P7 Perform in JGHS Christmas Concert at Usher Hall

What a wonderful showcase of the terrific musical talents of the young people and staff of James Gillespie's High School at the Usher Hall Christmas Concert on Tuesday 20th December 2016! Cluster Primary Seven pupils from Sciennes, Tollcross, James Gillespie's Primary, Preston Street, Royal Mile and Taobh na Pairce Primary Schools really rose to the occasion, sang beautifully and made everyone so proud. Thank you to JGHS Performing Arts Faculty Leader Mrs Deirdre O'Brien and her team for inviting the children to participate and organising the whole event.

Eighty of our own P7 pupils took to the stage and we commend their confidence and their 'can do' attitude, bolstered by lots of hard work and rehearsal with their Class Teachers. We are very grateful for the tremendous parental support in enabling so many of our pupils to participate this year.

So lovely to see so many of our former pupils also shine on stage. A memorable, exciting way to end the year that gives our pupils a flavour of all the musical possibilities that await them at secondary school next year.

Future Talent

Do you have a musical talent but need support, guidance and financial help? 
Future Talent is now accepting applications from young instrumentalists or singers and from any musical genre for 2017/18. 

Future Talent supports gifted young musicians from low income backgrounds for anywhere in the UK. Our Mentoring, Advice and Bursary Programme offers free orchestral days and performance classes, mentoring with a professional musician/conductor, development opportunities and a financial bursary worth up to £2,000 per year. Our aim is to give these talented young musicians an equal chance to enter a musical career, who might otherwise not get the opportunity due to lack of funds or experience. 

The closing date is Monday the 16th January 2017. For more information, please visit www.futuretalent.org 020 3457 1310 or email lucia@futuretalent.org

Tom Bancroft at Sciennes

Tom and Phil Bancroft of ABC Creative Music

How lucky we are to have been able to welcome Tom Bancroft of ABC Creative Music on Thursday 8th December to lead and model music making workshops in P4 and P6, using our online subscription resource ABC Creative Music and following on from a visit last week by twin brother Phil Bancroft.

A resounding thumbs up from all pupils and staff!

Tom and Phil's visits were planned follow up to the workshops and Professional Learning sessions the ABC team kindly provided for us last year and have again been a marvellous opportunity for us to receive excellent advice and professional learning on our Music provision and resourcing.

Thank you, Fabulous Bancroft Boys!

Music Provision Statement (March 2015)

Our Music Provision Statement was circulated to staff, Parent Council, JGHS Music Department and City of Edinburgh Music Advisors before being amended then an updated version was published in 2015 (see below or access from Google Docs).

Please also refer to Sciennes Policies.

Existing, New and Potential Music Provision

https://sciennesmusic.blogspot.co.uk/p/music-provision-at-sciennes.html

Edinburgh Youth Orchestra (Age 13-21)

The Edinburgh Youth Orchestra is a symphony orchestra of young musicians aged 13-21 from all over Scotland.

http://edinburghyouthorchestra.org

City of Edinburgh Music School

http://www.edinburghmusicschool.co.uk

29 East Fettes Avenue | Edinburgh | EH4 1EG

telephone: 0131 332 7805

email: tmorris@broughton.edin.sch.uk

Scottish Schools Orchestra Trust

www.sscot.org.uk
Jean Murray, Director

11 Melville Place, Edinburgh, EH3 7PR

Phone/fax: 0131-226-3392

admin@sscot.org.uk

Parent Council Music Group

Thank you very much to all the parents who came along to the first Parent Council Music Group meeting on Tuesday 6th December. A wealth of suggestions for supporting and expanding Music provision at school were shared, and what an expert team! We look forward to exploring and developing possibilities together.

Thank you to Tim Pask for chairing the meeting.

ABC Music Workshops from the Fabulous Bancroft Boys!

A treat and delight to welcome Phil Bancroft to Sciennes on Wednesday 30th November, who led free workshops with P2 and P4A classes using our online subscription resource ABC Creative Music. 

We are so fortunate that twin brother and co-founder of ABC Creative Music, Tom Bancroft, is also visiting school on Thursday 8th December for another round of free workshops, this time with P6 and P4B and P4C.

This is a planned follow up to the workshops and Professional Learning sessions the ABC team kindly provided for us last year and has again been a marvellous opportunity for us to receive excellent advice and professional learning on our Music provision and resourcing.

Thank you, Fabulous Bancroft Boys!

BBC Ten Pieces II

Thank you very much to Sarika (BBC Ten Pieces Co-ordinator) for sending us a copy of the BBC Ten Pieces II DVD.

BBC Ten Pieces Coaching Application

We have submitted an application to be considered for the BBC Ten Pieces Coaching Scheme ; a potential opportunity to work with professional musicians from the BBC Performing Groups including all the BBC orchestras and the BBC Singers.

