Break Out Sessions

NAME NATIONAL CONFERENCE 17 - 19 September 2010
Yarnfield Park Training and Conference Centre
BREAKOUT SESSIONS

Friday 17 September 11:30

Click here to book your place. 

Breakouts 1

1. Classy Voices: creative approaches to whole class singing in KS1 and 2
Em Whitfield Brooks
The workshop offers ways into whole class and whole-school singing for teachers and leaders across the spectrum of experience. Useful and enjoyable warm ups, singing games, ice-breakers, ideas for you to take and develop in your own way, healthy vocal tips as well as effective songs for all children – even the ones that don’t want to sing! For some children songwriting provides the key to the singing experience, and for some teachers it can help a class access areas of the curriculum in new ways, so we will also look at practical approaches to whole class songwriting, exploring methods and activities that encourage creative vocal composition, which will improve creative expression, illuminate aspects of learning and increase confidence and enjoyment for all young singers - and their teachers.

2. Tribal Groove (KS3)
Victoria Leith
Victoria has been working in schools and communities for over ten years, using her practical and exciting approach to learning rhythm through using her body like a drum kit. Covering many aspects of the curriculum from Citizenship to PE to Music, the activities that Victoria will bring to the conference will enable each music educator to learn in a fun and positive way how to bring these skills to the classroom and share them with pupils - and in turn, they can also become the educator too! Look forward to a creative high-powered, energetic workshop! You won’t believe what you can achieve in such a short space of time! 
   
3. Responding to the Music Play of Very Young Children (early years) 
Nancy Evans
This workshop will explore the self-initiated music play, with instruments and voices, of very young children. It will help participants to recognise and understand children’s innate musicality. It will also give participants strategies for responding to and interacting with children’s spontaneous music-making. The workshop will be a mixture of practical activity mixed with discussion and reflection on presented video clips.

4. Tamboo Bamboo (KS2/3) 
Richard Charles
Richard leads an exploration of whole class music-making using broomsticks as "found sounds."  This workshop takes its inspiration from the Tamboo Bamboo bands of Trinidad and Tobago: the predecessors of the steel pan in Carnival music.  We will examine various warm up activities using body percussion, learn rhythmic games and discuss ways of incorporating these games into a performance.  The session will be geared towards the music teacher and should provide ideas that can be used in various educational settings. 
   
5. Bringing the Music Industry into the Classroom: Setting Up Rock and Pop Projects from Transition to GCSE 
James Tarling
Set against a background of upheaval in the music industry and the growing availability of cheap music technology, this breakout will explore teaching students about the realities of getting a band off the ground: from learning your instrument and rehearsing a live set to promoting gigs and making inroads into the industry. 

We will be reflecting on Rock and Pop projects piloted by James in partnership with Somerset Music; what they can tell us about making this all important link between the real world and the classroom. The breakout will involve looking at existing practice and how similar projects could be implemented in schools. 

The projects we will be referring to have lead to students setting up their own concerts at school and in the community, composing, recording demos and providing material for GCSE coursework. 

The methodology of the project is loosely based on the Musical Futures approach of student-centered learning with additional coaching, live recording and community based performance opportunities; there are also some interesting developments afoot with getting these projects to work with NUMU as a method of improving continuity at transition (i.e. linking with feeder primary schools and generating a sense of community music making). 

If you have growing ranks of students drawn to being in bands but are unsure how to galvanize and inspire them, this breakout will give you a range of ideas and strategies for making it happen.

6. The Music Room Developmental Classroom Music Program (KS1/2)
Dubois Enterprises
Mark Leehy will be workshopping the company's flagship - Music Room. It will be a hands-on, full-on, fun session, leading delegates through this exciting new developmental classroom music program.

Music Room covers the complete primary years and is fully resourced - with lesson plans, performance pieces, outcomes & tracking, charts, audio CDs, DVDs and data projection CDROMs. And it's appropriate to both specialist music teacher and non-music-trained classroom teacher alike. 

Music Room covers musical elements, contexts, sound exploration, composition & lyric writing through a wonderful world of styles from classical to roots and world, from reggae to blues, jazz and hip hop - with the emphasis on students creating and presenting. Mark will guarantee you an engaging, uplifting and inspirational session . and you'll leave with an armload of songs and activities you can use immediately.

