Musicians without Borders share new ways of using music to support refugee, asylum seeker and Roma children in school
A new teacher training programme funded by Youth Music, and delivered by Musicians without Borders, explores methodologies of supporting refugee, asylum seeker and Roma children in schools alongside their classmates, and working cross-curricular with music and creativity.
Musicians without Borders are a charity who design and deliver creative music projects with war & torture survivors living in war-torn areas, and with refugees and asylum seekers who have fled war and persecution and ended up in the UK. Many children from refugee/asylum seeker backgrounds have experienced war trauma. Refugee/asylum seeker children often have a higher risk of mental-health problems, don’t always speak English, have extremely low income, are separated from their family, moved from house to house, live in deprived areas, and are sometimes not accepted by their local community, who don’t always understand why they are here.
Asylum seekers are in the process of asking for a safe place to live and while their case is being looked at, they live under the constant threat of being arrested in the middle of the night and put in a detention centre in the UK, or sent back to their home country where their lives may still be in danger. Refugees and asylum seekers are ordinary people facing extraordinary struggles.
In partnership with class teachers, refugee and Roma music leaders, Musicians without Borders projects in Greater Manchester funded by Youth Music, have demonstrated effective ways of making a positive impact for the whole school. Sharing songs in different languages and being creative was shown to be a powerful and effective way to help young people and teachers to explore issues around identity, culture and community, as well as creating a safe space for young people to express their thoughts and feelings on issues that are important to them. Feedback showed that the music sessions contributed to increased inclusion and participation of refugee / asylum-seeker children, improved the musical confidence and engagement of all the participants, and further developed teachers’ skills and confidence in the cross-curricular use of music. Working with refugee and Roma music leaders helped to break down cultural barriers, enabled children to ask relevant questions and provided important positive role models from diverse cultural backgrounds.
“Having worked with Musicians without Borders before I have seen firsthand the impact that their workshops and performances have had in Salford schools and I have received a lot of positive feedback from headteachers and teachers. I am encouraged to hear that Musicians without Borders are creating resources and up skilling teachers. This is a very positive development and will result in more children benefiting from these projects.” Natalie Stables, Salford Ethnic Minority & Traveller Achievement Service
The initial idea of the teacher training was to create a one-off event in Manchester for music leaders and teachers to share the learnings of the project and to distribute a songbook and CD for use in the classroom. After speaking with many teachers, support workers, universities and other arts and refugee organisations, Musicians without Borders decided the training would have more impact if it became part of local, regional and national events organised by partner organisations.
Initial training events included presentations, workshops and interactive performances at Manchester Metropolitan University with Poet Laureates Carol Ann Duffy and Gillian Clarke as part of their Laureate Education Project “Mother Tongue, other Tongue” - a multi-lingual poetry competition that celebrates cultural diversity and the many languages spoken in schools in the UK. Training also took place in partnership with Salford EMTAS at the National Association of Teachers of Travellers AGM and at EAL Best Practice for New Arrivals in a Primary Setting.
“Feedback from all of these events was hugely positive, as was our experience of working with a highly professional, ethical and motivated team.” Kaye Tew, Manchester Metropolitan University.
The final events in this pilot series will take place on Friday 28 March 2014 in Birmingham and Manchester. At the first event, David Blunkett will attend as a guest speaker for NATT+ Voice of the Gypsy Roma Traveller Child conference in Birmingham, and there will be a second event on the same day at the University of Manchester as part of the Manchester Literature Festival in partnership with the Humanitarianism and Conflict Response Institute. We will be demonstrating and inviting feedback on our newly created web resource for use by teachers in schools as a tool to share and celebrate refugee and Roma cultures.
The Manchester event will be open to all who wish to attend and will be running 3 p.m.- 7 p.m. on Friday 28th March 2014. To book your free place please email jenccarson@yahoo.co.uk.
For any more information contact hello@musicianswithoutborders.org.uk or visit www.musicianswithoutborders.org.