Excellent music provision in schools often comes down to the hard work of inspired individuals, like Music Manifesto signatory Sarah Barnes, Head of Music at Great Baddow High School in Essex.
This term Sarah has initiated all sorts of musical activities at Great Baddow, including a Non-Stop Music Day, peer-led beatboxing workshops and a collaboration with the Parachute Regiment Band.
Catching a breather, Sarah told us all about what she and her students have been getting up to...
"We have been working hard to bring as many musical opportunities and experiences to our students as possible and it is having a wonderful effect. In October we held a Non-Stop Music Day and an enormous number of students took part, performing throughout the day (see pictures below). There was the most amazing atmosphere and it really fuelled enthusiasm for participation in subsequent events and the take-up of instrumental and vocal lessons.
"Parents commented on the fantastic enthusiasm and positive, happy spirits of their children when they returned home and so many students said they felt so much more confident about performing after the event and couldn't wait for next year! As you will see from the pictures, we also had several members of staff performing, including a staff band which was hugely popular. I felt it was particularly positive from the point of view of building good student-staff relationships.
"We also held workshops for feeder primary schools on the day. One was a music technology class using 'Acid Music' and the other was a gamelan music workshop where our Year 10 music students paired up with a primary child each and worked on performing gamelan music as a large ensemble. All had a wonderful time.
"A few days later we had a visit from a wonderful singer, Natasha Dobie, who held masterclasses for some students. She was so inspirational and I was thrilled to see that although it was an after-school event the turn-out of students who came simply to watch those participating was fantastic. They stayed enthralled for three whole hours and nobody could believe the difference she was able to make to the students' singing!
"We also had some 26 students take part in a day with the Parachute Regiment Band, playing both traditional and big band music. They came back 'on fire' for performance and once again there were huge confidence boosts all round.
"We have just performed a Christmas concert for local senior citizens - we made cards for them all and our food technology department worked with us by creating a wonderful spread of festive fayre and serving some 300 people! Our school has a special unit for hearing impaired students and they too have been taking part in these events, signing some of the songs. We have also been working towards a Cathedral Carol Concert with 250 of our students taking part. This is wonderful news as all classes have been working on songs and then voluntarily signing up to take part.
"We are working hard on encouraging the idea of peer education. We have a particularly engaging young student called Mendici, who is 16, and has recently run a whole day of beatbox workshops for the Year 7. He stunned us by planning an outstanding session that he tirelessly delivered over and over to our pupils. He is now considered 'quite a legend' amongst the Year 7s and amusingly the sixth form have now asked that he run some workshops for them.
"The Year 10s are currently composing 'learning songs' for primary children with simple instrumental parts in them. Next term we have 90 Year 3 children coming in and the Year 10s will run sessions for the Year 3s where they teach the songs that they have written. On the back of his success with the Year 7 workshops, Mendici will also be running his beatbox workshop for visiting Year 5s.
"And finally, next term we're also hosting a Battle of the Bands for nine schools - it's all very exciting!"
Impressive stuff, eh? If you've been doing something musical that's worth shouting about, get in touch via info@muscimanifesto.co.uk