it was called Jo (Jo Garofalo,

Creative Director of Voice in a Million). I liked her

because she was smiley and enthusiastic.

CT Did you do any warm ups or games?

AE Yes, we did the Mexican Wave and then Jo called

out all the different schools’ names and we had to

scream when it was our school. We also did this

thing where Jo sang a few lines and we had to sing

them back to her.

CT Oh, like a kind of call and response. What did she

sing?

AE The Grand Old Duke of York! (laughs)

CT Was this the first time you’ve sung in a big

venue? What did it feel like?

AE It felt really exciting and a bit scary. It was great

to see the O2. The singers took up nearly a third of

the arena in these enormous banks of tiered

seating. I was at the front at the bottom.

CT Your Mum, Dad and brothers were in the

audience. Could you see them from there?

AE No!

CT What did you wear?

AE We all had to wear black trousers and they gave us

white tops with the VIAM logo on when we got there.

CT Did any children do solos? What were they like?

AE Yes, there were about 40 soloists on a special

stage in front of us. They were really good. My

favourite was this boy of about 8 with an incredible

voice!

CT Did you wish you’d been chosen to do a solo?!

AE Kind of. It looked really good fun!

CT How long was the concert?

AE The concert was two hours long.

CT Do you know if it was recorded or filmed?

AE Yes, both. If you go on the VIAM website, you can

buy the CD.

CT What did you enjoy most about the experience?

AE It was really fun and exciting and I liked that it

was about helping people. It was quite moving to

hear people’s stories. Some famous people got up

to speak like the comedian, Andrew Barton, who

talked about being adopted, and the musician, Rick

Wakeman.

CT How do you see yourself achieving your dream

of making singing your living? For example, do you

have vocal or instrumental lessons?

AE I love all the singing and performing we do at

school plus I sing all the time at home. As far as

lessons go, I’m learning piano with my Mum – just

basic scales and which notes are which at the

moment. I did start the guitar but Mum stopped

teaching me cos I didn’t practise!

Ann-Mari Thomas

CT You went to the concert. How did you enjoy it?

AMT It was incredible. I had shivers up and down

my spine from the word go and I was in tears by the

second song. The whole thing was aimed at getting

a massive emotional response from the audience

and designed to make people think hard about the

adoption and fostering process.

CT You took your two sons, both of whom have

special needs, to watch their sister on stage. Can

you tell me something about their experience?

AMT I wasn’t expecting them to enjoy the concert

but they surprised me. My younger son liked the boy


Q&A: Voice in a Million – One Girl’s Dream of

Performing at the O2 Arena11-year-old Annalise Elgar (distant relative of composer, Edward) has always dreamed of singing on a big

stage. On 4 February 2011, that dream came true when she and 28 Year 6s from her school performed

in a Voice in a Million concert at the O2 Arena to raise awareness of adoption and fostering. Cathy Tozer

spoke to Annalise and her mother, fitness instructor and part-time backing vocalist, Ann-Mari Thomas.

singers but wasn’t so keen on the girls. My older son

was bopping along in his seat and singing along to

the songs he knew so I know he had a good time!

AMT Like her, it’s something I always wanted to do

yet I’ve never managed to make my living solely from

it. I don’t think there’s enough work unless you’re

right at the very top. However good you are, you

have to be lucky as well so I’d tell her it’s important

to have something to back it up with because the

work is so sporadic – it comes and goes.

CT So you don’t see Annalise following in the

footsteps of her famous ancestor, Edward Elgar?!

AMT I don’t think she’d know who I meant!

CT What do you think Annalise has gained from her

experience?

AMT I think it’s been a very good experience for her

and she’s gained a lot from it. It was a very long day

(she and her friends were at the O2 from 2- 10.30pm)

and she had to be well behaved and focussed

throughout the rehearsal while making sure she

saved enough energy for the evening performance.

It’s definitely shown her what she’s aiming for if she’s

serious about making a living from singing!


CT You work part-time as a singer and backing

vocalist. Would you encourage Annalise to become

a professional musician?

The Voice in a Million project strives to

achieve awareness of the plight of millions of

children worldwide that are orphaned,

abandoned or separated from their birth

parents and in need of a loving family for life.

