⭐️ Introducing @childfriendlyleeds‘ 2025 Summer guide to free, pay as you can, and low-cost things to do across the city. Featuring events like Wonderland Awaits and Breeze Leeds in the Park!

With over 70 things to do, their guide can help you plan out a fun and engaging summer, without breaking the bank!

The School holiday guides support Child Friendly Leeds wish 7, which is all about children and young people knowing about things to do and place to go including arts, music, sport, dance and film activities.

Click here for further details: The 2025 Child Friendly Leeds Summer Guide!

We are currently looking for a qualified music teacher to join our amazing National Curriculum team!

YAMSEN (Yorkshire Association for Music and Special Educational Needs) hosted ‘YAMSEN Flies to Neverland,’ its yearly set of full-day, immersive, multi-sensory events for pupils with PMLD (Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties) and musical activity events for autistic pupils and pupils with moderate to severe learning disabilities.  The days are funded by LMEP (Leeds Music Education Partnership, the local music hub) and supported by the SEND team at ArtForms music service.  Pupils from special schools in Leeds and across West Yorkshire attended—so many that each event was repeated, for a total of four days of music and fun.  Because of Pudsey Civic Hall’s accessibility, over 40 pupils in wheelchairs were able to attend each multisensory day.

The multisensory and music days are a rare chance for special school staff and pupils to mingle with other special schools.  Each day features a range of activities designed to be repeated or adapted in the classroom, with big instruments for feeling vibrations and props that help pupils make sense of the activities at their own pace.  The days are meant to be both educational and promote a sense of playfulness and stimulation, which can be a challenge particularly among pupils with PMLD.  The multisensory days feature a live band who are experienced in working with children who have additional needs, and they move throughout the room so that the children can experience music up close.

Several of the groups are taught by the ArtForms SEND Music Team.  It was fantastic to see the children reaching out to engage with objects and instruments they enjoyed, bonding with their staff, smiling at people in costume and reacting to big sounds and movement.  Many of the children arrived in style, dressed in costume.  They enjoyed getting up from their seats to dance around, acting out their characters with staff.  The pupils at the Music Days made art, learnt a tune and some rhythms on steel pans and percussion, and helped the crocodile to get Captain Hook in the end.  A teacher from Greenmeadows spoke of one pupil who is particularly motivated by music.  She is normally very quiet and reserved in class but becomes a completely different, confident person with music.  It was fantastic to see her shine and engage in so much.

To find out more about YAMSEN and the Multisensory and Music Days, visit yamsen.org.uk or contact yamsen4@gmail.com.

To enquire about ArtForms SEND provision in schools please email Joanna.Winster@leeds.gov.uk

Joanna Winster – ArtForms Music SEND Team and Inclusion Coordinator, and YAMSEN Chair of Operations Group

As part of the new West Yorkshire Music Hub, ArtForms is committed to supporting schools with their music development plans and to that end we have produced a bespoke, user friendly, ArtForms development plan template. This is designed to support primary schools at all stages of curriculum development including schools that have little or no music taking place, right up to the schools who already have a robust curriculum and co-curricular offer.

We are also able to offer a free music development consultation to all Leeds schools.  We can offer support and advice or sometimes just a second pair of eyes to look over your plans. If you would like a member of the ArtForms leadership team to visit your school, please either book through Leeds for Learning or email educ.artforms@leeds.gov.uk.  It is helpful if you could give some indication as to when the best days/times in the week would be for a visit.

The DfE have also created a template to support schools to publish a summary of their Music Development Plan on their website.  They worked with teachers and leaders at both primary and secondary level to design this.

These templates are not mandatory, and schools should feel free to adapt them or use their own format to publish on their websites.

Publishing a summary of their development plan will help schools to:

• raise awareness of their music development plan
• promote the school music offer to parents and prospective parents
• give greater opportunity for schools and music hubs to work together

ArtForms are always willing to work with Leeds schools.  Please send any queries or requests for music development reviews to educ.artforms@leeds.gov.uk.

Sam Mercer – Music Curriculum Support Manager, ArtForms

In 2023, Arts Council announced a national retender for Hub leads and included a reduction to 43 Hub areas nationally and, from 1st September 2024, the Leeds LA area will fall into a wider Music Hub covering all of West Yorkshire and encompassing Bradford, Wakefield, Calderdale and Kirklees.

