Music Passport: Training for 'Routefinder' Young Music Leaders

The Music Passport Project developed a series of regular after-school sessions to train Young Music Leaders as 'Routefinders', imbuing them with mentoring and workshop skills.

This page is part of a resource collection around the Music Passport project.

At first, it was sought to deliver training to the high school pupils partly in school time and partly at ‘top-up’ after-school sessions. Attendance was patchy at these sessions. It was hard to find time in normal school hours. The scope and content of the training seemed uncertain as to whether it was aimed at ‘mentoring’ skills or practical workshop skills, and in the end seemed to fall between the two stools.

So, the training was refined and honed, in two ways in particular (although this applies only to the two final cohorts of the Year 9s):

(a) A regular after-school Passport Club was set up in the high school music department, every Monday from 3pm for two hours (hence, the ‘Monday Club’). The regularity (and success) of this encouraged continued and consistent attendance by the Routefinders. No training sessions were held in school hours. (b) The training was developed so as to focus very clearly on workshop skills and planning skills, including reflection on skills and attitudes needed for working with younger children.

It was thus that an effective training model was developed, which:

• Consisted of a combination of;

 Workshop skills

 Planning skills, and ways of structuring workshop-style sessions

 Communication and social skills

 Resources (warm-ups, musical games and exercises, icebreakers etc)

• Included reflection on;

 The Routefinders’ own musical journeys, barriers faced, inspirations, aspirations, disappointments, motivations.  Perceptions of younger children, their likely likes and dislikes, their perceived characteristics, what sort of things they might be interested in, their musical tastes.  Further reflection on their perceptions of the younger children after having led the first session with them.  Continuing reflection each week and after each primary school session.

Having arrived at the successful and well-attended model of the two hour after-school club, this allowed for the following:

(a) ongoing training to be given (b) ongoing reflection (c) planning time for the Routefinders to plan their next session with the primary school children (d) collaborative music-making opportunities for the Routefinders. This was extremely valuable and important. It allowed the Routefinders to develop their own musical skills and enthusiasm in an informal learning environment where the Routefinders could experiment, practice and work together, but where guidance and suggestions were available if needed. There was a perception that the rewards, ownership and enjoyment which the Routefinders got out of this collaborative music-making heightened their enjoyment of passing on their enthusiasm for music to the primary school children.

The ‘Monday Club’ was enjoyed so much by the Routefinders that on a number of occasions several of them would happily have stayed much longer after 5pm.

These Monday Club sessions led to enormous musical and personal development on the part of the Year 9s.

The training was delivered by a combination of a freelance community musician and by two musically skilled teaching assistants.

Find out more about Music Passport.