Bradford on Avon & Music Cluster Report Academic Year 2018-19

About BoA & Corsham Music Cluster About Music Clusters

Pupils from 9 of the cluster’s schools came together this year to Music Connect is the Music Education Hub for Wiltshire. We co-ordinate 14 music collaborate on a cluster music project – Holst: The Planets, clusters across the county, bringing together accompanied by professional musicians. Cluster meetings have musical communities at a local level to improve included CPD sessions, skills sharing and information about musical children’s progress and engagement through: opportunities in our area. • increasing skills, knowledge and confidence The Cluster Co-ordinator for BoA and Corsham is Roz Osborne. Roz in providing musical learning; would like to thank everyone who has attended meetings, made time • providing access to wide-ranging for a school visit and shared data about music making in their school. opportunities, experiences and resources. She has found it a pleasure to work with staff and organisations, and feels much progress has been made with increasing opportunities for A team of part-time Cluster Co-ordinators bring educators and music leaders together to children to learn about and enjoy music. network, share practice, gather information and plan collaborative activities. Click here for a profile of the BoA and Corsham Cluster, including demographic and pupil premium data. The purpose of an annual Cluster Report is to:

BoA & Corsham Music Cluster in Numbers: • share and celebrate the achievements of individual schools, educators and the cluster; •  5 cluster meetings across the year. summarise key data to help guide the cluster’s activities and future priorities;  4 cluster professional development sessions. • help cluster members identify areas for  12 schools active in the cluster (out of 12 primaries and 2 further development. secondaries).  2 cluster activity projects involving 9 schools and 375 children. Wiltshire Music Connect is funded by the government through Arts Council England. A large proportion of our annual grant supports the Wiltshire Music Connect invested a total of £21,532 in co-ordination of the 14 music clusters, including BoA and Corsham Cluster during 2018-19. paying freelance Cluster Co-ordinators for their This includes: time. In addition, we provide a CPD and music activity budget for each cluster. We support individual schools with the costs associated with  £4,346 for cluster co-ordination, activity projects and CPD for First Access, the cost of some resources, and with cluster members. instrumental tuition subsidies for disadvantaged  £1,431 on subsidising First Access provision in BoA and Corsham and vulnerable children. Cluster schools.  £13,755 for instrumental and vocal tuition subsidy for We do this because we want our stakeholders to disadvantaged and vulnerable learners in BoA and Corsham have a sense of ownership within our Hub and to be able to respond to local needs with local Cluster schools. solutions. We have a role to support schools’  £2,000 for a Technology and Innovation commission at curriculum music but not to fund or deliver it Westwood with Iford Primary School. ourselves.

Music making in BoA & Corsham schools during the year (a few examples)

 This year’s cluster project involved 9 schools in a singing experience with music from Gustav Holst’s The Planets. Music was arranged by David Garcia and Lyrics written especially by Professor Peter Hunt. The children received 4 lessons from specialist singing teachers and came together for 2 performances; one in Corsham and one at Wiltshire Music Centre.  Westwood with Iford Primary School started a new innovative music and technology project funded through a commission from Wiltshire Music Connect. Pupils are creating a pop-up recording studio in the school hall for each of their live performances to digitally recording their singing performances. The recordings are being shared on the school radio station and through GoBubble, a safe social media app for under 13s.  The Corsham School music department invited all their primary feeder schools to come together for a singing performance. This was a great chance for primary schools to meet up, show off their singing skills and get to know their local secondary school.

Connections with Music Education Hub priorities

 First Access (Whole Class Ensemble Teaching) is taking place in 8 out of 14 schools in the cluster, with a further 2 schools receiving First Access Champion support.  Music groups and ensembles: 24 different ensembles in schools in the cluster, 12 of which are singing groups.  Singing is taking place in 12 schools in the cluster and of these 10 have reported regular singing.  Instrument Hire Service has been used by 9 of the cluster’s schools during the year.  4 cluster CPD sessions – Friday Afternoons’ Songbank with Tim Gilvin, Introduction to Charanga with Mark Cardy, Using iPads for Classroom Music with Jon Dunn, and Musical Activities and Games that Require No Preparation with Nicola Screen.  Staff from 4 of the cluster’s schools took part in other CPD co-ordinated or supported by the Hub.  Instrumental and vocal tuition subsidy has been claimed for pupils by 8 schools in the cluster.

*Our data is based on the schools that Music Cluster Co-ordinators were able to visit or receive data from in 2018-19 and therefore may not reflect the entirety of activity taking place across the cluster

Looking forward: the focus of cluster activity for 2019-20

Priorities for the forthcoming academic year will build on progress and address new areas identified by cluster members:  A focus on instrumental and composition skills in next year’s cluster project, possibly in the style of ‘Stomp’.  CPD and creating resources to build the confidence of non-specialist teachers in delivering classroom music lessons.

In addition, the Music Education Hub aims to support the cluster to develop work linked to Hub priorities:  Increasing take up of First Access subsidies in the cluster area.  Increasing the number of schools where children sing at least once a week.

Cluster Co-ordinator: Roz Osborne Schools in the Cluster: St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School Corsham Neston Primary School Lypiatt Primary School Westwood with Iford Primary School Corsham Regis Primary Box CE Primary School The Corsham School Christ Church CE Primary School Winsley CE Primary School Fitzmaurice Primary School Churchfields, The Village School CE Primary School Corsham Primary School

Contact [email protected] www.wiltshiremusicconnect.org.uk