MAKING A BIG NOISE AT HOME
Big Noise Raploch pupil Catrin Gilchrist receives an online lesson from musician Laura McKinlay.
For our second guest blog we invited Kirsty Yanik of Sistema Scotland to tell us how the charity has adapted to the Covid-19 crisis. Sistema runs the Big Noise programme in the Raploch, an intensive, immersive model of music education, particularly focused on early years' intervention and long-term delivery:
“We normally begin by working with children at nursery (weekly) and in Primary 1 and 2 (twice weekly), gradually building on core skills such as listening, concentration, rhythm and teamwork whilst learning to play an instrument in a group. Big Noise then evolves into an intensive and immersive programme of after-school and holiday club music teaching, performance and social interaction until the child leaves school.
“The Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH) has evaluated our programme over several years and has identified a range of benefits for Big Noise participants:
increased confidence
greater resilience
improved focus and discipline
“GCPH concluded that these benefits were underpinned by the strong relationships – based on trust, understanding and mutual respect – established between our musicians and young people. As well as being educators, our musicians are mentors and role models.
“So when our Big Noise centres across Scotland were forced to pause face-to-face delivery in mid-March due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we quickly decided that our first priority was maintaining those relationships to support the wellbeing of our children and young people.
“To do this, we established the Big Noise Virtual After-School Club; a digital version of our after-school programme for children from Primary Three to S6. We contacted local families to find out what IT equipment they were able to access, whether they had Wi-Fi, and if they would consent to their children receiving online lessons from Big Noise during the lockdown. The response was overwhelmingly positive.
“Our first Big Noise online lessons started in early April. By late June, Big Noise Raploch had delivered over 800 online lessons and had created over 140 pre-recorded teaching videos. Feedback from parents and families has been extremely encouraging:
“[My daughter] loved her lesson. Thank you.”
“First lesson done and [my son] is so excited, he wanted to show me what he learned today. Thank you, this has lifted all our moods.”
“[My daughter] is really enjoying it and it’s picked up her mood... thanks for making the online lessons happen”.
“We’re now also delivering regular digital Baby Noise sessions, for infants and their parents. In addition, the Big Noise Raploch Team Leader is connecting with schools, local partners and Stirling Council to align support for priority families and offer Big Noise resources wherever possible.
“You can follow our work to support Big Noise participants remotely by searching for #BigNoiseAtHome on Twitter.”