Our student, Bradley, who is piloting the new Drake Music 'Introduction to Music' course at St Roses School in Stroud, presents his work and experiences to an audience of PGCE students at Bristol University.
The most powerful way of conveying the achievements of disabled/ SEN musicians (and any young musician for that matter) is for the young people themselves to present their work and discuss it on their own terms.
Bradley is currently nearing the end of piloting the new Drake Music 'Introduction to Music' course (see the other film on my site!) and working towards a Level 1 accredited outcome (GCSE D-G grade equivalent). He has covered a range of musical styles and approaches and you can see this in the short films featured within his presentation.
In the film, Bradley uses a communication aid to describe his work and thoughts about taking the course. He wrote the script himself, with support from the Speech and Language Therapist at his school and also from myself. His script is divided into separate sentences or phrases and saved in cells on his communication aid's screen.
The cells are automatically scanned in turn by the computer (highlighted by a fluorescent outline) and Bradley uses a head switch to trigger the cells in the order he has planned. The Speech and Language Therapist also worked with Bradley on key presenting skills like making eye contact with the audience and leaving reasonable gaps between sentences to make for a good pace.
Later on, he also takes prepared questions from the audience of PGCE students - a very important group in terms of disseminating the message of equal access to music for all students. Bradley asked for the questions in advance so that he could prepare his answers to trigger at the right time. The film has subtitles/ voiceovers to make it as accessible as possible to viewers.
As far as I am aware, this is a unique film for music education in this country, but as ever, I'd love to see other examples! Bradley's music is a clear example of what can be achieved in our music departments, as well as a magnificent achievement on a personal level.
