Music for all
Liverpool’s young people love making music − they love to sing, to compose, to perform and, like the vibrant city to which they belong, they have music running through their veins.
As Head of Service I am thrilled to see Resonate cultivate the musical life of Liverpool’s schools and communities. I believe that through the work of Resonate, provision for music education is strategically planned and effectively delivered, based on well-established city-wide partnerships with a group of excellent partner organisations. We continue to adapt our offer and work flexibly with schools and organisations to ensure that the challenges the young people in Liverpool face are at the heart of all our decision making.
Resonate is led by Notre Dame Catholic College, a successful secondary school in the heart of the city. Notre Dame is uniquely placed in leading Liverpool’s music education hub and we are thankful to our foundation partners - Liverpool’s Family of Schools, Liverpool City Council, School Improvement Liverpool, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Live Music Now for their relentless efforts in supporting and shaping our vision.
Music makes a powerful contribution to the life of our young people and I firmly believe that investment in musical opportunities across the city will reap long-term benefits that go beyond musical achievement and impacts on the life and employability skills of Liverpool’s young people.
Music Education Hubs
Funded byArts Council England Resonate, Liverpool’s Music Hub is a partnership of organisations led by Notre Dame Catholic College.
We are committed to delivering the aims of theNational Plan for Music Education, working with schools and organisations to make young people’s music in Liverpool outstanding.
Notre Dame Catholic College is delighted to lead this development together with a group of Foundation Partners who each have membership of the Management Board.
Over the last few years Resonate has developed long lasting partnerships with a number of local and national organisations, click on the title below to find out more.
Vision
Working with partners across the city we have ensured the Core and Extension Roles of the National Plan for Music Education are central to our offer to schools and we remain committed to bringing the best musical experiences and learning opportunities to Liverpool’s young people.
Music Education Hubs are to ensure that 5-18-year olds in England;
Core Role 1
Are offered the opportunity to learn a musical instrument (other than voice);
We have offered every primary school in Liverpool, access to a year of whole-class ensemble provision, heavily subsidised using the ACE fund to ensure it is accessible to both schools and pupils.
We believe that this is an extensive and inclusive approach to ensuring every child is able to access instrumental provision. We have developed a Secondary Investment Fund to support secondary schools in offering music tuition, ensemble and workshop activities to disadvantaged students.
Core Role 2
Are offered the opportunity to make music with others, and to perform from an early age;
RMS offers ensemble provision from first access to advancing musicians, covering various musical genres and includes our hugely successful partnership project with DaDafest – The Young DaDa Ensemble. We deliver two RMS situated in the north and south of Liverpool (currently online provision only).
Access and affordability are at the heart of RMS provision with 50% low income bursaries and 100% bursaries for pupil premium students available.
We are proud to partner with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic to deliver our outstanding orchestral development programme as part of our Resonate Music Studios. We have commissioned RLP to deliver two orchestras based in our north and south sites. The Resonate Youth Philharmonic orchestras will continue to grow providing more opportunity for young musicians to develop their orchestral experience.
Beyond activity that is delivered by Resonate staff we are working with other local and national ensemble organisations to support the young person’s musical journey. There are opportunities available to young people across all genres of music and for all ages. Through carefully managed partnerships with Culture Liverpool, Liverpool International Music Festival, and our close partners the RLP, this is an area that is flourishing.
Core Role 3
Are offered affordable opportunities to progress to excellence in music making;
We have used the ACE fund to heavily subsidise ensemble activity beyond initial access, working with schools to ensure there is no cost to the pupil in the first years of their instrumental and vocal journey. Whole class activity beyond first access in Year 4 is heavily subsidised using the ACE fund meaning that there are increasing numbers of KS2 pupils who are continuing their musical leaning into Year 5 and 6.
We continue to offer instrumental lessons in KS3+ and the work we have developed with DaDaFest using Youth Music funding to fund our Young DaDa Ensemble is providing a valuable point of access for young musicians with disabilities to play in a band and access instrumental tuition.
Working within the Merseyside Music Education Hub Alliance we will consolidate routes for talent development and pathways onto careers in the creative industries that characterise our city region. We will coordinate partners to maximise participation and progression routes in music for young people.
Core Role 4
Are offered regular singing opportunities.
Our Singing Strategy has three foci: 1. Supporting schools in delivering singing, 2. Supporting the Singer and 3. Supporting our Singing City.
During the pandemic we have continued to lead the conversation with Liverpool schools relating to best practice to safe singing. Our Guidance for Liverpool schools on music delivery and COVID-19 gives specific guidance for schools and delivery staff on how to deliver singing in schools.
Music Education Hubs are to:
Extended Role 1
Offer CPD to school staff, particularly in supporting schools to deliver music in the curriculum;
Resonate continues to be a regional hub for schools to access support, advice, training, professional development and opportunities to network with other colleagues, including PGCE students.
The work we do to support music in schools and to develop leadership of music in schools is extensive and highly valued by schools and practitioners. Our approach indicates a comprehensive and far reaching commitment to developing the school-based workforce, whereby schools can access the hub to support them in developing both their leadership and their delivery of music in the curriculum.
Throughout this time Resonate has been a powerful voice in promoting the role music education plays in young people’s lives, the emotional and social benefits of accessing music during these uncertain times and an overarching determination that young people’s music matters.
Extended Role 2
Provide an instrument loan service, with discounts or free provision for those on low incomes;
There is a stock of instruments distributed to schools across Liverpool to support pupil access and transition. Our local knowledge tells us that the majority of families are unable to afford the purchase of a musical instrument; this disadvantage will not be a barrier to learning.
Extended Role 3
Provide access to a range of high-quality music experiences for pupils, working with professional musicians and/or venues where possible
We developed a new online Schools Concerts offer, bringing live music into the classroom available for our special and primary schools. Working with our partners Live Music Now we have hosted 6 Musical Monday’s Schools Concerts with over 7,000 pupils taking part to date.
The success of these online schools’ concerts has led us to develop a model for next year where schools can purchase, through their Resonate SLA, a year’s subscription enabling their school to access 6 Musical Monday’s online sessions and 30 free tickets to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Schools Concert in spring 2022.