P6 and P7 Scottish Opera Unwrap The Marriage of Figaro

Superb seats in the stalls of the Festival Theatre for P6 and P7

Thank you very much to Audrey Blake and our friends at Scottish Opera for a lovely  opportunity for six of our classes ( P6 and P7) to visit the Festival Theatre on Thursday 10th November for Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro Unwrapped. Fantastic orchestra, beautiful singing and wonderful story telling, with a fascinating behind the scenes exploration of all that is involved in staging an opera production. And what a great introduction to our pupils to the many different roles and careers within the production, from costume designer to stage manager, from special effects designer to singer and from musician to conductor. Bravo!

Edinburgh Competition Festival Association

http://www.ecfest.org.uk
 
Be quick to sign up online and register by 30th November for this fantastic music opportunity! The 2017 Festival will be held from Tuesday 28 February to Sunday 12 March, with the preliminary round of the Concerto Class being held on 27 and 28 January.

Edinburgh Competition Festival Association

The Edinburgh Competition Festival Association was founded in 1920 for the promotion of the arts of Speech, Music and Dance in the City of Edinburgh and its neighbouring counties and is a member of the British and International Federation of Festivals. It is an amateur Festival organised and staffed by volunteers. 

About our Festivals

We run an annual festival which provides an opportunity for amateur musicians of all ages to perform their pieces in a friendly environment and, along with other performers of a similar ability, receive constructive feedback and advice from a specialist adjudicator.

Our programme of competitive and non-competitive classes allows performers of all abilities to take part. There are classes in a wide range of instruments, or combinations of instruments, as well as for singers. Full details are contained in our annual Syllabus, accessible on this website.

If you have participated in our festival before and benefitted from it, please tell your friends and encourage them to participate too. Newcomers are very welcome. More generally, if you have any comments or suggestions about our festival, we would like to hear them: please email us at email@ecfest.org.uk.
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ecfestuk

Very Best Wishes to Dr Robert Fraser on His Retiral Wed 9th November

Dr Robert Fraser, instrument tutor for 13 years, is retiring on 10^th November and his last day of teaching at Sciennes will be Wednesday 9^th. I am sure families and children who have known Dr. Fraser will join in offering him very best wishes for a long, healthy and happy retirement.  

We are very grateful for all the support Dr Fraser has provided for school in many musical performances and for all his advice on Music provision and policy over many years. 

We have been informed that the post has been advertised and the closing date is 3^rd November. We will inform children and families when a tutor has been appointed.

Tom Bancroft of ABC Creative Music is Coming to Sciennes!

Last session, we were delighted to be given a free opportunity to pilot online resources from ABC Creative Music until the end of the year, with additional free staff training and also two days of Music workshops with pupils.

We have taken out a subscription to the online resources this year and are absolutely delighted that ABC Creative Music's founder, Tom Bancroft, will visit Sciennes on Wednesday 30th November and Thursday 8th December to lead Music workshops in school.

ABC was founded by twin brothers Tom and Phil Bancroft. Both studied Medicine at Cambridge University, with Phil doing a joint degree in Psychology, and Tom in Social and Political Sciences. Both went on to become two of the UK’s leading jazz musicians. For the past 12 years, they have combined their interest in science, the brain and psychology, with a passion for Education, particular exploring the huge potential creativity brings to children’s experience of Education especially in music education.

Tom is a winner of the BBC Jazz Award for Innovation and a Creative Scotland Award. He runs his own big band Orchestro Interrupto and the band Trio Red, as well as playing in Trio AAB and other groups.

Both Tom and Phil have played with many world class musicians from the classical, jazz, pop, and folk scenes including Sun Ra, Tommy Smith, Martyn Bennett, Bill Wells, Hue & Cry and have studied music and performed with top-level musicians from around the world, including Cuba, South America, Africa and India. This wide range of experience in composed and improvised music from different traditions informs much of Tom and Phil’s approach to the design of ABC Creative Music programmes for children.

CEC Music School Open Day Sat 5th Nov

Come along to The City of Edinburgh Music School's Open Day this Saturday to see what they offer: http://bit.ly/2e4YMDp

P6 and P7 Scottish Opera Unwrapped

Thank you very much to Audrey Blake and all our lovely friends at Scottish Opera for arranging a free visit for all P6 and P7 classes to a Scottish Opera Unwrapped session on Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" on Thursday 10th November at the Festival Theatre 1pm.

Sounds Like Friday, Sounds Like Saturday 2016-17

Music lessons in spare time

Sounds Like Friday, Sounds Like Saturday

Sounds Like Friday and Sounds Like Saturday are the Arts and Creative Learning key Youth Music Initiative projects.  The funding is provided on an annual basis from Creative Scotland. These projects offer free music tuition and resources to all P5, P6 and P7 classes in Edinburgh Primary Schools. 

