Music Outreach Projects
The Music Department has organised a number of outreach activities since 2015, including:
- City of London Sinfonia Strings workshop - 20 students from three schools took part in a Strings workshop including CLSG, CoLA Islington and CoLA Hackney
- London Symphony Orchestra - 70 students from Shoreditch Park, Highbury Grove, COLAI and CoLA Hackney took part in a whole day workshop with visiting conductor and players from the LSO
- Young Leaders with VCM Foundation - 30 students drawn City of London schools, developed leadership skills through a series of workshops, culminating in workshops delivered by the students to 200 students at Galleywall Primary School.
- The Director of Music at CLSG helps organise the City Schools Concert involving nearly 300 students from across all the schools, including hosting the finale workshop.
- A string quartet workshop by Tippett Quartet at CLSG was attended by Year 7 students from City of London Academy Shoreditch Park.
- Two teachers from The City Academy, Hackney visited to discuss approaches to A-level teaching with the Director of Music at CLSG.
Aims
The projects have various aims but the overall aim is for students to develop their musical leadership skills by working with professional musicians. The aim was to bring students from a range of schools with the ambition of providing high-quality musical engagement. We have seen the success of the projects in the ongoing engagement students have made with work such as the Young Leaders project with the VCM Foundation.
Background
The Director of Music was keen to share expertise and opportunities with those schools that might find it challenging to offer workshops or connect with partners. From the range of workshops that have been offered, three have continued to be delivered on an annual basis for the past four years.
Resources
By hosting the workshops we have been able to offer our own spaces, making use of teachers in the department. We also budget for the workshops and cover the cost from the department or we seek appropriate funding from the City of London.
Impact
We evaluate some of the work by questionnaires at the end of the day. In 2019, we developed an evaluation framework (based on the RSA Evidence Champions Network and the use of a Theory of Change) which involved assessing the development of fusion skills.
Pupil Involvement
A range of ages are involved, from primary to secondary students.
Frequency
The Music department hosts a number of new and ongoing outreach activities each academic year but we maintain three core activities that have been running for the past four years.