Raising confidence by giving young people a voice (and stage!)
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School:
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Date:2009 - 2011
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Categories:Cultural engagementPupil voiceMus
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Introduction:Programme: Creative Partnerships
Organisation: Coundon Court School & Community College, Coventry -
Article:
Coventrians who miss out on snapping up coveted tickets for Glastonbury next year should look no further than their home city to get their music fix - thanks to students at Coundon Court School and Community College in Coventry. Talented year 12 and 13 students are busy working towards organising their own mini Glastonbury-style festival at Coombe Abbey next summer as part of their second year of the Creative Partnerships' programme being led at the school with Cre8us.
The project follows a hugely successful 'Battle of the Bands' event that the students held at Coventry's Belgrade Theatre as part of their BTEC media course in July, which was also part of the school's first year as an Enquiry School. The event raised more than £800 for the 'Help the Heroes' charity too! The competition attracted entries from 14 schools across the city, with everything from ticket sales and sponsorship - to publicity and backstage production - all planned, project managed and handled, right from the outset, by the Coundon Court students.
The resounding success of the night, and all the project work that led up to it, was followed by students all achieving course results which exceeded predictions and has led to Coundon Court's link-up with Cre8us being praised by other schools across the region.
Cathryn Goodwin, Cre8us Programme Manager, said: "The achievements of this group of students has been nothing short of tremendous. Every single one of the students exceeded their predicted scores and many of them produced work which was considered equivalent to degree level, and it was brilliant the event at the Belgrade Theatre went so well.
"This project was all about giving the students full responsibility for a project and enabling them to unpick the learning that had gone on within it, both from the perspective of the students and also the staff, and identifying the invaluable skills they have picked up along the way.
"It was such a resounding success the school is now hopeful of making the Battle of the Bands an annual event and the students can also take the skills and confidence they have developed from the programme into their upcoming music festival project and the rest of their course and beyond."
Coundon Court student Becky Wolff, aged 17, said the group is delighted with the impact the Cre8us programme is having on their development. "Everyone at Cre8us was so enthusiastic about this project and we were recently asked to meet headteachers from across the whole West Midlands and Warwickshire region who wanted to hear all about the impact it has had on our learning and they were all so impressed with what we had to say," she said.
"We're now in the process of organising our own music tour and alos a mini-Glastonbury festival at Coombe Abbey which will involve a lot of hard work but we can certainly take a lot of what we learned from the success of the Battle of the Bands event into it."