Radical Music Inclusion at Eresby School
For two days last week, three young classical musicians from the Lincolnshire and Leicestershire Music Service County Ensembles co-delivered music sessions alongside school music lead Roberta Bray and UpRising project lead Ben Sellers. In the mornings they performed for and alongside pupils across the school, learning how to plan and deliver effective musical activities and, hopefully, inspiring pupils to deepen their own relationship to music-making. In the afternoons they supported focussed sessions with a post-16 group of pupils who are interested in developing their identities as creative musicians. In these sessions, existing repertoire and new compositions in several styles – jazz, classical, EDM, pop – were explored, with the various musical interests of the groups harnessed to inform and support the creative process.
Eresby Music lead Roberta Bray reflected: ‘The musicians were so adaptable to the group, and really developed over the two days. The staff whose classes we visited were buzzing!’. Project lead
Ben Sellers said: ‘A pupil at Eresby wanted to join this summer’s Great Little Orchestra project. He wasn’t selected for the project, but we felt it was important to give him an opportunity to work and make music alongside his peers.
From this concept the project was born, and ended up being a win-win for both the school and the participants, who did a fantastic job and dived another layer deeper into their inclusive practice. We hope they will be part of a new generation of music leaders in the coming years’. The project has been generously funded by Arts Council England and the music hubs that make up MEHEM. A short film detailing the project will be available in the coming weeks.
