We are now beginning the fourth year of our music programme in Hackney primary schools, and the response from children, teachers and head teachers has been extremely positive. The children are listening with real pleasure and understanding, and are asking intelligent and probing questions. We as musicians have learned to communicate better, and are find that our own thinking about the music we play has developed as our own listening skills grow along with those of the children we teach.

The programme focuses on developing listening skills, enabling the children to discover for themselves how to listen to and enjoy music. We show the children what to look out for in the music, how the music is put together, how we play together and make music together. The aim of the programme is to give children a "way in" to understanding and enjoying all music through the medium of classical music, whether they already know and like it or whether they have never heard it before. There will be a chance to try the instruments, and many chances to participate in the sesssions, but the main emphasis of the programme is on learning how to listen in an active and creative way.

Listening to music should never be passive, but should engage the senses and stimulate the imagination. We show how the instruments and players interact, how to follow what is happening in the music, and how all music tells a story. The children can then relate the moods, emotions and drama of the music to their own experience.

The Programme

The ACO Schools' Project introduces children to the instruments of the orchestra, the musicians who play them and the music they play. Using a progressive series of classroom sessions, orchestral workshops and a schools' concert the programme develops and encourages enjoyment and understanding of music in a stimulating and original way.

The classroom sessions are given by small groups of musicians, and explore the nature of music, how it works and what is involved in playing it. We focus on particular elements of music performance such as story-telling, communication, and gettting to know the musicians and their instruments.

The classroom sessions lead up to the orchestral workshops, with up to 200 children attending each workshop. The orchestral workshops give children from all of the schools involved in the programme an opportunity to see a full chamber orchestra up close and include chances to interact with the orchestra, to meet the musicans and to get to know the full range of instruments of the orchestra.

The final schools' concert provides an exciting chance for the children and their parents to attend a live orchestral concert. The classroom sessions and workshops are designed to prepare the children for this concert so that they will get the maximum enjoyment and benefit from the experience.

What makes our programme special?

There are many music programmes in schools, mostly involving participation in creating a piece of music. What we do is very different in that we concentrate on developing listening skills.

Several of the teachers have commented that the children’s concentration and attention have improved even in the short time we have been working with them, and that this carries over into their other work.

It is generally accepted, even among musicians, that children will not understand classical music. We believe that this is not the case, and that if music is presented in the right way the children can learn to listen using their own powers of observation and imagination. It is very interesting that the music the children identify with and understand most readily is often music that adults find the most challenging, for instance music by Shostakovich or Ravel.

The lesson plans are designed to gradually increase the length of excerpts and to give the children the tools to enjoy and understand longer passages of music. We also introduce more instruments as we progress through the year, so that by the time the children go to the final concert they are able to have a positive experience at a real classical orchestral concert. The members of the orchestra have commented on how impressed they are with the concentration of the children while we are playing.

Lesson plans

In order to help the teachers to get the maximum benefit from the programme we have outlined the lesson plans in this resource pack, with suggestions for preparation and follow-up using the CD provided. There will be some variation in the music played, as it is important to keep a degree of flexibility and spontaneity and to respond to each class individually, but we will keep to these lesson plans as far as possible.

Please let us know if there are any particular themes you would like us to include this year relating to particular projects you are doing, and we will do what we can to incorporate these in our programme.

The role of the teacher

It is vitally important to the success of the programme that the class teachers and music co-ordinators are fully involved. You know your children better than we do, and they will behave better if you are there. We need your help in maintaining discipline, and in helping us to understand the dynamics of your class. We try to learn the names of as many children as possible, and large and legible name tags are invaluable. The classroom sessions work best when the classroom is set up before we arrive, and if the children have been prepared for our visit. If you are there to see what we do and how we do it you will then be able to use the CD (and other CDs) to continue exploring some of the ideas we have introduced to your class when we are not there.

Evaluation and feedback

Your feedback is very important to us in helping us to monitor how the programme is working and to make improvents for the next year. To help with this we have included a simple evaluation form for the programme up to the last classroom session, which we will collect at the end of that session, and a second form for the Schools’ Concert. Your help in completing these is greatly appreciated.