If you have some linked Year 6 and Year 7 music partnership activities underway this term, or are planning something with a neighbouring school, we’d like to invite you to enter our Music in Transition Awards Scheme.

We’ll be awarding a £3,000 cash prize to the Music in Transition partnership winner and £1,000 to three runners-up, plus certificates for all entries.

Below you’ll find information about what we are looking for and details of how to enter your partnership for a Music in Transition Award.

What are we looking for?

We are looking for inspiring examples of inclusive primary-secondary school partnership activities where music plays a strong role in supporting young people’s transition into secondary school.

Your entry should show how your partnership activity meets the following criteria:

1. Promotes an inclusive approach to music learning

2. Demonstrates excellent practice in at least two of the following areas:

• Managing pupil information - demonstrating effective and robust administrative arrangements to support transition
• Supporting personal & social needs - including effective induction into the secondary school and secure pastoral support
• Joining up the curriculum - ensuring curriculum continuity between Year 6 and Year 7
• Sharing pedagogies - enabling continuity in teaching and classroom practice between Year 6 and Year 7
• Engaging pupils as agents - recognising pupils as active participants in the transition process and in their own musical learning

3. Shows effective partnership working

4. Comprises approaches that are sustainable in the long-term

5. Gives clear indications of positive impact for pupils

The award winners will be those partnerships that provide clear illustrations and convincing evidence of how their work meets these key criteria and that the judges consider to have submitted the most inspiring examples of effective and high impact working, that will help to enthuse other schools to strengthen their own practice. 

Your partnership may have been in place for some time and already have achieved some successes; or you and neighbouring school colleagues may be developing something new starting this term. In either case, if you’re working with colleagues from other schools on musical learning and transition, we’re very keen to hear about your work and your partnerships.

Helpful resources

At Musical Bridges we’ve produced some useful materials to help you develop and strengthen primary-secondary school partnerships. For example, have a look at our Five Bridges model. This provides a valuable framework that puts your music partnerships into a whole school context where your efforts to support transition in music will be recognised by your school’s senior leaders.

If you’re just getting started with partner schools, try out the Transition Tracker. This will give you and your partners some valuable insights into your partnership’s strong points; it will also highlight areas that you can work on together to strengthen your partnership.

Focusing on music materials that can be used by primary and secondary pupils, download our Five Tracks from the Musical Bridges website. There are also helpful demonstration videos too that explain the process that went into Five Tracks.

Musical Futures, another Paul Hamlyn Foundation initiative offers a wealth of resources for teachers, many developed by teachers themselves. Musical Futures material that can particularly support transition is available on the Musical Futures website. In particular, there are fantastic singing resources, particularly developed with Year 7 students in mind.

You can also find helpful guidance and examples of music education partnerships in Ofsted’s “Music in Schools – Sound Partnerships” publication (October 2012).

What do I do next?

To enter the Music in Transition Awards you’ll need to download and complete the awards entry form and provide us with a description of your music in transition activities and their impact, using the following headings. This should be no more than 1200 words in total.

1) Background and Planning:

What’s the background story to your schools’ music partnership, how has this evolved and over what time period?  Please describe how your activity has been planned by you and your partners. Have your headteachers/ senior leaders been involved?

2) Your Activities and Approach to improve transition for your pupils:

Please describe your music partnership activities and approach. Explain how these address the areas of practice listed in the criteria given above and promote an inclusive approach for pupils. How are the activities structured and led?

3) Outcomes:

What are the main benefits arising from your music partnership activity (for your pupils, for teachers, your school and your partners)? What evidence or indications of these do you have? How will the work be sustained in the longer-term?

NB: You are welcome to include any relevant documentary material with your entry (audio, video, photographs) although this is NOT essential; any audio or video material must, in total, be limited to 5 minutes.

How will the Music in Transition Awards be assessed?

Entries will be assessed and shortlisted by Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Musical Bridges staff. A panel of music educators and senior school leaders, selected by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, will make final decisions on Award winners in November 2013.

