Music Conference 2025
Thursday 27 February 2025
Annie Mawson's Sunbeams Music Trust, Penrith
CA11 0DT
Registration from 9.00 - ends 16.00
A day full of panel discussions, workshops and key speakers.
Speakers and Sessions:
Kay Charlton, composer, educator and trumpet player with the Bollywood brass band, Kay will be leading 2 sessions on Creative approaches to classroom instrumental lessons.
Creative approaches to teaching whole class music at KS2
Repertoire - what we teach and how we teach it.
How to find and use repertoire and resources from a variety of backgrounds and musical styles.
Playing by ear.
Improvisation.
Geth Griffith from Royal Northern College of Music. How can improvisation be used to explore musical concepts in greater depth? Teaching techniques will be discussed and workshopped including collaboration, developing listening skills, and finding ways to get comfortable with taking risks. This workshop will not be jazz-specific and therefore can be applied to any style, participants are encouraged to bring instruments.
Ella Jarman-Pinto is a critically acclaimed Cumbria-based composer, described by Classic FM as ‘one of the UK’s most exciting music-makers’ and recognised by the Women of the Year Lunch 2021.
Play, Exploration and Trust: A Neurodiverse Perspective on Music Education In this workshop, Ella brings her anecdotal experience of being AuDHD and parenting/home educating neurodivergent children to explore how we can shift our perspective on what music education “needs” to be, how we can trust in children’s own creativity and support them to trust themselves too.
Including practical elements of improvisation, composition and movement.
Gospel Repertoire in an Educational context
Tosin Akindele and David Onac will lead an uplifting Gospel singing session where those taking part get to experience the joy of what it feels like to sing in a Gospel choir. There will be discussions around leading Gospel choirs within schools, with a particular focus on KS2, KS3 and KS4 and the benefits of this in Music Education. Come prepared to sing in harmony and learn some gospel singing techniques. Vocal Health Workshop (1-1 or small group session) Tosin will also be leading a session on Vocal Health and the best way teachers can look after their voices and the voices of the children they are working with when running singing sessions and choirs within school. We will be exploring different singing techniques and learning a range of vocal warmups.Write your School Music Development Plan with the help of the Cumbria Music Hub team
Dr Rebecca Berkley: Assessment and the Model Music Curriculum
Workshop: Show me what you know (Primary focus)
Assessing practical musicianship skills in primary children.
Musical learning is non-verbal and is heard and seen in the way children sing, move, play instruments and explore musical sound. It can be difficult as a teacher to deliver practical music lessons and assess what the children are doing at the same time.
This is a practical session exploring ways of assessing children’s musical learning in the four key activities of the Model Music Curriculum: Singing, Listening, Composing and Performing, including performing on instruments, through incremental development of the skills relating to each area. We will explore ways to integrate assessment into your music teaching, investigating some practical examples from KS1 and KS2. If you can, please bring along a pitched instrument to this session.
Workshop: Modelling the Music Curriculum (Primary)
A practical discussion session investigating ways to implement the Model Music Curriculum in schools. Hear the latest Ofsted advice about ways to ways to support children in becoming better at music by teaching them technical, expressive and constructive skills through planned knowledge and skills development. We will consider planning for music teaching across the key stages, encourage you to share good practice, and explore ideas for tackling challenges in curriculum design. We will discuss how to embed practical musicianship into the school curriculum. If you can, please bring along some examples from your own schools of how you are implementing the Model Music Curriculum in your schemes of work and lesson planning.
Rick Kershaw: Developing Rock and Pop Ensembles with children in School
Workshop: Developing Rock and Pop Ensembles with children in School (KS3 focus)
Rick will give you some practical ideas to get your KS3 rock band off the ground. He'll present some basic instrumental techniques for you to try on the day that non rock-band musicians and complete beginners can get going with quickly. He'll also talk about approaches to getting pupils through the door and an instrument into their hands, and some repertoire and resources that can be used straight away.
Max Wheeler: First Steps in Music Technology
Workshop: First Steps in Music Technology with Charanga Yu Studio (KS2 focus)
Bridget Rennie and Annie Ruscillo : Inclusive music at Sandgate School
Workshop: Snappy Operas
Learn from Snappy Opera's year long music residency at Sandgate school - a partnership with Mahogany Opera. Explore new ways of co-creating with children with additional needs, and integrating music into the school day.
Bridget Rennie is Executive Director of Mahogany Opera, a leading commissioner and producer of new opera and music theatre working with a diverse range of artists and audiences. She was previously Co-Executive Director of Streetwise Opera, and is passionate about artistic and social inclusion and enabling people to make music. Bridget is part of the Clore Leader network and is a Trustee for Hear Me Out, a music charity which works with people affected by immigration detention.
Lucinda Geoghegan
Workshop: Developing Musicianship in the Secondary Curriculum
Workshop with Paul Whittaker: Feeling Music - Encouraging Deaf children to sing
