A rich variety of music projects reduces student stress and anxiety; gives opportunities to build teamwork, leadership and musical skills; and helps build skills and confidence. Stephen Steinhaus, Vice Principal of Whitley Academy, explains…
I’ll just come right out and say it: we don’t have a music department at Whitley Academy, a member of the RSA Academies teaching school alliance. We have a high-achieving performing arts department and a small ‘’music room’’, but no full-time music teacher or music curriculum timetable.
When I arrived over three years ago as line manager for the arts, being a former professional/semi-pro singer, I started to push for something more. We tried peripatetic music lessons, a Coventry Music Service ‘band’ programme, and hiring a humanities teacher who also taught music. Not much stuck for and with our students, except for a small choir.
However, a small number of our more successful GCSE performing arts candidates included singing and/or instrumental music as part of their Unit 2 performance exam. Additionally, we had developed links with the Upton Blues Festival via annual band workshops that became a sustainable group and project.
Students’ proposals for more music
At this point, a number of things happened. We ran an initiative where, as a reward for revision, some year 11 boys had access to the music room after school to rehearse with their band. Students involved in the initial Upton Blues took part in successful performances at our annual summer Whitley Festival. After that, our ‘RSA8’ group of year 8 student leaders came up with a proposal for developing more music in school through a weekly band session. Then, RSA Academies launched our performing arts hub, working on a range of projects for (predominantly) drama and music across the academies.
For our students, the ‘Big Band’ project (run by the music team from Holyhead School with support from the RSA Performing Arts Hub, and culminating in a schools performance at Symphony Hall in Birmingham) was the absolute game changer. A musician worked weekly over a term with one ‘big band’ per school. Understandably, ours were the least experienced musicians. But the combination of working with a professional musician, learning from and working with other students of their own age and performing to such a large, diverse and supportive audience at the end of the project engrossed our students.
In the new term, by student request, weekly band rehearsals began under the guidance of one of our associate teachers. When the Upton Blues workshops were planned (now as part of the RSA Performing Arts hub), we decided to open them up to students who had no previous experience or ability as musicians or singers, alongside our now more seasoned players. This expanded band then had targeted workshops with a team of professional musicians from Upton and rehearsals with our associate teacher and a newly hired HLTA, who was a musician. These led to a performance on the main stage to kick-off Upton Blues 2016. Most importantly, this gave confidence and a very positive experience to a few of our new musicians who struggled with anxiety or self-esteem issues, or who needed support for ASD.
Kicking off Upton Blues Festival was a very positive experience to new musicians who struggled with anxiety or self-esteem issues, or needed support for ASD
Outstanding support from blues festival
From the start of this year, then, we have had a number of internal and RSA-supported projects, including a ‘rock band’, a choir, a ‘Beat Freekz’ vocal group (paid for by RSA performing arts hub), and a new project supported, staffed and paid for by the Upton Festival.
Led by two working musicians, a drummer/percussionist and a guitar/bass/keyboard player, we have created a weekly ‘band workshop’ for vulnerable students with three core aims:
- To reduce stress and anxiety for our student musicians. (Actually, two year 11 students have recently joined to play guitar as a break from exam pressure).
- To give these students the opportunity to build teamwork, leadership and musical skills.
- To provide support for students who want to build their skills and confidence to eventually join the ‘rock band’ project.
Now, the main problem with running something like this would have been cost, but the Upton Blues Festival people agreed (after I presented a proposal) to pay for all staffing. They have also volunteered a donation for one or both of the workshop leaders to train formally in music therapy.
The problem we always faced before was getting students along to any music initiatives; by contrast, this came specifically by request from a group of students.
The outcomes are now a fully functioning, professionally led music workshop with full attendance weekly. There, some of our least confident and most vulnerable students are working together, performing for each other and preparing themselves for wider performance and rehearsal opportunities that previously would not have been available.
From the start, students have asked if they can come back the next week. Our numbers have almost doubled and the band is working towards an end-of-term performance. Anecdotally, the best feedback has been reports from students about new friendships made; and from staff that they “had never seen that student smile before”. All staff and student evaluations (at the end of each session) have been overwhelmingly positive and, this Spring, we will use the survey results for each of the student musicians as an independent measure of impact.
This project and its rather long backstory have been a huge learning experience for us. We realise now the importance of some key factors:
- Any new opportunity or project can be therapeutic in nature and can involve our most vulnerable students, so we need to keep that in mind when planning. Our next major arts initiative is designing and building a ‘secret garden’ on site. Through student consultation, it is being designed as a sensory/reflection space where students can de-stress and relax as needed.
- Students getting to work with students from other schools provide peer models for each other around a common activity. Just experiencing the quality of some of the student performances from our sister academies was inspiration enough for some of our pupils to start taking music more seriously.
- Schools need to find creative ways to harness the passion and skills of both teaching and support staff in order to share experiences with pupils.
So, how might other schools benefit from following a similar course? My suggestions would be:
- Let things develop organically.
- Utilise external partnerships. In our case, the simple fact that we were using the project to minister to some of our most vulnerable students was enough to get buy-in from Upton Blues. We could not afford to do this without their support.
- Along the same lines, there are talented artists out there who can be the real lifeblood of projects like these. Both musicians, though linked to the Upton Blues Festival, are fairly local to us and have been a revelation in their different but hugely effective approaches to working with/ministering to some of our most vulnerable students.
- Be creative with funding: in our case, standard costs of workshops paid for by school in initial instances; then by grant from the performing arts hub; and now, for the weekly music session, by a contribution from the Upton Blues Festival.
- Engage with your academy chain/schools network/collaborative projects and look for therapeutic/nurture opportunities within each of them. The RSA Academies team and the Performing Arts Hub work in particular has been a key driver for all of these developments, both strategically and financially.
- Let the students be your guide: the main top-down impetus for us was to ‘get some music happening at Whitley’; what has developed, from student voice and input, is far more valuable and sustainable.
What has developed from student voice and input is far more valuable than top-down impetus
Whitley Academy participates in our network of ambitious schools – find out more about getting involved.
Find out more about Upton Blues Festival.
Visit Whitley Academy’s website.
