Mango Music Shed - the advantages of being online.
Children and families in Berwick-Upon-Tweed are having an amazing time thanks to the Mango Music Shed Youth Music funding!
Children and families in Berwick are having an amazing time thanks to the Mango Music Shed Youth Music funding! The programme started back in April with the delivery of lots of taster music workshops in venues acros Berwick, including Sure Start, The Grove School (SEN) as well as mainstream First and Middle Schools. That period of taster activity gave us the opportunity behind the scenes to get the Mango Music Shed venue in place, the instruments and equipment delivered and the website up and running - phew it was busy!
In September the partner steering group took the brave decision to have registration for the free children's music courses only online through the brand new Mango Music Shed website. Parents would complete one form which would include all relevant info - consent, medical and contacts - and they would receive a friendly automated reply to confirm their childs place. Schools contacted parents with the simple instructions through their parent mail, reminders were tweeted and posted on our Facebook page and we counted down to the launch hour.
At 5pm on Friday 13th September bookings opened. By 5.30pm my inbox was flooded with confirmations of successfully completed bookings. By 6pm all 60 places on the steel pan and guitars beginners classes had gone with the singing classes following close behind. And the website automaticaly collated their consent, emergency contacts and other essential information into perfectly formed excel documents and registers.
To say that I was excited would be an understatement. I couldn't take my eyes off my laptop! My kids ate takeaway that night! Anyone who has grappled with the tedious and time-consuming administration of a project will no doubt join me in this joy. All that was left for me to do was to send an e-mail a few weeks later reminding them of their start date.
Since then all the tutors have been posting blogs with accompanying pictures as well as tweeting each week. This seems to be having the desired effect because everyone in Berwick seems to know of the project. Twitter is proving to be an invaluable way of networking with other local organizations, and we're even getting attention from a radio station in Leeds! Please take a look yourself and feel free to leave a comment, we're at www.mangomusicshed.com