Entries will be shortlisted based on the material submitted and indications given and evidence of fit with the five essential criteria given above. In addition, the award winners will be those partnerships that the judges consider to have submitted the most inspiring examples of effective and high impact working, that could help to enthuse other schools to strengthen their own practice. 

The panel may contact shortlisted applicants for additional information before final decisions are made.

How to enter:

Enter your email address in the box below to download the entry form.

Your entry should be emailed to Safiya Juma at musicalbridges@phf.org.uk.

by Monday, November 4^th 2013.

If you have any questions or require further advice, please contact Safiya Juma.

 The deadline for entries to Music in Transition is

 5.00pm Monday, November 4^th 2013.

Award winners will be announced in late November 2013

This page is the third section of a resource on using the five tracks. Visit the other pages: How to use five tracks: demonstration videos and Using the five tracks in your own teaching practice. You can also listen to the Five tracks backing tracks and download the sheet music.

Part 1: Warming  Up

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 2: Singing the motifs from Indian Summer

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 3: Warming up with instruments

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 4: Practising to play Indian Summer

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 5: Performing Indian Summer

Click here to view the embedded video.

(This page is the first section of a resource on using the five tracks. The other pages are Using the five tracks in your own teaching practice and Using the five tracks: in action in the classroom. You can also listen to the Five tracks backing tracks and download the sheet music.)

In this example, Paul introduces the track and then moves from practice to performance. He chooses to work in a style that is non-verbal – a ‘silent movie’ or mime approach. You can adapt the principles to your own teaching style. All Five Tracks appeal to students of all ages across KS2 to KS4.

Following the demonstration, (Parts 1-3), Musical Bridges teaching specialist Leonora Davies then develops Paul’s work and encourages teachers to reflect on their practice (Parts 4 & 5).

Paul then coaches one of the participants who then delivers a session to the whole group, working with another of the Five Tracks, Indian Summer. The teacher also gives her views on working with the resource (Parts 6-9). To watch these videos (Part 6-9), go to Using Five Tracks in your own teaching practice.

We recommend that you watch all the videos in sequence and rewind and reflect on how Five Tracks could work for you. The videos are different lengths, ranging from 1 to 8 minutes. Together they add up to around 35 mins.

  We recommend that you click on the Full-Screen button to view the videos in full screen size.

Parts 1 to 3:  From practice to performance – with particular reference to Module 2 of the Musical Bridges Programme.

Part 1  Paul introduces just two phrases from Township Tunnel, and then hints at third

Points to notice:

• Phrases are learned aurally – singing
• Participants are encouraged to listen carefully to each other
• Use of clapping and gesture in the teaching style
• Emphasis on improving rhythmic responses as well as accuracy of pitching and articulation from the outset
• Visualisation and internalisation of the music

Paul also takes time to embed the phrases and make them secure and familiar to all members of the group before moving onto new challenges. He identifies individual participants to lead others.

Duration 8’18

Part 2  Paul takes his students from practice to performance.

He re-establishes the original two phrases and then works on pitch and articulation with phrase three. This is the first time that we hear all three vocal parts together.  Paul divides the group into three with a participant leading each section. At this point he adds in the backing track. (You can download the backing track, with sheet music, on the Five Tracks page.) Working without the backing track to begin with encourages participants to listen better to each other and they are better able to identify the different musical phrases.

Paul’s teaching and playing style emphasizes the characteristics of the genre, ’township’ from the outset.

Duration 6’24

Part 3  Paul revises all three phrases with the backing track and then uses echo patterns to introduce new phrases.

He maintains the focus of articulation, phrasing and dynamics.

Once the previous learning is re-enforced and the participants are secure with the first three phrases, new material is introduced using improvised echo patterns. The echo patterns are improvised  - Paul is making them up on the spot, and you can do the same.

By the end of Part 3, participants are performing the three phrases securely and building on their learning by performing new phrases quickly and easily.

Duration 1’40

Parts 4 & 5:  Reflecting on teaching practice, questioning styles & composition

These films relate directly to Module 3 of the Musical Bridges Professional Development Programme  (pages 36-38).

