The programme of work is the result of substantial collective research, analysis, discussion and agreement by all four partners in the Pathfinder. At its core is a collective aim to improve the musical education opportunities available to children in Manchester and Salford, with specific reference to the aims of the Music Manifesto and the Every Child Matters agenda.
Music can make a special contribution to the education of children and young people through its ability to inspire and capture the imagination, alongside its demand for communication, teamwork and discipline. With a specific focus on improving the support structures for young people’s music making, the North West Pathfinder also aims to offer improved access for more young people to experience the joys of music making, and to broaden and deepen young people’s musical skills across a range of genres.
Through its place within the regional context, the North West Pathfinder will help to identify and nurture the most talented young people and ‘signpost’ them to pathways for advanced learning, both within and outside the immediate Pathfinder provision.
With Music Manifesto resources, the North West Pathfinder will explore how improving the support structures for children’s music making, by linking organisations together in close collaboration, can enhance the quality of the music education offered to children. The impact of that enhanced opportunity will be observed, analysed and measured to inform future thinking.
The structure of provision will be both horizontal, i.e. with a wide spread across the two cities, and vertical: a ‘drilling down’ in two specified localities for a more concentrated impact.
In particular, the following interlinking strands of work will be explored and tested:
- The regional context of the North West Pathfinder, with the cultivation of appropriate links to other musical and educational organisations
- Singing and the impact of singing on children and young people
- Improving access and information through the exploration of emerging technologies so that more children, their teachers and parents, can find out about musical opportunities available to them
- Enabling more young people to experience the thrill of live music performances
- Creating two ‘clusters’ of schools as a focus for intense partnership activity, as a potential and emergent ‘music forum’
The overall process of discovery, delivery, impact and success of the partnership across all the strands of work will be brought together in the Pathfinder Governance project. This project will specifically focus on the developing partnership and strategic governance issues for a potential embryonic Music Trust or Forum.
Mark Elder, Hallé Music Director said: ‘This investment through the Music Manifesto is the opportunity to move towards my dream that every young person in both cities will have the chance to sing and work with professional musicians – not just the Hallé and classical musicians, but across the widest possible spectrum of styles – bringing educators, performers and young people onto one wide and diverse platform.’