“Working together, supporting each other and mastering new techniques and ideas, teaches young people to embrace teamwork and understand that we all respond to challenges differently and it’s more powerful in a peer to peer setting.” Councillor Stephanie Primrose, East Ayrshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Skills and Learning (2016)
Today’s music session was brilliant. Greenmill Primary School came into the university and told us about the Strings Project and taught us how to play an instrument. This allowed us to see the benefits these children have gained from learning a musical instrument and being part of a school orchestra; as well as this we were able to experience being taught by a child which shows how much knowledge and understanding they have gained from the experience. Studying music increases multiple skills that extend to other academic areas which will lead to overall academic success (Arts Education Partnership, 2011).
It was extremely inspiring to hear from the pupils’ points of view and how being involved in music has benefited them academically and personally – helping concentration and social relationships within the class. It emphasised the need to teach music and involve it in a child’s education.
Drama
We practiced making drama cross-curricular today putting the techniques we had learned into practice. Using Anthony Browne’s The Tunnel as a stimulus we adapted each technique to the book to show how they can all be utilized. One of the techniques I really liked and felt would be incredibly beneficial to the children was drawing around one of us and writing how the character would have felt on the inside and how others would have perceived them from the outside. This would get the children thinking about not judging people before getting to know them. This activity can be done privately as an individual or as a group which can spur discussion as a class.