Through live arena-scale concerts and

celebrity support, we bring attention to

children who have no mother or father to

nurture and guide them, whilst also 'making

a difference' to the thousands of children

who participate in the events and recordings.

In support of the British Association for

Adoption & Fostering (BAAF), Voice in a

Million has successfully staged spectacular

shows for two consecutive years at the O2

Arena, gathering 7,500 children from schools

and groups across the nation to perform

simultaneously as part of our mass choir.

Voice in a Million's mission is to record

thousands of children at events worldwide to

achieve our record-breaking goal of

recording ONE MILLION voices...

For information on how you or your group

can 'make a difference', take part in future

events and join The Voice in a Million Choir,

visit www.voiceinamillion.com.

Individuals, schools and groups can also

participate in the Voice in a Million Virtual

Choir. Simply record and upload your voice

at home or at school and contribute to One

Million Voices from across the world on one

record-breaking recording.

Email: [email protected]


Photos: Stewart Attwood, Herald & Times Group

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ABC Creative MusicOnline

www.abcmusic.org.uk

WHY NOT TRY A FREE TRIAL!

FREE TRIALLESSONS!

for each year group

Easy & Fun for teachers not confident in music!EASY LOG ON FROM ANY MAC/PC

Figure it out with Figurenotes

Thursa Sanderson, Drake Music Scotland’s Chief Executive, explains why they are piloting this Finnish

notation system.

Drake Music Scotland was established in

1997 with the aim of creating music-

making opportunities for people with

disabilities of all ages, using conventional

instruments combined with a range of

technologies for those otherwise unable to play.

These include Soundbeam, a motion sensor

device that can be controlled even by very small

movements and, more recently, Brainfingers which

controls events on a computer screen using facial

muscles and alpha/beta brainwave activity. The

guiding principle was always to give participants

as much control of their instrument – technological

or otherwise – as possible and support inde-

pendent music-making. From its early days running

school and community projects in and around

Edinburgh, the organisation now works throughout

Scotland offering a programme of high-quality

music projects often in partnership with other

music organisations and education authorities.

Why Figurenotes?

Over the years, Drake Music Scotland has had

great success with people with physical disabilities

and profound and complex needs, working in

Special schools and with groups of adults to

provide programmes of music education and

creative projects. Technological solutions often

provided the key to meaningful musical activities

for these groups. However, the situation was quite

different for people with learning difficulties who

were physically able to pick up an instrument and

play. Although the technology was sometimes

appropriate, it was not always as satisfying as

playing recognisable tunes on ‘real’ instruments.

What was lacking was a way to help them learn to

read music and support progressive musical

learning in the same way as had been achieved

with physically disabled people.

In 2008, Drake Music Scotland heard of the work

of two Finnish music educators at the Resonaari

School in Helsinki (www.resonaari.fi) who had

been teaching adults with learning difficulties to

play and read music with great success over a

period of ten years. They had developed a tool

called Figurenotes©, a notation system using

colour and shape to define the musical elements

of pitch and duration and based on the ability to

match identical symbols.

Each musical note has a corresponding

Figurenotes symbol and with the help of stickers

attached to their keyboard or fret board, learners

are asked to ‘play what you see’. The duration of

a note is indicated by a corresponding lengthening

of the shape, a crotchet being the standard size, a

quaver half as long and a minim twice as long.

Rests are represented by blanks and sharps or

flats by arrows indicating the direction to go to

raise or lower the note. There is also a way of

showing chords using the expression, ‘Play a

friend, not a neighbour!’. The real beauty of

Figurenotes is that it represents the same

information as ordinary written music and, rather

than being an alternative system, takes the learner

through three straightforward stages of transition,

the second stage placing the Figurenotes on the

stave, the third discarding these for coloured notes

and finally the fourth stage – conventional music

notation. An example of a simple tune in the first

stage is shown below.

Figurenotes © Kaarlo Uusitalo, 1996

Figurenotes applications © Markku Kaikkonen and Kaarlo Uusitalo, 1998

Learners can pick up rhythms and play

recognisable tunes or parts from the start. They

are therefore motivated by this success to progress

more quickly. Annona Thornton, music teacher at

Lilybank SEN School in Inverclyde, finds that

Figurenotes gives pupils with special needs the

tools to make music independently and provides

an answer to inclusion, with her pupils now joining

the orchestra at the local mainstream Secondary

school, Port Glasgow High.