7. Developing the Student Voice in Schools
Anthony Anderson and students from Beauchamp College
This session will look at how student voice can add a new dimension to the life of a school.  Looking at the model of best practice from Beauchamp College and its innovations in student voice, the session will draw on a range on contributors.  Adopting a workshop style format, parts of the session will be lead by the college’s student governors who are members of the school’s governing body, the Insted inspector for Music and performing arts (the college’s student version of Ofsted) and student mentors who have worked alongside current students with composition and performance work.  There will be time to hear what the students think of student voice, plenty of time for discussion and questions and examples of how student voice and mentoring has directly influenced the college and lead to improvements in teaching and learning.  A session not to be missed for those interested in incorporating genuine student voice into their work with young people.

8. Whose Musical Education Is This? - research presentation 
John Finney
What role is the pupil's voice to have in music education? This research seminar examines the ways in which two kinds of needs are at work in creating a meaningful music education for the young. Firstly there are inferred needs, those needs inferred on the young by government, policy makers, schools, parents, carers, teachers. Secondly, there those needs expressed by the young themselves. A better understanding of how these might work together helps to clarify the role of the ‘pupil's voice’ in making a better music education.

9. NAME Debate -  What is the Sing Up legacy and how can it be sustained post 2011?
led by Katherine Zeserson
Delegates are invited to debate the key issues affecting music education today. 

Friday 17 September 14:15
Breakouts 2 

1 - 5 as for Breakouts 1 above.

6. Young People’s Voice and the Arts Award
Arts Award - Trinity Guildhall 
Arts Award is a national qualification which supports young people aged 11-25 to develop as artists and arts leaders. The award fosters creative, communication and leadership skills and helps to prepare young people for further education and employment. Arts Award is offered at Bronze, Silver and Gold levels and is recognised on the National Qualifications Framework at Levels 1, 2, and 3.
   
7. How the Greater Manchester Music Action Zone Engages the Pupil Voice
Debra King
Debra discusses the methods developed by the Greater Manchester Music Action Zone to engage with the pupil voice and how that engagement influences the Zone’s work.  The presentation will look at the associated challenges and rewards and gives practical ideas on how to set up similar projects.
   
8.  Music at the Heart of Cross-curricular Learning - research presentation
Jonathan Barnes
Human experience of the world is cross-curricular.  Understanding, expressing and explaining any real experience requires bringing together the skills, knowledge and attitudes of a number of established subject disciplines. Jonathan’s passion for music, art, history, geography and language meant that throughout his forty year career in schools and universities, integrated approaches have dominated his practice. He has written widely for English Heritage, museums and teachers on cross-curricular learning in primary and secondary contexts and his book Cross-Curricular Learning 3-14 is currently undergoing a post-Rose, revision. His recent research has identified five different types of cross-curricular teaching and learning – hierarchical, multi-disciplinary, inter, disciplinary, opportunistic and ‘double focus’. 

Jonathan has worked over the past three years on the pivotal role of music in a curriculum founded on subjects creatively coming together to solve problems and express ideas. Jonathan will involve participants in three practical examples of cross-curricular activity involving music to illustrate different modes of cross-curricularity. He will give opportunity to discuss the balancing of progression and motivation in cross curricular activity.
   
9. NAME Debate - A Crisis in Secondary Music ?
led by Robert Bunting
The focus in secondary schools is currently on generic teaching skills.  Music teachers are less likely to make time for thinking about the challenges of teaching in subject terms.   Rather than growing over time by reflection, experiment and evaluation, many settle for what can be seen as a mechanistic pedagogy, which fails to break through to any deeper understanding of what young people might gain from music, how they best learn it, and what music-specific skills are needed to teach them. 

At the same time, the level of external support for music pedagogy is diminishing rapidly - both subject advisor and specialist subject inspector are dying breeds.

There is a danger that all the curriculum gains of the last few years will be lost.  
Performance-focused approaches, however attractive, are not a long-term substitute.  Over the next few years we may well see the quality of young people's classroom music experiences taking a nose-dive.

