The David Ross Education Trust enables musicians-in-residence to be contracted for two days per week in a secondary school (or across two schools, depending on school size), working alongside classroom music teachers to develop music provision for the students. In a group discussion, I asked five of the musicians to reflect on their activities in school, their impact and their working relationships with colleagues.
Q: What is your role in your school(s)? What work are you doing there at the moment?
Alison Willis (AW): I spend one day a week in Humberston Academy in Cleethorpes, and another day a week in King Edward VI Academy, Spilsby. I'm doing a lot of composition coaching there. I also accompany performances on the piano and I take the choir in the morning while the teachers are in tutor time – this means I can have a decent amount of time with the students before they come together at lunchtime with their teachers. I've been able to help the choirs at both schools grow in number, not only through giving 1:1 and small group support, but helping to develop the word of mouth. Because the choirs are good, the students want to be in them. KEVi is a small rural school and the music is led by a brilliant teacher. I've been able to help develop her choral skills, to put on lunchtime and afternoon concerts, and again to develop their compositions. I was so proud that one of their students won DRET's Composition Challenge this year – a few years ago, there was no curriculum music at the school.
Lucy Murphy (LM): I've been at Lodge Park Academy in Corby for a year now. I started at the same time as a new director of music and, together, we've been able to build what I think is a really engaging, fun music provision. The director of music leads the choir and I accompany on the piano. My days contain lots of 1:1 support and each session is different; sometimes it's helping with composition, or it could be coaching them in learning an instrument, even music theory. There are quite a lot of students coming to school music for the first time, and being able to offer this support is really helpful. On Fridays I run a band club after school – we've got pianists, drummers, guitarists, lots of singers, and I've been forming small bands. It's by far and away the busiest part of the school on a Friday afternoon, and they don't want to leave at 5.30 pm!
John Gull (JG): I work for two days a week at Charnwood College, Loughborough. Similarly to Lucy, I started just over a year ago, at the same time as a new director of music – there's been lots of work but plenty of fun too. I do lots of 1:1 coaching, as well as developing supplementary keyboard skills with the GCSE students and the singers. I've started a KS4 Boys' Choir at lunchtime and we've got around 20 very loud singers – they performed The Vagabond in a recent concert and I was so proud of them. I've also formed an orchestra – really a mixed ensemble of instrumentalists – and have composed arrangements so that every student has a part that's appropriate for them. It's been wonderful to see how they've progressed in such a short period of time.
John Gull in action with the Charnwood College Choi
John Lyon (JL): I work at Skegness Grammar School. I started by giving 1:1 coaching to the GCSE and A Level students, but my role soon expanded to conducting the choir, accompanying concerts on the piano, developing an organ scheme at the school, and also creating links with St Botolph's, Boston. We decided early on that all GCSE and A Level students should be in the choir – the benefits this brings are huge, not just to their musicianship and exam performance, but to the profile of music in the school. Because we've been able to increase the number of performances, the ‘musical’ students are seen as superstars. They like doing things well, and the community loves this.
John Lyon coaching piano
Harry Baker (HB): I work at Bobby Moore Academy in London. My role is focused around co-curricular music – including arranging music for all the school ensembles (I've been told this is something I do in my sleep!), forming a KS3 Boys' Choir, helping with the development of the choirs and supporting the concert programme – and giving tailored support in performing and composing to GCSE students. Like many schools, the range of musical experience of these students is broad, so I'm able to support each student with what they need at that moment.
Q: What do you think is the most effective work that you have done at the school? Could you describe its impact, and how this was achieved?
HB: Taking the school choir to sing a joint Evensong with Trinity College, Cambridge, was something that I never thought would have happened when I started in the post. But as I got to know the students, I thought, why not? Children are children, and the only barriers to what they can do are those that adults put in front of them.
JL: That's so true. One of the really good things that's happened in Skegness is a large number of students helping to form a teenage chamber choir in Boston at St Botoph's. We've been able to secure some funding to provide choral scholarships, which helps with the cost of getting to Boston. They sang Duruflé's Requiem the other day.
JG: When Asha (Bishop, director of music at Charnwood College) and I started, we had one student choosing to do A Level music, with little previous experience but bags of enthusiasm. I've given him an hour's coaching each week. He's moved from being a Grade 3 saxophonist to being really accomplished; he just received an unconditional offer to study music at the University of Lincoln. Seeing him develop through this steadily scaffolded approach – by being his repetiteur, effectively – has been so inspiring.
