Education ViVA

Slavery
Thursday 4th July 2006
Wilsthorpe Business & Enterprise College

Two hundred Derbyshire pupils teamed up with professional musicians from sinfonia ViVA - the region's only professional orchestra - for a special workshop to boost their creative flair.

"Many students' confidence grew during the day, as they became more and more active in the performance, which was great to see." - Musician

Fourteen ViVA musicians, workshop leader Juwon Ogungbe and teachers from Wilsthorpe worked with groups of 12 and 13-year-old pupils to compose their own songs on theme of slavery which they then performed at the end of the day.

"We were able to construct a strong performance with a tight deadline." - Musician

Prior to the workshop day, Juwon Ogungbe led an INSET session for the teachers involved in the project. During this session he set the teachers the task of developing lyrics based on the theme of slavery with their students. One group devised the following lyrics:

Freedom is the key
Viva la freedom
Freedom is the answer
Freedom is peace

Freedom for the people, freedom

Allow us to be happy
Let us have peace
Let us live in harmony
Allow us to be happy

Freedom for the people, freedom

Free your mind
Make your own choice
Do what you want
Whenever you want

Freedom for the people, freedom

The workshop at Wilsthorpe Business and Enterprise College in Long Eaton was organised as part of a region-wide Arts Council mentoring programme where the school's Head of Arts Jo Beattie has been working with sinfonia ViVA Chief Executive Peter Helps to explore developing creativity in the curriculum.

Jo Beattie explained: "Although we do all kinds of activities in school, this was the first time that we have organised a music-based workshop for the pupils. The purpose of the workshop was to improve the pupils' communication, team building and independent learning skills by giving them a blank canvas and then letting their imaginations run wild to compose and perform their own pieces of music. This work perfectly complemented the business and enterprise specialism within the school as they will need these creative and group working skills in their future education and at work."

ViVA's Peter Helps added: "We work with schools throughout the East Midlands on a wide range of music-making projects but this has been particularly interesting as we have such a deep insight into the working and ethos of the school through the Arts Council mentoring scheme to match educationalists with arts professionals. The workshop challenged the young people's perceptions of music and how they can use it to express their thoughts and talents in every day life and was an opportunity for them to work with professional musicians which was a unique experience for most of them."

The project was generously supported by the Eastern Orchestral Board, Derbyshire County Council, ACE, Wilsthorpe Business and Enterprise College and ViVA.

Images from the project...