‘Pupils are achieving what seemed to be

impossible,’ she says. ‘Using Figurenotes gives

confidence which, in turn, seems to encourage the

desire to communicate. It is the first step to so

many possibilities.’

Other notable successes to date include work with

pupils on the autistic spectrum. Jill Reeves, a

teacher at St Crispin’s School in Edinburgh, finds

that her autistic learners have been able to

succeed in reading music for the first time:

‘The concrete, visual nature of the system makes

sense to my autistic learners. Figurenotes has

increased their confidence and ability to

concentrate. One pupil has learned to use the

Figurenotes software and recreate existing tunes

- this shows executive function and the potential

to be creative - very significant for ASD learners.’

Drake Music Scotland

has also teamed up with

Connect, the Scottish

Chamber Orchestra’s

education and outreach

department, to promote

iCompose, their new

national composition

competition, and encour-

age those unfamiliar

with conventional nota-

tion to write music in

Figurenotes.

Another key feature valued by SEN teachers is that

Figurenotes enables differentiation within a shared

group activity, different pupils with various levels

of ability being able to work together on the same

piece of music. Through Drake Music Scotland’s

involvement as ‘inclusion partner’ with Sistema

Scotland and their Big Noise project in Raploch

near Stirling, two children with learning disabilities

from Castleview SEN School on the campus where

the orchestral project is based are now integrated

into a mainstream orchestra, having learned to

read music with Figurenotes.

Mainstream music instructors have also found that

Figurenotes enables all children to engage in

music-making. Julie Carrie, YMI Support Tutor in

East Ayrshire, says that it is ‘a great motivational

tool for new learners’, used successfully with non-

music readers transitioning from P7 to S1 who

quickly jumped from Stage 1 to Stage 3 once they

got the hang of it. Maggie Malloch, who has

explored use of the system with Pre-school

nurseries in Dumfries and Galloway, commented,

‘Figurenotes is so intuitive it needs little or no

explanation which is such a benefit when dealing

with pupils who find verbal instructions difficult. I

have also seem some very distractible children

maintain focus for longer than ever before’.

Annona Thornton adds, ‘There is no doubt that it

supports progression in music. For example, one

boy who has struggled for three years to complete

the second half of a melody played it immediately

when given it in Figurenotes form. Within a few

days, he could play the whole tune from memory.

For us at Lilybank, this is a very exciting

development. I have been a music teacher in both

mainstream and special needs for many years and

have used many approaches but Figurenotes has

helped our children progress in music beyond all

expectation.’

Drake Music Scotland’s Figurenotes project,

funded by a Creative Scotland Inspire grant,

involves a number of partnerships to pilot the

system with the education authorities referred to

above and other organisations such as the


Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Sistema

Scotland. With the SCO’s Connect music education

team, the use of Figurenotes as a composition tool

is being explored while children with learning

difficulties from the special school on the Stirling

campus where Sistema Scotland’s Big Noise

project is being developed are now taking part in

the orchestral programme.

Drake Music Scotland’s Figurenotes software was

launched at the first UK Figurenotes conference at

the City Halls, Glasgow on 26 November 2010. It

offers the possibility of creating and reproducing

pieces of music and parts in Figurenotes and

composing new material.

The outcome of the pilot projects, showing

successful musical learning for a wide range of

groups, were presented at the event through

practical demonstrations and performances by the

Finnish inventors of Figurenotes as well as Drake

Scotland’s team and partners.

The Figurenotes software and other Figurenotes

resources will be available in the near future.


Further information can be found on the

Drake Music Scotland website

www.drakemusicscotland.org

or by emailing [email protected]

Community music practitioners, Emily Carr and

Nicola McAteer have always been passionate

about the impact that music can have on

people’s lives. Both Nicola and Emily have worked

extensively using music as a communicative tool and

have witnessed first-hand the effectiveness of this.

Using their skills, experience and shared beliefs, they

came together to set up Hear My Music.

Hear My Music is a not-for-profit company that

delivers projects through music workshops to

enhance the self-advocacy skills of vulnerable

people. These workshops can be offered to groups

or individuals and can include opportunities for

creative composition, improvisation and

performance. Creative musical interaction can

enhance communication, self-expression and

confidence, allowing for the development of self-

advocacy. The processes used are especially

accessible for those who find conventional

communication methods such as language a

challenge. The primary aim is to expand the

understanding of an individual’s preferred

communication method and use this understanding

to enhance the individual’s self-advocacy skills.

