Success Stories

Supporting Secondary  Schools Across Lancashire 

MusicFirst Lighthouse series brings together inspiring stories, aimed at capturing how institutions have  implemented online learning into their curriculum  using innovative technology and creative thinking. We have welcomed the below case study which has highlighted the work we do in Secondary schools.

An Innovative Initiative to Support  Schools Across Lancashire – Lancashire Music Education Hub

Lancashire Music Education Hub (LMEH) brings  together a diverse range of organisations to  develop musical opportunities for young people.  For many young people these experiences will be  a vital and enriching part of their lives, helping  them to progress their talents, enhance learning  whilst supporting their health and wellbeing.  LMEH supports the National Plan for Music  Education whilst striving to make it easy for,  young people, teachers, musicians, schools, and  the wider community to collaborate and find  great ways to make music. Music has the power  to inspire and change lives and LMEH will seek  to make musical learning available to all children  and young people across the county. 

The lead partner of LMEH is Lancashire Music Service (LMS)  which is supported by core Hub partners. The purpose of  LMEH is to create pathways that engage children and  young people in high quality music making. The mission  statement is to enable and encourage access for all  Lancashire’s children to a diverse range of musical  experiences which will enrich their lives and those of the  communities in which they live, through innovative,  sustained, and structured programmes that enable young  people to realise their full potential. As part of working  towards those ambitions Tim Rogers (Head of Service)  and Ben Rapp (Regional Manager), part of the LMS  senior management team, conceived the idea of the  Secondary School Music Upgrade initiative in 2018.

Proof of concept:

All schools are part of music education hubs and 94% of Lancashire schools actively engage with  LMEH. To try to support schools directly, and increase Hub engagement from secondary schools,  the Music Upgrade initiative was launched with offers from LMEH partners. There were varied offers  including practical music making sessions, tuition, training, resources and support. Great care was  taken to ensure the sign-up process was quick and easy and now it just requires the filling out of a  simple form. 

Expansion:

Having run this initiative for a year Ben Rapp was looking for ways to further develop sign-up from  schools to these offers and saw the success that Matt Allen (MusicFirst) was having from schools  using the Focus on Sound Pro software, particularly from posts in the KS3 Music Teachers Facebook  Group. Having met with Richard Payne (MusicFirst) we looked at adding Focus on Sound Pro to  our existing package of offers in the Secondary School Music Upgrades. Having this extra option  immediately had a positive effect on schools engaging with this initiative. From 2020 we added  Noteflight Learn, Soundtrap for Education, AuraliaFirst and MusitionFirst. This has supported an  increased engagement to 80% of Lancashire Secondary Schools although the target is 100%.  

We also acted directly on feedback we received from our LMEH youth voice project called Amplify  who surveyed over 400 young people around the county and ran youth voice events with nearly  120 participants. This feedback clearly tells us that young people want more access to online  resources and Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) which this partnership has aligned with.

School Reports 

Focus on Sound Pro has such a broad appeal; teachers regularly report back to us the  endless and creative ways in which they use it. Hear from the teachers themselves: 

How do I use Focus on Sound PRO? 

Claire Brook, Head of Music Moor Park High School and Sixth Form:

• Homework tool
• Classroom teaching aid  
• On the spot tests  
• Microsoft Teams lesson sharing
• Musical handbook 

Favourite feature:   Shared Content – new ideas and lessons  from other Focus on Sound Pro users,  a new network at the click of a button. 

“Focus on Sound Pro is an  extremely useful tool and  resource to support the delivery  of my curriculum, and to assist  with closing the gaps. If you  haven’t already got it, I highly  recommend you invest!”

Emma Lamb, Lancaster Royal Grammar School:

• Curriculum design 
• GCSE exam practice 
• Collaborative learning 
• Practical composition  
• Cover Lessons

Favourite Feature: Composition lessons covering all ability ranges from Year 7 to 6th form. 

“Focus on Sound has been an  integral part of our curriculum  delivery and opens our students’  ears to a wide variety of music,  fully supporting the cultural  development and broadening  their horizons”

“The feedback from schools  using any of the MusicFirst  packages has been wholly positive. The support and  communications from  Richard and Matt have been second to none  and schools have really benefitted from our  partnership working. This was even more of  benefit during the pandemic when pupils could access high quality resources from  home, with teachers able to set work for  pupils to access on the cloud easily, via Focus  on Sound Pro. I thoroughly recommend  MusicFirst to any Music Education Hubs  around the country.” 

