Sutton Music Trust works with external partners to provide outstanding musical experiences for young people in Sutton. This is one of the strategies we use to allow children to make, be inspired by, and celebrate the music they love.
In June, Sutton played host to the residency week for the Benedetti Foundation, which culminated in a massed strings day celebrating all things strings! Throughout the week, workshop leaders, educators, and facilitators from the foundation:
- Facilitated engaging musical workshops to a range of schools in Sutton.
- Delivered high quality training and development opportunities for primary school teachers and the SMT tutor workforce.
- Hosted a massed strings day attended by four schools who participate in Strings Whole Class Ensemble Teaching (WCET) programme.
The massed strings day was a huge success and was attended by nearly 100 students who learnt two new pieces of music on the Violins and Cellos. Thank you to St Mary’s RC Junior School for hosting the day!
They focused on elements such as playing as an ensemble, aural skills, and instrumental technique. Students involved were signposted to the Young Musicians String Group, SMT’s beginner orchestra for strings players who have been learning for a minimum of two terms. We hope to welcome some of the players to the ensemble in September.
[The training gave me] many new ideas to take back to school, lots of confidence boosting ideas across years groups, [and] practical examples...
At the end of the day, the students performed as part of a digital performance. You can watch the result of the day below!
Both Rachel and Joelle were clearly incredible passionate and experienced in bringing music to children in an effective way. They seamlessly incorporated teaching us technique of teaching within a seemingly simple conversation, which was a great way of demonstrating their teaching methods.
[The workshop was] engaging, great behaviour management, [and the] activities were accessible and fun...
We would like to thank everyone at the Benedetti Foundation for hosting such a fantastic residency week in Sutton!
