The Music Mark team recently undertook Carbon Literacy training through the Carbon Literacy Project, which provided us with valuable time to understand our carbon emissions as a group and as individuals. The training broke down the main causes of the climate crisis and the carbon emissions of a variety of everyday items or actions, which highlighted changes we could make to reduce our emissions. We feel that it’s important the whole Music Mark team had training, to help our transparency and accountability as an organisation, rather than leaving our response to the climate crisis as a responsib ..read more

Music Hubs and Services are currently faced with a variety of challenges and pressures, and it can be easy to overlook the importance of marketing. However, marketing has an important role to play in supporting your service through some of these challenges and creating a successful organisation.    Effective marketing contributes to your overall business objectives  There are endless possibilities for how effective marketing can help your organisation to achieve its aims and objectives. Whether these are short-term or long-term aims, your organisation’s marketing strategy has an ..read more

The Music Hub Investment Programme, administered by Arts Council England, gave organisations the opportunity to apply to become a Hub Lead Organisation for the Music Hub programme starting in September 2024. Arts Council England announced the successful new Hub Lead Organisations today.    Congratulations to the successful new Hub Lead Organisations (HLOs) announced by Arts Council England. The 43 HLOs will strategically lead the new Music Hubs in England from the autumn working in partnership with a diverse network of music education organisations and individuals. The UK Association ..read more

We can all be creatures of habit, can’t we? I have to admit that even though the Music Mark staff team have new (refurbished) laptops which are light and easy to transport I still use my iPad when I head out and about to meetings. Swapping over to use my laptop should be as easy as unplugging it as I walk out of my office, but I still pop my iPad in my bag instead. Another habit that I do need to break though is remembering that there is a larger team at Music Mark! I don’t have to be involved in everything as was the case when there were just three staff! Fortunately, the team are great at te ..read more

Now entering its fourth year, HertsArts serves as a beacon of empowerment and creativity for children in care. A collaborative initiative between Herts Music Service and the Virtual School, it endeavours to provide weekly music groups, performance opportunities, and celebratory events for children looked after in Hertfordshire. Through the medium of music, HertsArts seeks to nurture not only musical skills but also confidence, relationships, communication abilities, leadership qualities, and a profound sense of self-worth among its participants. This case study delves into the impactful journe ..read more

A Common Approach is a free online resource to support music educators in their teaching practice and help develop a holistic approach to music education. Sonia Kenny, brass tutor and area manager for Northern Ireland’s Education Authority Music Service, shares how A Common Approach has shaped her work as an instrumental tutor and how it can help others.   Where do you work and what is your role? I work for the Education Authority Music Service in Northern Ireland as a brass tutor (French Horn specialist) and area manager. My instrumental teaching involves working with young people in bot ..read more

Cara Whitmee This week I’ve been talking with Cara Whitmee, who has recently completed her Masters degree exploring how piano teachers think their Key Stage 1 (KS1) children develop resilience skills through their piano lessons. She wondered to what extent piano teachers were aware of potential links in the first place, and wanted to discover if teachers’ approaches ‘affect the opportunity for resilience skills to be developed’. Cara worked with teachers to find out more about their piano teaching approaches and thoughts about the development of resilience skills in the context of learning t ..read more

The call for content for Music Mark’s 2024 conference is now open! Music Mark’s 2024 conference is taking place on the 18th and 19th November at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham, with the theme of Sustainability in Music Education. This theme will tie in closely with our new campaign, This Is Not A Rehearsal, which aims to encourage action around the climate crisis and promote environmental sustainability in music education, but we are also keen to hear about your approaches to sustainability in all its interpretations.   Sustainability: The ability to be sustained, suppo ..read more

Today, Earth Day 2024, marks the launch of Music Mark’s new campaign – This Is Not A Rehearsal. This campaign aims to raise awareness and encourage action around the climate crisis within the music education sector. Throughout the campaign, we will be sharing resources, training, events, blogs and research to help you make climate-conscious changes and learn about the climate crisis. So, what is the climate crisis, and why should you get involved?   What is the climate crisis? The term ‘climate change’ refers to ‘long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns’, and it has been prov ..read more

The Leadership Development Programme is a bespoke leadership programme delivered by The Leadership Collective. The programme is designed to help your team find the best ways of working together and to create empowered, inclusive, and thriving work cultures.    Who is The Leadership Collective?  The Leadership Collective is a team of professional coaches – Carmel Cardona, Susannah Tresilian, Dr. Ayesha Nathoo, and Caitlin Shannon. Together, they have a wide range of experience in coaching, training and leadership, as well as writing, theatre directing, radio producing, public eng ..read more