Ben Rapp, Regional Manager – Lancashire Music Service 

The Lancashire Youth Vocal Ensemble – Young Vocalists

The Lancashire Youth Vocal Ensemble (LYVE) programme is run by More Music. It began in 2013 and gives young vocalists (aged 14-21) from across Lancashire the chance to perform together and develop their singing skills, whatever their background or previous experience. The choir aims to fuse contemporary and traditional ensemble singing with beatboxing, improvisation and song writing.

The Big Show 2017 Young People Case Studies

In June 2017 Lancashire Music Hub brought together nearly 1000 children and young people from primary and secondary schools, special schools, More Music and the Hubs County Ensembles for the Big Show. We take a look back at this glorious celebration in our news section and here we share with you some case studies and feedback from the participants.

The Big Show brought together singers and instrumentalists to perform music and songs which represented different aspects of Lancashire life, past and present.

Paul Pfeuti Young Musician Trust

Paul Pfeuti was an inspirational and gifted musician. He began his musical journey at aged 6 when he took up the piano. Like most young boys he juggled playing sport and practising scales but by the time he was thirteen he gave his first solo performance at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester.

Last Choir Singing Success

St Josephs Hurst Green are taking part in the Blackburn Sing Together concert.
This event will be held at King Georges Hall in Blackburn.

Emily Hoyle: Viola

Emily started the violin when she was five, and joined Burnley Music Centre soon after. She began playing in the Lancashire County Ensembles at the age of 10, switching to viola at the age of 14, and was an active member of LYSO until she went to Chetham’s School of Music for her 6th Form studies.

The Sgt Pepper Project

“I wanted to design a project that would bring together some of the musical ‘sub groups’ working and performing in schools. Typically these are choirs, orchestras, wind/brass ensembles and of course rock/pop bands.” – David Ashworth

Tim Jackson

Whenever I am asked what has been the most important factor in becoming a professional musician, I always give the same answer: being born in Lancashire!

Andy Greenwood

Andy Greenwood is a freelance Trumpet / Flugelhorn player currently playing First Trumpet in the West End Musical Wicked. Andy started as a young trumpet player with Alan Tomlinson who was at that time Head of Brass with the Lancashire Music Service.

Youth Orbit

Fifteen young people attend this regular jazz workshop delivered by More Music on a Saturday and compose, improvise, perform and achieve creative excellence. The sessions take place at the Community Music Centre at Lancaster Royal Grammar School.

Hothouse Young Leaders

Delivered by More Music, this programme connects young people from different backgrounds and gives them responsibilities as musicleaders and producers. This increases their chances of success in the world as independent, motivated thinkers.

Tom Mulliner

Tom Mulliner grew up in the small seaside town of Morecambe where, as a small child, he thought it was almost impossible to achieve anything.

Using ICT in SEN settings

‘Charlie & the Chocolate Factory’ was a multimedia residency and pilot project which explored working with some new technologies in a school based multimedia workshop/performance.

Voyage Home

Tom Harrold was commissioned by the Lancashire Sinfonietta in association with the Lancashire Music Service to write a new work for 200 performers, called Voyage Home.

Jazz ensembles inspire Maki to follow her dreams

Growing up with professional musicians as parents has given Maki her love for music. She began playing the violin at age 5, which didn’t last long but led her to want to play the clarinet.

Josh Heaton

Josh took up the saxophone aged 11 and after a number of years trudging through classical grades; he began to develop a keen interest in jazz and was encouraged by a couple of classmates to join one of the Lancashire County Jazz Orchestras.

Sarah Hoyle

Sarah Hoyle started the violin at the age of 5, and joined the string group at Burnley Music Centre soon after. When she was in Year 4 her class at Wellfield Church School in Burnley was part of the Wider Opportunities pilot project and she was given a saxophone to play, but towards the end of the year the woodwind teacher, Sue Wall, gave her the opportunity to try out the bassoon.