Part 4 Leonora Davies demonstrates how teachers can build on this work

Musical Bridges’ teaching specialist Leonora Davies MBE now demonstrates ways of building on this work and taking the participants to the point where, as a group, and then as individuals, they are improvising and then composing in the style and genre of Township Tunnel. In doing so, she encourages participants to reflect on their own teaching practice.

Leonora illustrates how teachers can develop questioning strategies that encourage students to ‘show’ / to demonstrate their answers musically which

• enhances understanding
• encourages internalization of the music
• provides opportunities for physical and visual responses without having to verbalize the correct musical terminology. This will be developed later as a result of ‘the doing’ and engagement.

See how Leonora supports participants as they draw together the key elements of articulation, dynamics and phrasing in their short compositions. We also see the powerful use in learning of both gesture and silence.

It’s important to consider the compositions in terms of the genre of the music.

Duration 2’10

Part 5  Participants develop their own compositions

We join the session as the participants are performing their own township compositions,(not longer than 90 seconds). These have been put together in just 10 minutes and build on the learning above in Parts 1-4. They have been given the freedom to use voice, body percussion and anything else they choose. Watch out for the DIY percussion instruments!

Building on these group compositions, Leonora encourages the participants to firstly join in with the performing group and then to improvise their own phrases. Participants are now improvising with confidence, enthusiasm and enjoyment and performing as a whole class ensemble in the township style and genre.

Duration 7’22

Next: Using Five Tracks in your own teaching practice

Here, in the second section of the resource, one of those participants - primary teacher Karen Pooley - is introduced to a second track – Indian Summer (download track and sheet music), Bhangra style - which she then teaches to her colleagues, to road test their ease of use from a teacher’s point of view. In the third section of this resource, Using the five tracks: in action in the classroom, you can see Karen using these techniques with her own class in school.

  We recommend that you click on the Full-Screen button to view the videos in full screen size.

Part 6  Karen Pooley learns to deliver the session

Five Tracks producer and teacher, Paul Christmas coaches primary music teacher Karen Pooley, to deliver a session, from scratch, using the Indian Summer Bhangra style track.

Duration 3’20

Part 7  Capturing the melodies in music notation

Paul introduces ways of capturing melodies on paper. This visual re-enforcement is another strategy to help Karen learn the phrases. Notice how Karen takes the lead in her learning as Paul gently guides and refines the outcome.

Duration 1’20

Part 8  Karen tries out delivering the session

Karen incorporates some of these newly learned strategies into her own teaching style.

How confidently can she deliver a session using resources and techniques that she has encountered for the first time just minutes earlier?

Duration 3’15

This resource relates directly to Module 2 of the Musical Bridges Programme: Developing a shared approach to musical learning across Primary and Secondary phases.

Notice how many of the teaching techniques and strategies adopted to learn Township Tunnel (see Parts 1-3) translate to this new track, Indian Summer, despite the differences in genre.

Thorough preparation, as all teachers know, is the key to working on new/different material so that it can be delivered confidently in the classroom.

Part 9  Karen reflects on her experiences

Primary teacher Karen Pooley reflects on her Five Tracks learning and teaching experience. How did she find the experience? How useful does she believe Five Tracks can be for transition projects and her teaching generally? How might she use them in the future?

Duration 3’13

Karen says she found using Five tracks straightforward and is already making plans to use it in her classroom. We hope that you will try out Five Tracks too. Feel free to tell us how you get on and what you think using the Contact Us page.

Next: Using the five tracks: in action in the classroom

It's an interactive poster! The poster is designed with areas for you to fill in. So you could print it out, put it up on a wall and write in the details about your transition schools and how you're working with them and other transition partners.

Download the Musical Bridges as an pdf for printing (optimised for A3 size).

This literature review was commissioned as part of Changing Key and written by one of the team's researchers Jon Hargreaves. He presented this work at the early stages of the Changing Key longitudinal study; it went on to inform the theoretical framework used in the Changing Key study.

