Highland teachers get musically active

Over 100 Highland Primary and Early Years staff from all corners of the region gathered in Inverness on Saturday (28th September) to receive training in the delivery of a new music teaching support resource for non-music specialist staff – Active Learning through Music.

The resource comprises 4 DVDs and 60 Lesson Plans developed by The Highland Council and National Youth Choir of Scotland suitable for children from Nursery to P3.

The DVDs have been specially produced to complement the Lesson Plans, and show children in Highland schools taking part in every Active Learning through Music (ALtM) activity - this makes understanding of the materials for non-specialist staff so much easier.

ALtM is a tried and tested programme of Kodály based music activities. It is a comprehensive, structured and progressive series of music lessons for early-years pupils which links to Curriculum for Excellence and has been endorsed as “excellent” by HMIe.

The training at this event was provided by Lucinda Geoghan from the National Youth Choir of Scotland, the author of the written materials and Margaret Rae, on behalf of The Highland Council.

In his introduction and welcome to the event, Norman Bolton, The Highland Council’s Music Development Officer said: “This unique, ground-breaking resource would go a long way to alleviating the ‘fear’ that many staff feel about delivering music activities to young people and he thanked all those involved in the long and careful processes involved in making sure the resource was of the highest quality.”

Through time, the resources will be made available to all Highland centres free of charge, whilst it will be marketed at an appropriate cost in all other areas of Scotland & beyond by the National Youth Choir of Scotland.