Self-Advocacy

Nicola’s background as a self-advocacy support

worker enabled a link to be drawn between self-

advocacy skills and music-making skills. Emily and

Nicola feel that this is a key relationship and have

spent three years researching this link and

subsequently developing a project model that uses

music sessions to enhance self-advocacy.

Self-advocacy is often described as ‘speaking up for

yourself’ and the term is also representative of the

self-advocacy social movement within learning

disabilities. In the past 20 years, organisations have

been formed throughout the country with the aim

of supporting vulnerable people in speaking up for

themselves and their local communities. The

movement has also progressed to getting

individuals with learning disabilities involved in

government lobbying and policy. As a social

movement, it is very successful and confident self-

advocates are now often trained to support their

peer groups in many issues. However, there is a

growing concern among such organisations that

self-advocacy skills among individuals with more

complex communication needs are difficult to

acquire and have been slightly overlooked.

Nicola and Emily, through Hear My Music, have

developed methods to tackle this issue, strongly

believing that individuals with complex needs have

every right to access self-advocacy. They also feel

that there are fewer alternative approaches to

developing the self-advocacy skills of all individuals

and use music-making sessions to bridge this gap.

Hear My Music has developed research suggesting

that music sessions can meet the needs of

individuals with complex needs whilst also working

with more confident self-advocates to tackle specific

issues. In 2009, Nicola led a 12-month pilot

research project entitled ‘music interaction as a

vehicle to develop self-advocacy for people with

learning disabilities including those with complex

needs’. Throughout this project, both Nicola and

Emily worked with individuals and groups of varying

ages and abilities. The results of the project

suggested that core skills central to the self-

advocacy process such as making choices, gaining

confidence, expressing emotions and

communicating intentions can be achieved by

individuals of all abilities and groups through

participation in creative music sessions. It also

suggested that music sessions can work

successfully as an alternative approach to

addressing specific advocacy issues.

Monitoring and research

Emily and Nicola share the belief that music

interaction is a powerful communicative tool;

however, this practice can be perceived as

ambiguous. Through Hear My Music, Nicola and

Emily constantly review their practice and develop

research to strengthen and support work that they

believe can have a major impact on individual’s lives.

Self-advocacy is difficult to measure, particularly in

those with communication difficulties. To monitor

each individual’s self-advocacy progress, Hear My

Music has created a musical self-advocacy cycle.

This cycle has five stages which can be monitored

relating to an individual’s achievements within


Hear My Music

Hear My Music is a new organisation based in Scotland that uses music to enhance self-advocacy skills

for vulnerable people. Founders, Emily Carr and Nicola McTeer explain their work.


music sessions. Each individual is given a baseline

advocacy stage based on questionnaires and

observation. Once a baseline has been established,

every session thereafter is monitored and given a

stage on the self-advocacy cycle.

The flexibility of the project model allows research

to be fluid and unique to each project. While every

individual is working towards moving to a new stage

on the cycle, there is a huge variety in how these

stages can be achieved. Each case is worked out

individually using a variety of methods including

video footage, staff and carer questionnaires and,

most importantly, the participant’s reactions.

The project model

Hear My Music projects run in a range of different set-

tings and ways. When working on a project in an Ad-

ditional Support Needs (ASN) school, the musicians

spend one day a week for up to 20 weeks in the

school. Towards the end of a project, students from

local mainstream schools are integrated within the

project and work with the musicians to develop their

communication skills with their peers through music.

The day in the ASN school is spent working with

groups and individuals. The individual sessions are

based on a technique called co-improvisation where

the musician improvises to reflect the individual’s

creative expression. Some individuals respond by

taking complete control and showing when and

what to play. This shows creative control and is an

essential step to developing effective self-advocacy

skills. Others take time to learn how to express

themselves. In these cases, the musician provides

a musical sound world and lets the individual

manipulate it at their own pace. In all cases, original

musical material is created in these sessions and

this material forms the basis of the final product.