This is a long and comprehensive review of hundreds of research documents and will be highly valuable to anyone researching or otherwise interested in adolescents' psychologies and music.

It's divided into the following sections:

• Music and the Individual Adolescent (Personality, self-concept and identity; Mental health and well-being; Mood and behaviour)
• Adolescents’ Uses and Consumption of Music (Musical Preferences and taste; Uses and Consumption of Music; Music and Social Interaction in Adolescence; Peer groups; Parents and family; Music Teachers)
• Adolescents and Music in Culture and Society (Media use and influence; Role-models; Gender)
• Participation and Engagement in Musical Activity (Motivation; In school vs. out-of school issues; Music and other activities)
• Theoretical Papers

Each section has an introduction then a set of tables showing: author, title, method, sample, research questions, findings.

Download the Literature Review as a pdf.

That’s why we’re inviting headteachers, music specialists and lead partners in Music Education Hubs to help us spread the word about the benefits of Musical Bridges.

Here you’ll find interviews with colleagues in primaries, secondaries and Hubs, who have been involved with the initiative.

We’re asking each to say what they feel the value of Musical Bridges is - in supporting transition in and through music - and why they believe their peers in other areas should get involved.

More interviews with a range of ‘champions’ will be added over time.

If you would like to help us champion Musical Bridges in your school or your area, please contact us.

Video transcripts

The transcribed text from three of the videos is below.

1. Max Bullough is headteacher of Hayling College secondary school on Hayling Island in Hampshire.

What have been the benefits of Musical Bridges for you?

I think that Musical Bridges had helped us revive some of our cross-phase work that had fallen into a period of decline. It’s enabled us to think more creatively about a limited area of work which we can have staff working together on from Year 6 and Year 7. It’s reminded us I think as a community of schools on the island that we’re all responsible for all children in their education from the start to the finish, and we all have contributions to make, and we can all learn from each other. So there’s a major shift in the spirit of joint enterprise.

What was the appeal of Musical Bridges? Was it music, or transition, or both?

It was about context and circumstance for us. I had a new Head of Music. My two junior schools that feed us also had new headteachers at the same time. There was an enthusiasm from my new Head of Music to make a major contribution to the island community. He’s also a Hayling Islander himself. His own daughter goes to one of our feeder schools, and he wanted to make a sense of community excellence around music. So it just came at the right moment to fit in with what we were doing, which was ambitious for the community as well as ambitious for the school.

What are your hopes for Musical Bridges if it’s to have a real impact?

I think it will deliver in terms of helping us to focus very clearly on what sort of transitional information we want to receive about children’s experience before the age of 11. I think it will also open up the eyes of secondary school staff who will be visiting more frequently their colleagues and learning from them in our primary schools, and I also think that it will unlock the doors for our primary colleagues to come and visit secondary school, where they’ve been very reluctant in the past, to see a sense of continuity from one to the other.

Musical Bridges requires a commitment of time and of resource. You’re prepared to make that commitment. What would you say to other head teachers to encourage them to see its value?

I think we have to lose our obsession with English and Maths being the only things that matter. We have to think about education of the whole child. I’m very worried, and I say to all my colleagues who are headteachers, we have a responsibility to children to help them learn through the arts and about the arts because the arts, if nothing else, give children access to excellence. There are very few other subjects that are able to do that.

So if there were a headteacher or a senior leader teetering on the edge of adopting Musical Bridges, what would you say to them?

I’d say, ‘Have a go. The investment will pay dividends.’ They just need to have the faith to make the investment in the beginning.

2. Simon Lock is Head of Slough Music Service (lead partner of Slough Music Education Hub)

What have been the benefits of Musical Bridges for you?

Right from the beginning, particularly through from the ‘Transition Tracker’, it’s really raised our awareness of aspects that we can influence around transition. It gives us a focus to look at what we do already and what has benefited transition. Some of the projects that we’ve run are intentionally around transition, and that’s developed those nicely.

