Charanga Cymru is a digital music platform that has been available for free to all schools in Wales since October 2022. It has been an exciting first year to see so many schools using this new resource in the classroom.
So far, over 700 schools have logged into their accounts, and more than 3,100 teachers in those schools have their own personal link to the platform. It’s a similar story in local music services, where over 300 tutors take advantage of the content to facilitate their lessons, and to support classroom teachers. Together, teachers have been using the platform for a total of almost 21,000 hours!
When holding training sessions, Charanga listened to your feedback as teachers across Wales, to learn more about what you would like to see on it. So, here’s a summary of what’s coming for the start of the Autumn Term.
Curriculum resources
- More of the music units on popular work for Progress Stage 1
- Eight brand new units for Progress Stages 2–3
- Additional YuStudio Projects in Progress Stage 4 to help expand access to music technology.
For ‘First Experiences’
Charanga Cymru is also taking the existing library of resources for 26 instruments and producing progressive 6–10 week projects to make it easier for you to introduce the programmes to children. New materials will include Ukulele and a sing and strum course for guitar.
Additions to the platform
Based on your feedback, you can look forward to three new areas specific to songs, creative tools, and materials from your local music service.
Training
The aim of the National Music Service is to ensure that we are at the forefront of offering the best possible music education to our children and young people, and to you as teachers and schools. With the arrival of the National Music Plan we have the ability to invest in training, which is extremely important, because we have tremendous musical talent here in the ranks of Welsh music services.
Over the past six months there have been several training courses, nationally, regionally, and in county. In many counties, due to the financial challenges, this was the first training for some time. We have been sharing good practice across all counties, and developing our pedagogy for learning the various essential elements that are part of the National Music Plan.
The need for training becomes more and more important as we prepare for the new Curriculum. We are working closely with the different education consortia to create a new module, to facilitate the change in the way of learning.
The fact that music is coming back to the classroom, which is really going to have an impact on children, it’s important that we realize how valuable that is going to be. Music is part of our lives every day, but it offers so much more than that. It offers to open your imagination, your ability to work together, your resilience. These kids are now going to have opportunities that have been missing for a few years now, and it’s exciting to see things starting to come to fruition.