LM: That's very similar for me. I've been able to coach a student for her diploma as a singer. She's become very good. But it's been those 1:1 sessions with the students who aren't perhaps feeling so confident in music in general, just being able to give your undivided attention to that student even for 20 minutes. You can see their eyes lighting up. I've had students who were terrified of playing a note on the piano and who now can't keep away from it. They've actually found something that they really enjoy doing, and that's what I love about this job.
JG: That's made me think. The essence of what we're all doing here, as professional musicians, is modelling how to practise and how to rehearse. A musician knows how to practise, and that's infectious. When students see how you break it down, how you get that phrase better, how you get this little band to work together (in other words, by rehearsing efficiently), they want to do the same. That's a great gift you can give, isn't it?
AW: The effectiveness of the musician-in-residence post is to do with time and expectations. All the teachers that we're working with are consummate musicians as well, but they're also teaching classroom lessons full-time and simply don't have the time to be spending an hour or two a week with a really gifted student (which we do), or supporting those students who need to get on the next rung of the ladder in their musical journey. And we're able to work across the spectrum. I enjoy teaching the essentials of theory as much as I do coaching a diploma student.
Importantly, we have the expectation that they're going to work as musicians. I have the choir on my own on a Thursday morning. If you'd told me a few years ago that I'd be happy in a room full of 40+ teenagers, I'd have thought you were completely insane; but this is now a high point of my week. They respond as musicians because that is what we invite them to do. They're not just ‘doing music at school’: they're musicians.
JL: There's also something important about repertoire, isn't there? We all know a lot of music, and students absolutely love discovering music that is new to them. Those conversations we have with them – often in the corridor, at breaktime, or while we're all having lunch – help to nurture a culture of curiosity in them… Now, every time I walk into the music department, students are wanting to tell me about new pieces of music that they've been listening to.
Q: What is your relationship with the full-time classroom teachers? In what ways are you supporting them?
HB: I think one of the secret weapons of the musician-in-residence programme is the relationship that we have with our music teacher colleagues and the way in which we enable them to stay in touch with their identity as a musician. Ashley (Kinnair, director of music at Bobby Moore Academy) is an absolutely superb musician and he brings this into every classroom lesson. One of the things we love doing in our ‘down time’ is improvising jazz together – the students have heard this and that's certainly inspired the school's jazz combo.
JG: That rings true with me, too. There's absolutely no way I could do the head of music job – how Asha keeps all those plates spinning is incredible. I know that she values that opportunity to talk about music, to plan concerts with a musician… and also just to have coffee! We take turns in conducting and accompanying the choir, and I know the students love the way in which we work with each other – which we do in a playful, fun way.
LM: I joined at the same time as Helen (Della Torre, director of music at Lodge Park Academy). She's brilliant. She plays the piano, she leads the choir, and her classroom teaching is great. I've been learning so much from her about how to keep so many students engaged at the same time. We've got a very good working relationship and this means that we can really bounce off each other, feed off ideas.
JL: I'm made to feel like I'm part of the staff body here and that's lovely. I'm always made to feel very welcome by Emily (Spelman, curriculum leader for music at Skegness Grammar School) and there's such a good atmosphere. I think that comes from our being comfortable with having different, but complementary, skill sets, with all of us bringing something distinctive and special to the music department.
By the by, so many colleagues in a number of schools have told me that the need to learn piano accompaniment parts well was causing considerable stress and felt like a burden. Well, one of the things I most enjoy doing is accompanying students on the piano – I really feel like I'm adding value here.
Alison Willis introducing DRET's Composition Challenge with the Berkeley Ensemble
AW: I've enjoyed helping to solve some problems. When you're developing music in a school that maybe hasn't had much music before, you need to remember that this is a new thing for so many staff, and they don't realise that some of the routines might need to become more flexible to accommodate music. I'm thinking of rehearsals during tutor time, or students coming out of lessons for 1:1 tuition.
Because we're valued as whole-school appointments, we're given the authority to speak directly with the headteachers… and I've always found them supportive. And musicians know how to find solutions!
Q: Finally, what are your top tips for achieving the greatest impact as a musician-in-residence?
JG: Look forward to the surprises – they will often make your day!
LM: Enjoy building relationships with classroom teachers – these will become some of your strongest friendships.
JL: Don't hide your own musicianship under a bushel – students and staff get so much out of seeing (and hearing) you play.
AW: Have high expectations of students – believe in them, approach them as musicians, and they will give the best of themselves.
HB: Enjoy being a musician!
All: Yes – exactly that!