A lot of other projects we’ve run and not actually been aware that there is a transition element in them. So that’s enabled us to look at what we already did, and did quite well, and develop those, and look at the plethora of areas where we simply weren’t even aware that there was something that we could do for transition.

Particularly where we are in Slough, the ethnic mix is enormous. We have a huge Muslim and Sikh community and many, many new arrivals. In some classes that we teach, 50% of pupils won’t speak any English, so traditional, verbal methods of making music simply don’t work.

We’ve been looking a lot recently around creative learning with some of our partners, and training our staff in creative methods of approach. That’s really brought together how creative approaches to establishing a benchmarking and base levels at Year 7 can be much more musical. So we’re not looking at, ‘Do children understand the elements of music? Do they know what pulse is? Can they clap a rhythm?’

We can leave that aside and look at using body percussion and vocal methods and exploring what instruments they may play and what they may have played, coming up from Wider Opportunities in primary school for example, and enabling the children to show what they know in a musical way.

And that’s just enabling a much more musical approach to Years 6 & 7 units that can then establish what children really know about music, rather than hoping that they might tell us! Sometimes they know and sometimes they’ll tell us. Sometimes they know and they won’t be happy about coming forward and saying, ‘I understand this, I know about this’.  So, it’s about establishing creative methods that have been part of the work that we have been doing over several years. Musical Bridges has been a perfect complement to that.

If you were in a roomful of colleagues from other music services and music education hubs, how might you try to ‘sell’ Musical Bridges to them, if indeed you would?

I think it’s brought together so many initiatives that we already run: how to we co-ordinate cross-school, inter-school, cross-Hub (or whatever it is!) CPD? What goes into our current consortium? The primary/secondary networks? It’s a great way of adding an element to that to help support, not just transition, but also supporting teaching and learning across the curriculum, and between phases.

It supports the eternal question about how do we assess creativity? That’s something that frequently comes up as something that schools need training in. So it enables that to be used much more effectively.

It brings schools together. It gets us in contact with senior leaders. As a music hub and a music service head, it’s almost impossible to get to see a headteacher.  Talk about music, that’s a hard currency to talk in. If you go and talk about transition, talk about the effect on literacy and numeracy, then we’re talking the kind of language that headteachers will listen to. And that gets us a much wider audience.

3. Alison Whitney, Headteacher of Newlyn Primary School, Cornwall

What have been the benefits of Musical Bridges for you?

For us, music was always very strong in the school. It was strong when I arrived and it still is. So, for us, Musical Bridges had meant that we can continue our journey really in music. The key for us has been the links that we have now been able to make with one of the secondaries that we feed into, and supporting our children with transition, through music.

But it’s also led to barriers coming down with my headteacher colleague who is a secondary head. Whereas for the first five years that I was in Cornwall it was just primary heads that I conversed with, now that barrier’s gone. So Bill Marshall (headteacher Humphry Davy Secondary School) and I are very much in discussions about how we can take it forward, particularly now we are part of a trust.

It’s been the catalyst initially for really just initially breaking down the barriers between primary and secondary and improving our children’s quality of music as they move up to secondary school, helping them feel more confident, helping them make informed choices about which secondary school they want to go to

I think it’s even raised the profile a bit more of music in the school, if that was possible, because music is everything really at Newlyn. It’s meant that we’ve been talking about it at our school and we’ve been talking about it at our primary heads meetings, so it’s starting to move out there as well.

I think for those schools where they’ve got a fairly confident person with their music it’s a superb vehicle for transition and for helping schools get together and talk about transition. And a lot of the information that we’ve had as senior leaders, as part of Musical Bridges, I think could be quite generic really and actually if they haven’t got a music specialist, or if they don’t think that music is the link that they can make then they could actually use it as a vehicle for doing cross-phase art or cross-phase science, or whatever.

That co-teaching and primary school teachers going to secondary schools and vice versa, I think it’s huge, and I think it’s going to have some really positive outcomes in the long run. Because it’s just never happened before. And I’ve been teaching for 33 years now and I’ve never know it happen before. So Musical Bridges has helped with that.