Through discussion of four key questions, this debate will explore the reality and scale of the crisis, the reasons for it, and some possible ways ahead.
   
Saturday 18 September 11.30
Breakouts 3
   
1. Animate, Appraise and Apply ! using singing to develop young leaders (KS2/3) Shirley Court
A practical session aimed to examine the skills and processes required in developing young animateurs /singing leaders of the future. It will explore strategies used in teaching young children to appraise their own singing and ways to develop good listening skills. The session will also involve current practising young animateurs to share their experiences and explore their high expectations of standards and achievement.
   
2.  Boomwhakers in Action!! (KS1/2)
Geraldine Gaunt and Phil Needham
Have you got sets of Boomwhackers that are gathering dust? Are they just sitting on top of a piano looking pretty and colourful? Are you clueless as to how to get the most from them? If so, then this fun, hands on, active workshop is just for you!
   
The session will explore the Geraldine and Phil’s latest publication ‘Boomwhackers in Action’ that contains:

• Lots of original activities that are suitable for both KS1 and KS2. 
• Ideas on how to integrate Boomwhackers with other tuned and untuned percussion
• Original stimulating backing tracks and interactive materials to promote learning and understanding using Boomwhackers

3.  Exploring and Mixing Sound - Music Technology at KS1/2
David Wheway
Delegates will consider ways of using audio editing programs creatively, and for creative outcomes, through exploring, manipulating and combing sounds to develop unique structures and compositions.

Inclusive processes enhance children’s understanding of musical elements, their technical language and promote pupil talk and appraisal.

The presentation will consideration musical and non-musical - directed and emergent starting points. The programs used in the session will include the PCs ‘Sound Recorder’ and the free program ‘Audacity’ (PC and Mac).
   
4. Composition Starters for KS2
Emily Keeler
A practical workshop packed with activities suitable for class teachers and those supporting class teachers with music in schools.  The session will explore a variety of exciting starting points for whole-class creative music making.  It will provide an excellent launch pad for those keen to broaden their teaching beyond the confines of a published scheme.

‘Composition Starters’ will include fun creative games that develop key musical skills and provide useful opportunities for individual pupils to shine and take the lead.  Play them as often as you like – repetition is the mother of learning, as they say!  The session will then go on to explore one or two activities in greater depth as we experience the process of composing as a whole group.

Whatever our starting point, be it rhythmic or melodic, poetic or visual, world, folk, jazz or pop, we must aim to make our interactions with pupils intrinsically musical.  Strong ‘Composition Starters’ offer open-ended ways to develop musicianship and can help to place pupil creativity at the heart of our every day music making.
   
5. Improvisation at KS3
Chris Harrison
 If music is like a language then improvisation is the equivalent of talking – a spontaneous use of one’s musical vocabulary to create and communicate meaning.  Yet it is also an aspect of music-making where many people lack confidence or which they see as something specialist.  This workshop starts from the assumption that everyone can be an improviser and will offer practical activities which can be used in KS3 music lessons help students develop their own spontaneous and creative music-making.  Using different starting points, the workshop will cover different aspects improvisation: of vocal and instrumental, free and structured, rhythmic and melodic, drawing on different musical styles and traditions.  Some instruments will be provided but participants are encouraged to bring their own.
   
6. Getting Loopy - Using music technology in a creative and musical way
Roland UK
This session features products such as the Roland/Boss Loop Station, Handsonic, Juno synthesizer and Vocal Performer. The objective is demonstrate how these products in combination enable learners to explore and experiment with sound, improvise and compose, and record multi-layered live performances in a practical and musical way.
   
7. Singing Express  - Discovering the singer in every child
A&C Black
led by Helen Macgregor
Singing Express is a complete scheme for singing in the primary years. Each book and DVD-ROM pack includes songs, chants, games, rhymes, stories and warm ups which provide easy but stimulating starting points for teachers and children alike. Helps build confident voices and happy singers.

It supplies everything that children and teacher need for singing together – brilliant, cross-curricular singing materials, which naturally and easily help grow confident voices and full guidance and help with using them.