Application forms will shortly be arriving at school to be distributed to all P5 – P7 pupils to take home to parents/carers. Please look out for these if you are interested in applying for these fantastic opportunities

Further information about the project including term dates is available at http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/soundslike.

 

Download an application form for the 2016/17 term below.

http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/20072/spare_time_activities/230/music_lessons_in_spare_time

The deadline for applications is 9 September 2016.
We provide tuition in

• guitar
• singing
• violin
• brass
• woodwind
• chanter and pipe drumming. 

SLF and SLS are Youth Music Initiative programmes, funded by Creative Scotland.

Charanga Online Music Resource

We have recently purchased an annual license for Charanga online Music resource.
Following its successful pilot last session, we will also continue to use ABC Music to support Music at school.

Youth Music Initiative - Ukelele Instruction in P4 and P5

Mrs Noble has again this year arranged for Creative Scotland's Youth Music Initiative to provide a fantastic opportunity for each of our six P4 and P5 classes to receive weekly ukelele instruction for eight weeks. Another amazing music opportunity for our pupils!

Free Classical Music Resource

 

We love this great  free resource for primary schools, giving access to 100 pieces of classical music from an attractive, easy to use, online interface.

ABRSM is the UK’s largest music education body, one of its largest music publishers and the world’s leading provider of music exams, offering assessments to more than 630,000 candidates in 93 countries every year. 

ABRSM’s mission is to inspire achievement in music. In partnership with the Royal Schools of Music, we support high-quality music-making and learning around the world. We offer pathways and resources for learners and teachers that help build musical skills, provide goals and encourage progress.

Portobello Music School

http://www.portobellomusicschool.com

 Thank you to Sciennes' parent, Kristin Unger, for highlighting the music lesson opportunities at Portobello Music School. Click on the link above for more information.

Portobello Music School provides comprehensive music education to children from across Edinburgh and the Lothians.

They specialize in teaching music to children in a fun, friendly and creative environment where children have the freedom to develop a love and appreciation for music, while building fundamental musical skills that are continually developed throughout their time at the school.

Young Musician Passport

http://www.eif.co.uk/ympassport#.V1cwnWaCbzE

If you're at school in Edinburgh and the Lothians – studying music, playing an instrument or performing in an ensemble, sign up now to take advantage of your Young Musician's Passport this summer at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Area Strings Concert Wednesday 1st June

The Primary 5-7 children who are performing at the Area Strings Concert at Marchmont St Giles, Kilgraston Road on Wednesday 1st June, will rehearse in the afternoon and should arrive in the evening by 6.45pm. Programmes are available from the school office or can be purchased at the door - £5 or £3 concession.

P5 Scottish Opera 2016

P5 SCOTTISH OPERA PERFORMANCE TO FAMILIES

WEDNESDAY 4th MAY 2.15pm

We are very grateful to families for helping pupils learn their lyrics.  Musical director, Roger Glass, who rehearsed pupils in an advance vocal workshop on Monday 25th April, was impressed!

Pupils should wear P.E. kit on the day and will rehearse in the morning.


1.20-2pm P4 and siblings invited to Dress Rehearsal


2.15pm-3.00pm Scottish Opera performance for families


Please note that due to limitations on space, only two people per child can attend the performance.



Pupils may be dismissed at the end of the performance with parents who are attending, if you wish.

Classical 100 for Primary Schools

 

Great new free resource for primary schools, giving access to 100 pieces of classical music from an attractive, easy to use, online interface.

Learn to Play Day at Music Room 12th March

Edinburgh Music Room's Learn To Play Day will be as follows;

10am – 2pm: Free half hour, one to one piano or keyboard lesson with Jamie Wilson

2pm-6pm: Free half hour, one to one guitar or ukulele lesson with Duncan Mountain

4 of the afternoon slots are booked so far.

41 Shandwick Place
Edinburgh
EH2 4RG

RSVP: 0131 221 0041
email: edinburgh@musicroom.com

http://www.musicroom.com/blog/category/whatson/music-shops/edinburgh

Youth Music Initiative - Ukelele Instruction in P4 and P5

Jules and Nora from Creative Scotland's Youth Music Initiative are providing a fantastic opportunity for each of our six P4 and P5 classes to receive weekly ukelele instruction for five weeks. An amazing music opportunity for our pupils!

ABC Creative Music Workshops

Last session, our Music Improvement Group researched online resources which could be used progressively throughout school as part of an updated programme for Music. We are delighted to have been given an opportunity to pilot online resources from ABC Creative Music until the end of the year.

Thank you to Barbara at ABC Creative Music for providing fun, free workshops for pupils to help us trial the resources in class.