Over the past term, Arts Development Manager Annabel Thomas has been on tour with Trinity Rock and Pop, celebrating Trinity College London’s new Rock and Pop syllabus, and delivering hundreds of Arts Awards at the same time! On the blog this week, we round up the amazing musical Arts Awards delivered as part of this programme and explore using Arts Award Discover with whole class ensemble teaching (WCET).
Barnsley. Newport. London. It’s been a busy couple of months as Arts Award and Trinity Rock & Pop joined forces to launch our nationwide tour. The main thrust of the tour has been to celebrate Trinity College London’s new and improved Rock & Pop syllabus, which allows students to take a graded exam in vocals, keyboard, drums, guitar or bass using real rock & pop songs and scores. This seemed like a great opportunity to show off how much fun completing an Arts Award can be, and it only made sense that we offered all young people coming along to Trinity on Tour the opportunity to also complete their very own Arts Award.
What actually happens on tour?
During tour days, we invite local schools to come along and hear some amazing performances, as well as take part in music workshops. We run two sessions during the day, one for primary schools and one for secondary. To get the creative juices flowing all young people are treated to a mini-concert from the Trinity on Tour band, comprised of professional musicians and music teachers, who perform songs from the Trinity Rock & Pop syllabus. They are then launched into taking part in the activities themselves, with a pulse and beat workshop, led by Rock & Pop National Adviser Toby Davies.
Ok, but how does Arts Award come into it?
Following an introduction and performance by the band, we divide young people into groups based on their chosen instruments. They then head to specially equipped rooms to take part in a workshop led by the professional musician they just saw performing on stage (neatly completing Part A!) During each workshop, young people are tasked with finding out three facts about the member of the band who ran their session (Part B), before sharing what they learnt and enjoyed about the event with a partner (Part C).
All young people are given a specially designed A3 map to prompt evidence gathering, and there are plenty of staff on site on the day to ensure that everyone is supported to achieve their Arts Award Discover. We encourage young people to take their maps home with them, so they can share what they did with their friends or families and keep the excitement going!
A few weeks’ following the event, Arts Award Discover certificates will arrive in the post. And the best bit? Everyone who completes an Arts Award Discover as part of Trinity on Tour gets it completely FREE! What’s not to like?
So far we have delivered almost 500 Arts Awards as part of Trinity on Tour, and hope to do many more next year. It’s been really exciting to show how easy and impactful it can be to link Arts Award to an event like Trinity on Tour, making a strong case for whole class music teaching. We hope that this has not only inspired lots of young people to continue their Arts Award journey, but has helped teachers to find out a bit more about how they might like to deliver Arts Award themselves.
For more information on Arts Award and how it can link to your music teaching, or how you can get involved in Trinity on Tour, contact annabel.thomas@trinitycollege.co.uk.