4. Karen Pooley is a music specialist at Lynch Hill Primary Academy in Slough in Berkshire.

What have been the benefits of Musical Bridges for you?

The positive about Musical Bridges has been, definitely, meeting my feeder secondary school. Because of where we’re based we have quite a lot of feeder secondary schools, some of which don’t do any music, which is tragic. But the particular feeder school that is here today, Baylis Court School – it’s been great to get to know them. So, even as a starting point it’s just put us in contact, which is a million miles off where we were before.

We’ve got so many ideas about what we can do. We’re in talks about transition days and workshops that we can do. Obviously there are a few things that impact on it – time, money – these are all quite big factors that could hinder our progress somewhat. But the whole Programme has definitely given us a lot of insight into what we can do, the use of it, and those initial points of contact.

What would be most useful to help Musical Bridges expand and really make an impression?

I think it’s got a really good basis for a transition process. Unfortunately, and I wish it wasn’t this way, it’s just the way it is, music is probably one of the subjects that – even though I don’t believe it should be – is seen as one of the least important subjects in schools. So, if Musical Bridges can develop this into other areas and get senior leaders on board, and then if it can be rolled out into other curriculum areas, so that transition as a whole becomes more of an important process, then I think that would definitely help.

With music specifically in mind, I definitely think that you need to work with the senior leaders. Obviously all the music teachers and music specialists will want to do this programme because it’s important to us and because it’s part of our job, but we have a massive problem doing it if we don’t have backing from our senior management and our heads.

Also funding. If there’s any funding that could be provided for projects, or to local authorities, music hubs and music services, that would really help because a lot of this does cost money and schools simply don’t have the funds to provide for transition workshops etc. So, coming up with some ideas that don’t necessarily cost a lot, if Musical Bridges can provide some help towards that. And then targeting senior managers and making them understand how important the process is. Because if they understand then it is probably going to release us more from school so that we can then get more time to carry out the whole process.

1. Spread the word online: Write about Musical Bridges on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +, or other social networks you use. Tweet about @musical_bridges or use our hash tag:#musicalbridges.
2. Share the Musical Bridges Programme with your colleagues. The Musical Bridges Professional Development Programme is a free-to-access, tried-and-tested framework, built on research, for teachers, schools and Music Education Hubs to work together to transform transition with music.
3. Start a transition team in your schools, with teachers and school leaders from groups of transition schools. (Read about Transition Teams on page 43 of the Musical Bridges Programme.)
4. Do the transition tracker: complete our online self-assessment tool for transition practice, and compare your results with other schools', then share your results. (The Tracker is currently available as a Teacher Tracker and an Senior Leaders Tracker.)
5. Ask your students what they think: find out about your students' anticipations of transition, if it's coming up; or ask for their reflections, if they're in secondary school. Then work with your students to work out how things could be improved.
6. Stick the Musical Bridges Poster on your wall. This poster (free download) illustrates all of the key considerations and activities that the Musical Bridges research has found to be important for effective musical transition.

Newlyn Primary music specialist Jo Fitzgerald shares her experiences of Musical Bridges, supported by her headteacher Alison Whitney

Headteachers, music specialists and Music Education Hub partners have been demonstrating how Musical Bridges is transforming transition.

Around thirty representatives from Musical Bridges pilots in ten different parts of the country gathered at the Barbican on 21^st November to swap notes on their experiences. The overwhelming conclusion was that the initiative has had a positive impact on school transition and musical progression.

Primary teacher Jo Fitzgerald reported a four-fold increase in pupils transferring to a specialist music college that now has stronger links with her primary school.

“It’s all about confidence. Our pupils want to continue their musical learning and they feel confident to do that because they are so familiar with their new school.”

Secondary teacher James Oecken described how singing is now flourishing in his school, because Musical Bridges has given him the impetus to expand singing activities on and off the timetable.

“There’s an increase in boys in particular singing. They are really into it. I can’t stop them singing all over the school!”