The materials are designed for whiteboard display and include backing tracks, lyrics, song movies and specialist singing help whenever needed.
   
8. Developing a Singing Culture in Year 7 Classes  research presentation
Eleanor Vessey
How to develop pupil-teacher dialogue in the music classroom. An initial study aiming to discover ways of enabling positive communication in the classroom in order to improve music-making. The study focuses specifically on developing positive attitudes towards the singing voice through enhancing pupil dialogue; exploring the repertoire students want to sing and activities which build confidence.
Why do they Come to our After School Rock School ? research presentation
Joanne Cheetham
The research was born out of an interest in the relationship between formal and informal music making; in school music vs. out of school music. A great deal of research has been undertaken concerning these two types of practices and after reading much of the discussion surrounding different forms of music learning Joanne found herself wondering what exactly is going on in our after school Rock School, being neither ‘formal’ music practice nor ‘informal’ music making. She was also interested in the reasons behind the students’ decisions to participate in such a club and as such will investigate various theories by thinkers such as Pierre Bourdieu and Basil Bernstein. The research takes the form of an ethnographic case study investigating and questioning formal vs. informal learning and the ways in which students perceive these types of learning. It seeks to understand and explain various phenomena uncovered during the research process.
   
9. NAME Debate -  What Do We Want Funding to Achieve Within Music Education Services?
led by Dick Hallam
Delegates are invited to debate the key issues affecting music education today.

Saturday 18 September 14:15
Breakouts 4

1 - 5 as for breakouts 3
   
6. Inspira® - Contemporary KS2 Music
Charanga
In this fun and interactive session, Jane Sebba will introduce Inspira®, an exciting new music program for children at KS2. inspira® has been written and designed to give children a stimulating year of music in which all achieve their full potential. Uniquely, inspira® uses award-winning educational technology to provide an enhanced experience for everyone involved. In the classroom, teachers use an innovative inspira® ‘app’ with their data projector or IWB. The app contains all the multimedia resources needed for each lesson and it’s operated with a single tap of the computer space bar. You’ll see how this helps you run the lesson with pace and no loss of momentum between activities. Beyond the classroom, children and their parents or carers, can go online either through the school VLE or through the inspira® website, and use interactive inspira® music games to improve their musical skills.

Everyone attending the session will receive a free inspira® silver pack worth £75. www.musicinspira.co.uk.
   
7. Whose Music - Whose Identity?
James Garnett
This will be an interactive session that explores the relationship between music and identity for young people. Drawing on the experience of those in the session, we will examine the overlapping communities of musical practice to which young people belong and unpick the aesthetic and social implications that these raise. Through enhancing understanding of how music and identity are intertwined, this session will lead those attending to develop their ability to motivate and support young people in their musical learning.
   
8. Feel Better When You Sing ? - singing, health and well-being from the student perspective - research presentation
Dr.Liz Mellor
Singing in music education is always a hot topic and one which is very much in the public eye – especially given the impetus through the current National Singing Campaign ‘SING UP’. Much is claimed for singing in terms of health and well-being.

This session is an opportunity to consider singing through the lens of research developed in the therapeutic field. It draws from a research project from the CETL (Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning): C4C (Collaboration for Creativity) Singing, Health and Well-Being at York St. John University  (2008-9) and the follow up student-research project iSING (2009-10).

The research addresses the student voice through students’ experiences of participating in and leading singing groups with their peers.

The research considers what well-being means for the participants when they sing and draws from their own singing stories as part of a ‘reflexive research approach’. The research also considers the role of the singing group leader – charisma v. presence, and how an understanding of the relationships between participants and leaders in singing groups informs a sense of well-being.

The presentation creates a space for us as music educators to both sing and reflect on our own practice of singing in groups.
   
9. NAME Debate - The Role of the Pupil Voice
led by John Finney
Delegates are invited to debate the key issues affecting music education today.
   
Sunday 19 September 10:00, 11:00, 12:30
Backbeat
Practical workshops and performance featuring an amalgamation of instruments/rhythms and drums from around the world including djembes, congas, Cuban percussion and folk percussion.

Click here to book your place. Early bird rates available until 30 June