Youth Music - BongoClub.org.uk

Pilot Cluster Programme in Early Years Music Launched

 

Pilot Cluster Programme In Early Years Music Launched By Youth Music And The Abo Piloted By Lso Discovery

Youth Music has supported Early Years music making since 2000 and has so far funded almost 200 programmes around the UK. Its pioneering policy development in this field has run in parallel to recent government and education policies which present a significant challenge to those working with very young children.

It is in response to these shifting approaches to children's care and learning that Youth Music has commissioned a training framework, which is currently being trialled by LSO Discovery, the London Symphony Orchestra's award-winning education programme, from April "September 2006, as part of the pilot programme. The aim is that the final version will be adaptable by any music organisation and/or early years setting working in music with the under 5s and enable them to build their own programmes from solid foundations.

Taking the recommendations of the pilot, Youth Music is seeking to establish a Cluster Programme in up to nine locations from 2007.  The Cluster Programme originated at the Association of British Orchestras (ABO) Conference in January 2004 when orchestra Education Managers indicated that there has been an upsurge in interest by players who want to provide early years services.  It has been further developed at Youth Music with a view to delivering its own early years policy aims and those indicated in Every Child Matters (DfES, 2003).

The Cluster Programme will seek to create models of musical and educational training provision, where established music organisations work with Sure Start Children's Centres on a collaborative programme of professional development for early years practitioners and musicians. 

Over the course of a term, partners will work together to establish and leave behind a legacy of music making in early years settings and to develop the expertise of music organisations in supporting music education within their wider communities.

Youth Music has commissioned a training framework that will form the basis of the Cluster Programme.  Rather than offering specific week by week structure and content for music sessions, the model has been created in order to provide guiding principles for practitioners and musicians that will allow them to adopt or adapt their own practice in music provision.  It will ensure that standards of best practice in early years settings are met and that a coherent and flexible approach to working in this sector is achieved.

The purpose of the training framework is:

• To be a set of guiding principles which enable practitioners, musicians and orchestras/music organisations to build their own programmes from solid foundations and complement work already happening
  
• To support the training of musicians and practitioners delivering music in early years settings
• To enable practitioners, musicians and project managers to work together to deepen their understanding of young children and their music-making
• To promote an approach to early years music practice where any project planned is seen as a four-way learning process between the musician, the practitioner, the child and the parent

Following the completion of a pilot programme by LSO Discovery in September 2006, Youth Music's ambition is to develop a further nine Clusters over an 18 month - 2 year period, managed by the ABO. Each cluster will comprise a number of early years settings working with a music organisation and other local partners, with guidance from the ABO and Youth Music.

Key aims of the pilot are:

• To develop music practice in the everyday life of the Early Years settings
• To develop the skills, knowledge and musical confidence of Early Years practitioners working in the local Sure Start Children's Centres and related settings, in order to promote sustainability
• To develop the skills, knowledge and musical confidence of more orchestral musicians and workshop leaders working in Early Years settings
• To explore the difference that live music, musicians and instruments make on the impact of music in Early Years settings
• To evaluate  whether a  12 weeks 'Cluster Programme' is effective in developing leadership skills and knowledge in practitioners and players in early years music making and achieving commitment of SSCCs to music as a learning medium
• To define the type and level of progression possible in the Cluster programme for children, parents, carers and childminders (e.g. musical or social skills, behavioural patterns or emotional states etc)
• To work with Youth Music to raise the status and profile of music in local authorities and in particular Children's Services
• To implement the training framework commissioned by Youth Music, and to ensure that it is fit for the purpose of future roll-out
• To test the management model in order to best inform the management and delivery mechanisms for future roll-out

David Sulkin, Director of Policy and Programmes at Youth Music commented, "This new programme focuses on children's creativity and as such chimes exactly with current early years practice and Government's policy framework Every Child Matters."

Andrew Burke Head of LSO Discovery commented, "There can be no doubt now of the vital role that music making can have in the early development of young people, so we are pleased to be involved in this pilot and help develop the best practice in this important area of work."

Fiona Harvey, ABO's Early Years pilot programme manager said: "The ABO is delighted to have had the opportunity to build on its work with Youth Music over the past five years, running this pilot programme with the LSO.  It has enabled us to learn from the experience of the LSO's musicians and early years practitioners in this key area of work with children under five, to inform a national roll out of the programme over the next two years.”

www.youthmusic.org.uk
www.lso.co.uk/discovery
www.abo.org.uk

For further press information please contact:
Dvora Lewis Public Relations
Tel: 020 7435 9257
Email: dlpr(at)dvoralewis.com

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