Head of Slough Music Service, Simon Lock, explained how Musical Bridges has had an impact on the activities of the local Music Education Hub.

“It’s given us a chance to consolidate where we want to take music in our schools.”

There was also evidence that Musical Bridges has increased inclusion in musical activities for pupils from a range of backgrounds, and helped raise their aspirations. The seminar heard from a primary teacher how it has supported the musical ambitions of a primary pupil with cerebral palsy who plays the flute.

“She feels it’s important for her future to continue playing at secondary and has the belief that she can do that because she is already comfortable in the school. This transition project has made that happen.”

All parties agreed that Musical Bridges has been a catalyst for change and inspired them to develop their teaching and learning to create a smoother transition for pupils. There was an overwhelming consensus too on how important buy-in from senior leaders is in order to embed real change.

Newlyn Primary headteacher Alison Whitney, who is a science specialist, says she has supported her staff’s involvement because Musical Bridges impacts well beyond the subject of music.

 “There are so many benefits and now that we have built strong links between schools we can start to look at how we can apply it to transition in other subjects.”

Delegates agreed that there is a strong appetite to explore how Musical Bridges can evolve to impact across the curriculum.

Delegates swapped ideas on the value of the Five Musical Bridges 'Ingredients'

At the same time, they acknowledged that there are challenges ahead if the Musical Bridges approach is to be embedded more widely.

Hot topics identified by the group included:

• Time for colleagues’ continued involvement
• Influence the decision makers and fund holders both within and across schools.
• Work within the transition team/ network , but also  continue to include ,  involve and inform  other ‘significant’ colleagues /SLTs.
• Include managers and teachers from the music service/hub.
• Make sure parents/families are knowledgeable and involved, so that they can support.
• Minimise competition between schools, focus on cooperation  and developments.
• Transition programmes need to be at least Y5 to Y8 – and broader if possible.
• Develop the Music Passport systems –  invest  in pupil time to produce the information we need.
• Maximise involvement of  pupils in their own transition log/passport.
• Older pupils can lead transition activities with younger pupils, within and across schools.
• The designation of schools, as well as their status, leads to variable resources for involvement.
• There are practical as well as philosophical issues – time, transport, funding and designated colleagues, with status and responsibility.

The seminar was also an opportunity to introduce delegates to the brand new Five Tracks suite of musical resources for transition, available at: Five Tracks: songs, sheet music and backing tracks for transition.

These have been specially designed for use in primary and secondary schools in cross-phase projects that give pupils an opportunity to build upon their learning across transition, working with music that is already familiar to them.

Paul Christmas, creator of 'Five Tracks' demonstrates ways to use these new Musical Bridges resources.

Creator Paul Christmas demonstrated ways to use the resources. He then coached one delegate who then road tested them for herself by working on a Five Tracks composition with the whole group.

Delegates were also asked to feed back on the recently released Musical Bridges Programme (MBP) for professional development, which can be downloaded for free from the Musical Bridges website.

The Programme has been developed after two years of action-research in schools and the resources are still in draft form. The Musical Bridges team is keen to hear from teachers and Music Education Hubs who’ve benefited from the training and understand how the resources can be developed or improved.

On behalf of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, education adviser Vanessa Wiseman thanked delegates for their involvement so far in the special initiative and emphasised how it fits with the Foundation’s advocacy for arts, education and social justice.

“Musical Bridges is a young project that is going to have a real impact.”

The day finished with delegates reflecting on the actions they will take next to continue their work on transition, and the support they believe is needed to make that successful.

Contact Musical Bridges

The Programme is structured into four online modules and tools that are free to download and include background reading, resources and session plans for practical activities. You begin by identifying where transition practices can be strengthened in your school and go on to build successful ‘musical transition bridges’ with other participating schools. Throughout, you tailor the Programme to meet your needs. The programme is designed as a 'Do-it-yourself professional development kit' so that groups of schools, teachers and music organisations can run the programme themselves.

Find out more about the Programme, and download the booklet, on the Musical Bridges Programme page.