This week we've been mostly building bridges

This week two of the Plugged In music practioners visited our Exchanging Notes partner school to...breathe it in...acclimatise ..help, observe, introduce themselves, demonstrate some of their skills..alleviate fears in the school staff about the type of people they'd be working with for the next 4 years

There is still much for us to do in terms of making our plan a reality for the young people and we all want to remove as much of the fogginess before the start of term. This school is probably no different to others in that they want all their ducks in a row before they finish for Summer. Much of my conversation over the past 6 months has been with the Head of Performing Arts. It's great that we're are now talking to the people at the chalkface..those to whom this has to make sense. 

Here's a brief summary of how this week looked:

Dave and Tricia attended the school. 

Dave is an experienced music leader who has worked on numerous community music projects with hard to reach young people. What I love about Dave is his persistence..he doesnt give up on anyone. He is the most musical of us all with a Jazz degree and he is a tutor at a prestigious Manchester music establishment. Working on Youth Music projects has made him a better FE and HE tutor because he understands people better now. Dave is also a great FE link for the young people that we work with regularly on our projects.

Tricia is an inspirational artist and teacher. 

Here she is..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixQX66lRxp8

(please feel free to forward to 1.26s if you must)

I've worked in education for 15 years in a number of schools and colleges all over the North West and I've never seen a teacher with Tricia's energy and personality...(you know..other than the obvious)

She brings an effortless confidence to everything she does which puts everyone around her at ease. She's performed on worldwide stadium tours, she's written songs on number one selling albums. This is a young woman who at the age of 13 was performing on stage in Northern working-mens clubs 5 nights a week. She has experienced difficult situations and has thrived.

Tricia felt she didnt succeed in her visit to the school..in fact at the end of the day she asked me (by text..I dont think we were speaking) not to send her in again..that it wasnt for her..she didnt enjoy it..she didnt understand it..she didnt feel that she could have any impact. It didnt help that at the start she was circled by 25 pupils who had been told 'This is Tricia and she's going to run today's session'. That wasn't the arrangement. Tricia did what she was asked to do. She should have explained the misunderstanding but worried that it might have reflected badly on the rest of us.

One boy said.. ' WOW your voice is 'sick' (which means good apparently..but Michael Jackson's BAD still confuses me)

Tricia has high standards and she was disappointed..many of the pupils were in awe. Were you ever in awe of your music teacher? I know I wasnt.

I'm happy to say that Tricia and Dave returned to the school for another go and I went along with them.

A young girl was standing at a keyboard trying to decifer a chord progression. She said she'd never played before and was moving between a Cmajor and Gmajor with a sweeping hand movement. I quickly showed her a different inversion of the Gmajor and explained that the notes could be in any order. At the end of the session she shouted to her teacher who was filling in forms ' Miss, Miss Miss!! listen! I can play!' I must admit I felt a sense of achievement.

There are a number of things that I saw that didnt make sense to me and I had the opportunity to discuss with the school teachers at the end of the day.

We are fully focused on improving the life chances of all the young people that we work with..but how does that fit with a school that is so ofsted focused? especially with all this going on in the company..

http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/dfe-bars-un...

A previous ofsted inspection raised the concern that the literacy skills of the pupils needed improvement. Therefore the class that I observed began with pupils writing notes from the board for approx the first 20-25 minutes of a 1hr lesson..their only 1hr music lesson. I've read the reports about improving music provision in schools..and they've read the reports too BUT they're nervous about changing things when they cant see the success of the new model. That's the fear.

After my end of day meeting I popped into Warrington Youth Cafe. Dave was finishing off his Young Music Leaders session outside the cafe in the sunshine. When I looked closely,however, I could see that he was actually stopping a drink/drug dependant man from fighting with the kids hanging about outside the venue. The man claimed to have a knife in his bag, he was a visitor to the town and had obviously felt threatned my a large group of young people. Dave quietly explained that these were teenagers and meant no harm to him..The man seemed to calm down and accept this. Dave gives up on nobody. 

In the corner of my eye I saw the police running towards him, one of them shaking a can of pepper spray.  Two minutes later the man was bent forward, handcuffed and bundled into the back of a police van. As I drove away I contemplated the way in which Dave handled the situation and the way in which the Police handled the situation. One was certainly more 'formal' than the other

Thursday is a busy day for us and that evening I attended the Young Women's music Group at Orford Youth Base. 

Tricia was helping a band to prepare for the Warrington Music Festival. One of the girls sat near the wall spoke to me. She said ' You were at my school today' I didnt recognise her but it was the girl that I had showed how to play 4 chords on the keyboard. 'I learned how to play today!' she shouted.

I went to the stores to fetch a keyboard and that night she joined the band..in July she will perform on a professional stage under a big top tent in front of Warrington Town Hall...I must admit I felt a sense of achievement.