The group sessions vary from structured musical

games and action songs to free improvisation. Once

a large amount of musical material has been drawn

from individual sessions, this material is used for

the group sessions and is developed further. Group

time then takes the more traditional form of a

rehearsal. Using an individual’s own musical

contribution during group time has been found to

be an exceptionally effective tool in integrating those

who find it difficult to work in a group to be a fully

functional member.

The project culminates in a performance involving

all students that took part. The music for the

performance is all original and is based on melody,

rhythm, texture and sound worlds that have been

developed within individual sessions.

Hear My Music works with existing self-advocacy

organisations. Organisations will often tackle a

specific community issue and music sessions can

be used to strengthen and enhance the ways of

dealing with such concerns. In these cases, a very

effective tool is songwriting as a group using a

choice ‘menu’ method. The process itself of

songwriting can be very useful for the self-advocacy

process and the final product can also be a useful

tool for conveying messages to a community.

The project model for Hear My Music is

exceptionally flexible however: every project uses

the same techniques of enhancing interaction and

communication through music and every project

monitors an individual’s progress on the self-

advocacy cycle. As every individual is different, it is

paramount to keep the model this flexible while

maintaining important common themes.

Hear My Music is looking forward to delivering

many more projects and continuing to promote

the practice of self-advocacy through music.

Hear My Music will be an exhibitor at

musiclearninglive!2011.

More information on Hear My Music can be

found at www.hearmymusic.org.uk.

Case Studies (*all names have been changed)

*Jane age 15

Jane took part in a project involving several Special

Educational Needs schools and mainstream schools

across the country, culminating in a performance in The

Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow. She rarely made eye contact

and her school staff reported that she often showed a

dislike for sounds but they were unaware of her musical

preferences. After several weeks of rhythmic games,

exercises and creative improvisation, she was able to make

strong eye contact with the practitioner and communicate

her preferences for different styles of music. She was

filmed performing which was then showcased at the

concert hall.

*John age 12

John participated in a five-month project within his Special

Educational Needs school. At the start of the project, John

found it difficult to sit through a group session and did not

participate or interact. We worked with John on a one-to-

one basis and used his habitual tapping and humming

sounds to explore musical sounds, motifs and textures.

John became familiar with the musical expansion of these

sounds and this music that we had created in conjunction

with him was then used in a group situation. John

subsequently became comfortable participating in a group

situation and performed in front of family and friends, much

to the surprise of his family!

The opportunity to play around with internet-

based music games was highly appealing

when I was asked to write this review. Theta

Music Trainer has developed a set of online games

designed to teach the fundamental skills of music. It

is designed for musicians of all levels who want to

deepen their understanding of music but clearly

helps improve their ability to play music by ear.

I logged on and immediately dived into a game called

Melodic Drops which tested my aural recognition of

intervals. It was great fun. To be honest, the first few

levels were extremely straightforward but this game

would certainly be of benefit to children learning

melodic intervals. It also worked extremely well on

the interactive whiteboard in my classroom and

before long I had a group of enthusiastic Year 6 boys

trying to beat my score.

Paddle Pitch (reminded me of early video games of

paddle tennis and football) was equally fun but took

the boys a bit longer to understand. However, I

particularly enjoyed Parrot Phrases in which a melody

is played and has to be recreated on a simulated

keyboard.

The boys steamed through this until they reached a

more advanced level which certainly challenged

them more.

I doubt that the boys would have been so enthralled

with what amounts to aural tests and music theory

without this excellent resource. The ten games are

simple to learn, fun to play and certainly challenging.

There are 20 levels of difficulty within each game,

providing plenty of scope for pupils of all abilities. A

daily ‘workout’ of aural and theory work has surely

never been this fun before! I, for one, shall certainly

be using it at my school.

Brian Cotterill

Brian Cotterill is Director of Music at Lanesborough

School (the choir school of Guildford Cathedral), joint

Musical Director of the Surrey Songsters and a

freelance organist, choral director and composer. He

is also the South East Representative for NAME.

product review

Theta Music Trainer

product: Theta Music Trainer

what: Online aural and musicianship training

resource

price: Free account to access basic resources;

full resources available for subscription

of US$54/year or US$7.95/month

from: http://trainer.thetamusic.com


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Please contact us either via zonemag.net or email [email protected].

zone magazine issue 21

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