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

This week I’m thrilled to be talking with researcher and practitioner Rosie Rushton, about her work and publications around ‘musical play’ for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD). Rosie’s research considers the effect of music on the play experiences of people with PMLD, but importantly, it was co-produced with ‘people with PMLD, and their supporting adults, to devise and develop the Musical Play Framework.’ In one of the academic articles from this project, Rosie, with co-authors Lila Kossyvaki, Emmanouela Terlektsi, argues ‘Inclusive research has the possibility to ..read more

As we reach the end of our 10th birthday blog series, Bridget reflects on the other articles posted throughout the year and the changes the music education sector has faced in the last decade. Well that’s our 10th Birthday year over! It’s been quite a year for many reasons, but in terms of our birthday it’s been a great way to reflect on the past and look to the future. There have been so many inspiring and thought provoking articles and I’d like to first thank everyone who has written something for us. The themes of change, diversity and inclusion, listening to the voices of everyone in music ..read more

This Is Not A Rehearsal is Music Mark’s newest campaign launching on Earth Day, 22nd April 2024. The campaign aims to raise awareness of the Climate Crisis within the Music Education sector and give you the tools and knowledge to make sustainable changes that help protect our planet. To ensure the campaign is relevant to our members and the sector, we have set up a steering group to help guide our work. Read on to find out who each member is, and why they wanted to get involved! Music Mark is at the start of its sustainable journey, and we’d like you to join us. Click here to sign up for the T ..read more

Last month, Tuesday 19th March, Music Mark held the first termly-teacher-tea-time-to-talk session (shortened to ‘T-Time’).  After each T-Time session, our Schools Lead Abi Marrison or one of our teacher attendees will write a blog addressing the question posed for each theme (which follows below).   This first session brought together teachers from different areas of the UK working in Primary and Secondary education settings. It was welcoming that teachers were open to sharing different perspectives and experiences, free of challenge or judgement. We know how important it is to creat ..read more

FUTURE MUSIC MAKERS was a ‘Test and Learn’ project for BACE (Bedford Arts and Cultural Education) taking place during Spring 2023. The project, developed and delivered in partnership with Bedford Music Hub and produced by Glow Training, explored how beatboxing and rap can be used to deliver the new National Plan for Music Education. In the final of a series of three blogs exploring the development of ‘Future Music Makers’, Glow’s Sarah Golding talks to Project Creative Director Conrad Murray, Assistant Project Creative Director Paul Cree and the three local Bedford artists X-IT, Sonny Bla ..read more

For those of you who were unable to join us at the 2024 Spring Summit, here’s a brief summary of what happened:   Arrival, coffee, pastries and lots of conversation! HertsArts started the day by reminding us that “When words fail, music speaks”. Two young people in the Looked After system – Millie and Chanelle – provided a really professional and confident presentation telling us some very powerful stories. We were reminded that musical learning can result in confidence, fun, pride, breaking down barriers, a means of communication, and building communities. It was noted that the process c ..read more

There was a time, not very long ago, when singing was at the forefront of debates about safety in classrooms and choirs were seen as the dangerous epicentre of ‘super-spreader’ events. Though it might seem rather hazy to look back on now, Music Mark was at the forefront of conversations about risk management and worked to produce extensive independent guidance, alongside organisations like Sing Up, to help schools back to singing. So when I first saw details of Wendy K. Moy’s new book Resurrecting Song: A Pathway Forward for the Choral Art in the Time of Pandemics, I wanted to find out more ab ..read more

Holly Musgreave is a 17-year-old Tuba student with Barnsley Music Service. She has been learning brass instruments since the age of 9, and now plays as principal tuba in multiple Brass Bands and Eb Bass Dep for Grimethorpe Colliery Brand. In this blog, Holly shares her musical journey with us and shows how Music Services can make a profound difference to the lives of young people.   Where did you learn to start playing a brass instrument?  I started to learn how to play a brass instrument when I was in year 4 at Birkwood Primary School in whole class brass lessons taught by music ser ..read more