soundLINCS Annual Review 2014-15

Annual Review 2014-15 1

Introduction Welcome to soundLINCS’ annual review, an opportunity for us to share with you the things we feel most proud of and the aspects of our work that have made a particular impact. We are using it to ‘zoom’ into areas rather than to present you with a complete synopsis of every project we have run.

This year we celebrated our 15th birthday in epic style and I am delighted to lead a Board which echoes and supports the vision of soundLINCS to encourage, enable and enhance more music-making opportunities for people across the East Midlands and beyond.

I hope you enjoy this snapshot of soundLINCS’ year. For more information please visit www.soundlincs.org or click on the hyperlinks contained if you are reading online.

Greetings. This year has been amazing and notable in many different ways; B15 typified the essence of what soundLINCS is about, as one of our most ambitious projects to date. It offered opportunities for performance, collaboration and digital sharing; bringing musicians of all ages, genres and disciplines to the Epic Centre for a fantastic day of music-making.

However it didn’t stop there: several other large events followed including Early Years Arts in The Park and FAB! 2015. Our core delivery of projects including Root Notes, EMPower and Early Ears, alongside several research topics, networks and numerous other programmes ensured a busy and diverse year for the Company.

The future allows us to continue to strive for better, to explore how the music that we deliver can have a wider impact and benefit on cross- curricular agendas. We start from a knowledgeable point based on our 16 years of experience and ensure the projects we deliver creatively address challenging situations that our partners wish to solve. This report highlights successes ‘beyond the music’ this year.

Nikki-Kate Heyes MBE, CEO

“A great day at B15, the amount of work going into the day was phenomenal, and helped to make it the success that it was. You could see that there were great memories created that the young and not so young will remember for the rest of their lives. I really enjoyed myself, thank you for your hard work that made the day flow so wonderfully.”

B15 Musician 2

in Numbers

Over 910 Workshops Delivered

5,033 Number of Participants

14,723

Rob Williams, Chair

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soundLINCS’ Year

Cumulative Participants

Over 140 Performances

36 Music Facilitators Delivering

136,230 People Reached on Social Media

soundLINCS’ REACH 2014-15 Project Delivery Progression Routes

soundLINCS has offered a wide range of music-making Midlands is supported and extended by developing opportunities, research projects and progression routes excellent relationships with regional partners such as across the East Midlands and beyond in 2014/15. the seven East Midlands Music Education Hubs and specialist providers like Soft Touch and Bullfrog Arts. soundEMission, our monthly e-bulletin, reaches over 1,800 national and international subscribers. Our Social soundLINCS’ reach has been further developed Media reach is substantial and we attract over 1,820 through providing two regional network programmes page views to our website each month.

East Midlands Early Years Network (EMEYN) and East Midlands Talent and Progression (EMTaP).

We have provided activities in over 120 settings, including rural pre-schools, urban colleges, managed woods and country parks! Our reach into the East

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Children in Challenging Circumstances Our soundINCLUSION programme was one of only 26 Youth Music funded Musical Inclusion programmes in the country. It has enabled us to develop various strands of work with new partners and sectors across the East Midlands and nationally, providing both workforce development training and delivery. Projects included soundWELL with the United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust in paediatric wards; Set The Tone working directly with the Youth Justice Service in Nottinghamshire; Music Of Diversity with the MOD primary schools and surrounding community in Rutland; and travelling communities in Leicestershire.

Young Music Producers taking part in EMPower had opportunities to develop existing skills using Access to Music facilities and through visiting Lincolnshire Music Service County Groups to record orchestral groups.

Young people became Electronic Music Production Ambassadors within their schools through sharing sessions and featuring in magazine articles. soundLINCS is delighted to report that ten young people achieved their Bronze Arts Award and three received their Discover Arts Awards.

Frequency, partly funded by The Mighty Creatives, involved three Lincolnshire primary schools. The project was match funded through Pupil Premium (PP) funds and was designed by head teachers to help close the attainment gap between PP children and their peers. Frequency was based on the universal access model and explored creativity, self expression, composition and skills development using iPads and Garageband. Substantial feedback indicates very positive outcomes for pupils and teachers.

TryARTS provided music and arts activities in six Children’s Centres in the Lincolnshire districts of Boston Borough and South Holland. These two districts are recognised by Arts Council England as cultural ‘cold spots’ and positively engaged families with least opportunities or access.

Making Noise continues to provide developmental music-making activities for children with disabilities and sensory impairments, together with their parents/carers, in three Lincolnshire arts centres. A regional research project explored a range of effective methodologies for engagement and progression with music-making for whole classes in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) schools. The learning from the research will be published as a toolkit in Spring 2015.

