Why on earth would you run a residential?
The reasons not to are both numerous and significant: the safeguarding implications of taking young people away overnight; the familial implications on our music leaders’ own young children; the cost and hassle of cooking, cleaning and managing teenage emotions for a prolonged period; not to mention the loss of our own sleep.
For the last two years, with Youth Music funding we have taken a group of 30 young singers away for six residentials. The young people arrive at 7pm on a Friday night and leave at 5pm on a Sunday. For those 46 hours, as one young person described it, “we live like a family”. Sharing responsibility for cooking, cleaning and tending the campfire, and of course getting on with the serious business of music making.
The residentials now run without a hiccup. Each has a visiting tutor who has three hours to teach us some traditional songs or something about singing that we didn’t already know: A lecturer from Plymouth University gave us a great session on the psychology of group singing – which left us all slightly bemused with knowledge of what is going on in our heads when we sing.
We have time for both extensive rehearsals for upcoming performances, as well as more focussed workshops to examine specific elements of vocal technique. Particularly popular was the session “No Breaks Here”, which challenged the negative terminology of something ‘breaking’, and examined ‘changing’ male voices and the female vocal ‘bridge’. This made space for safe experimentation and gave the choir new ways to support each other’s voices through difficult teenage years.
At the start of the project we had two relatively new music leaders. Supported by an experienced project manager, we put these two in charge of the activities at the residentials: Leading warm ups, bringing in new repertoire and creating the space and atmosphere in which the young people can learn. Senior music staff ‘parachuted in’ to lead more specialist sessions at certain points in the weekend. For the junior staff to welcome the senior leaders into their space caused the confidence of the newer staff to skyrocket.
The safeguarding implications of taking young people (some over and some under 18) and music leaders away overnight are, of course, serious. So we have full and regular training updates for all our staff and volunteers; clear procedures and communication channels between staff who attend; and plenty of time for setting our ground-rules (or ‘Guidelines for Harmonious Living’ as the young people preferred), making sure all the young people feel comfortable and know who to tell if the rules are broken. Rather than pose any safeguarding problems, we have actually found the residential ‘downtime’ between sessions – when young people and music leaders are cutting onions or playing cards – has allowed for longer conversations that have illuminated personal and social situations that we can now monitor.
As a young participant put it: “For me, residentials make me feel like I am part of something… The downtime, the meals, the walks, and getting to know each other is really important for singing as a group.”
Come Sunday night we are, of course, all very tired. But seeing our young people excel themselves musically and socially, and our staff develop their skills in almost unimaginable timescales is a great reward. By Monday morning we’re already looking forward to the next one!