2008! What a wonderful time to be working in Music Education. Singing has been recognized for it’s inclusiveness, benefit to heath, community cohesion, skills, learning opportunity and fun by our very own government! Sing Up is born! All power to the campaign, resources and work force development. When I was telling a friend of mine about it all, he said, “Yeah, it’s hard to be angry when you’re singing”! So lets not be angry this year. Lets sing together, sing on your way to work, join a choir, sing with your children, sing with your friends… and your enemies, and stay cool and kind!
I wonder if anyone is as much in disbelief as I am that it’s the 2nd Nov 2007?!
It seems not so long ago we were celebrating the culmination of some wonderful musical activity through the year at the
RFH! And yet, when I think… I did so enjoy singing back up vocals and playing percussion for Bianca at the Edinburgh Festival this year. It was a chance to make some music with Maciek, my partner, who played guitar too and to get a sense of the wondrous and creative human endeavour of several other acts. I can also now see the colour of the carpet and table surfaces in my study at home. IKEA did well out of me for box files! I even filed, or cleared most emails from my accounts, all ready to start again tomorrow. And that’s just what I DID manage to do…… 
There’s a few new rhythm squares in Teacher Resources and another song
Continue reading ‘Did anyone see where summer went?’
I can’t believe it’s March! It’s a joy, as has been the first 2 months of work this year. Newham is such an exciting place to work right now. Teachers seem open and willing to explore new ways of working and to support each other in the process. I love going in to all the schools to work with the choirs, especially Primaries. They are a wonderful world of investigation and expression through colour, shape textures and poetry hanging from and standing in every space available. I think we’d all benefit from a reminder of what it’s like to explore the meaning of the world this way, from time to time!
Last week we launched the NooNewJazz project with 14 young players primary and secondary, their teachers, TA’s and 3 professional Jazz musicians - John Bennett, Continue reading ‘Spring is in the Air!’
An interesting first term for 2006/7 Academic year. As part of my role as Music Advisor and with guidance from my line manager Andrew Mutter, I am responsible for developing music projects that meet the aims and objectives of Newham’s Cultural and Heritage program towards 2012, funded by Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF). This is a broad programme of curriculum development and enrichment activities which aim to encourage young people and their families to explore the Olympic and Paralympic ideals creatively as well as to celebrate local heritage, different cultures and faiths and give them a voice in the development of Olympic and Paralympic facilities and Games preparations. I lead on this for Music.
So far we have two music projects up and running, ‘Tomorrows Musicians Today’ involving 70 or more students and many teachers, and Newham Young People’s Chorus (NYPC) involving 600 students and 40 teachers. They depend on partnerships with several other delivering organisations such as FourSight (Victoria Soames Samek, Chris Brannick, Stephen Bingham and Adrian Sutcliffe), Newham Sixth Forn College (NewVic) and the Newham Instrumental Service (NAM), as well as Newham’s 2 Primary Music AST’s James Biddulph and Aimee Gilmore. They also involve local independent Music Leaders, such as Paul Watson, Sovra Newman and David Levalle. These projects Continue reading ‘Projects and Progress’
“Let’s hold hands” I said, as we all danced in the circle. “Right palm up, left palm down”.
“Because…?” said Catherine, a person whose artistic and reflective approach to the world I much admire and respect.
“Oh, because it balances the energy in the circle”, I said. Eyebrows were raised, but nothing said. I must have sounded Continue reading ‘Holding Hands’
I hope you agree, music is so wholly inclusive, I truely believe we can teach most of the curriculum through it whilst including everyone! I learned a good deal about early years whilst team teaching with Aimee Gilmore today, Primary AST. Team teaching makes such a difference; reenforcement; feedback and interjection in the moment; time to reflect while the other leads; sharing and exploring ideas in action; shared responsibility…. loved it. I’ve added the songs we sang to the Download Resources section, along with my notes for the session. It might be helpful for someone!
I’ve finally put up some of the classroom songs we covered in primary music sessions last term. I think this is going to work better than trying to give out CD’s to everyone on the day! I’d value any feedback as to whether this is useful or not? Go to Download Resources.
I said I’d put the lyrics up for songs we covered in the NQT sessions today. Apologies for the printer!
Download Essay on Music Assessment
[photopress:IMG_0249_1_1.jpg,thumb,alignleft]How can a 3 hour session with an artist and a music advisor leading 6 teachers, facilitate the development of a holistic student assessment for transition from primary to secondary school, in music?
Ha.. I’ve just finished reading it! I feel recharged and reconnected with the team of Tappers and with the purpose of the process! I laughed, I argued in my head, agreed fervently, felt disappointed.. then elated, I chuckled, frowned, queried and re-read sections, I reflected, marvelled and felt deep respect, occasional envy at the succinctness and eloquence. (Antidisestablidhmentarianism- ha- used to practice saying and spelling it with my brothers!).