“It’s been really good and really educational. I think it’s given us the opportunity to meet people like ourselves who enjoy the same things and as well as meeting people has given us a lot more of the educational side of music technology and more practical experience.“ EMPower Participant

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Early Years

soundBEGINNINGS has offered us the opportunity to harness and understand the impact of 10 years of early years provision in Lincolnshire. soundLINCS has been mentored and supported by academics from Bishop Grosseteste University. Our plethora of programmes offer bespoke solutions to the Early Years sector. From initial access projects such as First Notes which inspire and enthuse Early Years Practitioners (EYP) through to Root Notes, which fosters creative thinking & continuous professional development directly with EYP. Please keep watching our website for the launch of this research!

Root Notes continues to support the professional development of EYP. The programme has worked extensively with SENCOs and focuses on themes like ‘music with babies’ and ‘music for SEN’. The benefits of Root Notes have been positively highlighted during a recent Ofsted Report and been commended for the planning and progression evidenced within the programme.

Early Ears in Children’s Centres provides parents, carers and their children with access to musicmaking opportunities. Early Ears works closely with CfBT practitioners enabling a sharing opportunity between professionals from two complimentary organisations.

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Large Events

During the year soundLINCS once again designed and delivered an impressive variety of large events.

FAB! 2015, the fourth year of the annual event with Children’s Services, celebrated the achievements of Lincolnshire's looked after children and care leavers. The theme of ’Be The Best You Can Be’ was explored during a morning of creative and sporting activities, with the afternoon given over to a thrilling awards ceremony.

Early Years Arts in The Park - I Could Do That! was hosted by Rufford Abbey Country Park and provided active learning opportunities for Early Years Practitioners and large groups of children.

(Please see page 6 for more information.)

B15 Fusing multiple musical genres, and based on a traditional Lincolnshire Folk tune, B15 was our ambitious 15th birthday celebration event! B15 provided opportunities for all musicians in the East Midlands to join together and perform a brand new piece of music. Nearly 400 people attended and the inaugural performance was live streamed on the internet. soundLINCS was delighted to have support from the English, Folk, Dance & Song Society as part of their project The Full English.

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Training, Information & Workforce Development soundLINCS retained its ongoing commitment to the wider workforce through its monthly e-bulletin soundEMission. In a user friendly format it summarises an average of 55 Continuous Professional Development (CPD), news, jobs and funding opportunities in the music sector each month. It currently distributes to over 1800 recipients. Subscription is free and sign up to the e-bulletin is available online.

Our team of Music Facilitators continue to be offered a vast array of CPD and training including the annual soundLINCS Conference. Two regional Networking Programmes, EMTaP and EMEYN, created workforce development opportunities including ‘Music in the FRAMEworks’ Early Years Conference in Northampton.

Early Years Arts in the Park - I Could Do That! - During July soundLINCS turned Early Years Practitioner CPD on its head.

Working closely with Nottinghamshire County Council Arts Service, soundLINCS devised a full day of creative active learning opportunities for Early Years Practitioners. The day was held at Rufford Abbey Country Park and over 300 participants took part.

Children and practitioners came to the event and chose from ten activities – five music and five arts. This project was designed to enable Early Year’s Practitioners to access CPD whilst still looking after their children rather than leaving their setting to access CPD outside of their normal roles. soundADVICE was published this year as a creative response to our shift to provide a wide ranging training programme for all music professionals across the East Midlands. It draws conclusions from our work and offers learning points.

Progression routes have been a big focus for the year. soundLINCS has compiled comprehensive research on the plethora of group singing opportunities within Lincolnshire. Currently containing 125 entries Lincolnshire Sings is updated monthly and continues to grow.

Similarly soundLINCS developed Focus on Folk this year, aiming to provide a similar resource for enthusiastic and inspired Folk musicians. The results of this research were far reaching and the mapping currently lists 122 organisational opportunities across the East Midlands and further beyond.

““It’s been a great day. The children loved it and the workshops were really inspiring. Would definitely recommend it and come again, Thank you!”

“On the whole it was a very good experience, both adults and children engaged and learned from the workshops” Early Years Arts in the Park Participants

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Finance, Funders and Future soundLINCS has utilised funds of over £400,000 during the year to deliver its programmes with almost 90% of expenditure predicted to have been spent on the Company’s charitable activities.

especially following the successful application to Youth Music and becoming one of only 13 national Fund C recipients and a key strategic partner with Youth Music. This will allows soundLINCS to continue working throughout the East Midlands with many exciting and keen partners to ensure As a National Portfolio Organisation the Company change happens and towards England becoming benefitted from over £44,000 of funding from truly musically inclusive. the Arts Council England. The largest investor in 2014/15 providing around 35% of annual incoming Over the year we have worked with many partners funds was Youth Music. This investment enabled - in some cases through financial contribution, us to expand our partnerships and funding with a others through direct joint working. We are grateful vast range of organisations including all seven for all their commitment, support and enrichment into our lives. Thank you and we look forward to Music Education Hubs within the East Midlands. further development in years to come. soundLINCS’ future looks bright and exciting,

Supporters and Partners during 2014/15

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