by Author Hester Cockcroft

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Furthering Talent: For a Musical Life

Furthering Talent is Awards for Young Musicians’ (AYM) programme working with young people from low-income families who have been identified as having emerging talent. These students access instrumental tuition and musical progression support to help them achieve their potential and develop into musical adults. 

We’re delighted to be working in partnership with Youth Music who are continuing to support the development of Furthering Talent. AYM began the second phase of the current programme in January. This is enabling AYM to test the model further in 2 new Hubs (Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire) whilst continuing to work with our existing Hub partners (Brighton and Hove, North West Midlands and Greater Manchester). It will also look to embed some of the key principles of the programme, such as personalised learning, and share them with other providers across the UK in a strand called Practical Progression.

Identifying Talent

To launch the programme in the two new East Midlands Hubs May saw AYM’s Hester Cockcroft and composer/musician Hugh Nankivell deliver two Identifying Talent training sessions, attended by 34 music leaders, to help them explore different facets of musical potential, so that they can identify and nominate students to participate. Once the programme is up and running in these new Hubs we’ll be working with c.150 young people across the 5 Hubs. Feedback from Identifying Talent has been fantastic: “this really changed the way I thought about identifying potential” said one Nottinghamshire teacher. A Leicestershire Hub delegate: “I’ve learned a lot and I’ll put it into practice!” Many Hubs have taken part in this training over the last few years and AYM is always happy to discuss delivery options with colleagues (for example we ran a workshop at the Surrey Hub’s conference in June and are planning an INSET session for East Sussex Hub in September).

Practical Progression

In order to create the Practical Progression strand of the programme, AYM has recruited 15 Teacher Facilitators across the 5 Hubs. They’ll work together to devise a peer-led professional development programme for Hub instrumental and class teachers, encouraging the Hub network to replicate/embed the Furthering Talent model by supporting the workforce to identify and appropriately support young people’s musical potential. They will also create 5 short films to encourage other teachers to take on the Furthering Talent approach with their students. Mid June saw the Teacher Facilitators coming together for the first time to explore some key issues. What makes great training? What does an engaging film look like? What are the core elements of Furthering Talent that other music leaders might most want to hear about? It was a challenging and creative few hours: once key themes had emerged each group decided on their preferred theme – now it’s time to make the films!

Arts Award Advisor Training

Furthering Talent Co-ordinators and Teacher Facilitators also took part in Bronze Arts Award Advisor training in May in order to support students on the programme to gain an Arts Award.

Further Information

For further information please contact Jane Ralls, Programme Manager for Furthering Talent: jane.ralls@a-y-m.org.uk.