A rigorous application process opened in summer 2023 for interested parties to apply to be the new hubs leads, of which ArtForms along with Bradford Music and Arts Service, Calderdale Music Trust, Musica Kirklees and Wakefield Music Services worked relentlessly to propose a strong West Yorkshire Hub model to secure ongoing funding and to further increase opportunities in each area that both addressed the needs of each locality, as well as achieving the aims and ambition of the new National Plan for Music Education.

Following a national announcement from Arts Council England in May, we are excited to announce that the strategic consortium group of ArtForms, Bradford Music & Arts Service (representing the group as named Lead Organisation), Calderdale Music Trust, Musica Kirklees and Wakefield Music Services have secured ongoing £3.5million of annual funding into the region and a further £1.2m for refreshing Music Instrument resource.  You can read the Arts Council release here Arts Council England announces new Music Hub Lead Organisations | Arts Council England.

We look forward to being able to not only continue our exciting range of opportunities for Leeds but also to developing it further for West Yorkshire by:

• appointing a range of Lead Schools to share good practice (information to be released in 2024-25)
• increased progression routes for children
• collaborative activities with a range of local, regional and national partner organisations
• increased support and opportunities for Musical Inclusion
• secure more funding streams to support high quality music experiences for children
• and so much more!

From September, look for information from both ArtForms AND the West Yorkshire Music Hub!

You can find out about all cashback and bursary offers for schools in Leeds here.

From September 2024 the West Yorkshire Music Hub replaces LMEP.

Although this funding goes some way to supporting extra music provision, we recognise that for some schools budgets are still very tight and more funding is needed to help deliver quality musical experiences. With this in mind, we have conducted a funding review to direct schools to find external funding streams. This is now on our website Funding Review (artformsleeds.co.uk)

We hope you find this information useful and feel encouraged to apply for further resources to enhance you music opportunities in school.

Please check the links to each website for further details of eligibility and how to apply, checking for any changes that may be made after publication of this report. West Yorkshire Music Hub cannot accept responsibility for any errors or changes made to the funds further to publication of this report.

Sarah Truscott – Assistant Head, ArtForms (WYMH)

Leeds Lieder has been running free-to-school singing projects since 2005.  Now they invite the SILCs and Special Schools of Leeds to take part in an exciting next chapter!  They would like to establish a regular project tailored towards young people with special educational needs and disabilities.   This project would enable them to experience music that they might not otherwise hear and to engage with Leeds Lieder’s excellent team of artists.

Leeds Lieder is a classical song festival which brings some of the world’s finest singers and pianists to perform in Leeds every year.  Phil Wilcox, the Leeds Lieder Learning and Participation Manager, has developed this project and is offering special schools and settings one of the following:

45-minute Performance: an engaging and interactive recital of Lieder (classical song) given by two singers and a pianist. They would come into school and perform a selection of brilliant songs selected for their humour, story-telling, emotion and ability to capture an audience. This might be most suitable to a group of autistic pupils or those who have moderate to severe learning disabilities and PMLD/CMLN. They would be happy to incorporate any props/materials/instruments/parachutes/sensory items that you use in school and might even bring their own.

Or

1.5 hr Workshop: based on our KS2 Discovering Lieder workshop, they would invite the children into the wonderful world of art song. They would perform songs for the group and then engage them in question and answer and interactive musical games before inviting them to write their very own verse to an Art Song. This might be most suitable for a group which communicates at around the KS2 level who perhaps already enjoy singing.

For more information and to book a place for your school, contact Phil Wilcox directly at phil@leedslieder.org.uk. If you would like to know more about Leeds Lieder projects, you can do so by visiting www.leedslieder.org.uk/learning.

Joanna Winster, ArtForms

If you are a student at university or are looking to go, you may be eligible for some help towards the cost of music lessons. Most university music departments now offer scholarships, grants and bursaries, not just to music students, but to any students at the university, so it’s worth having a look on the music department webpage of your prospective choices.

For example, for those of you who are interested in going to the University of Birmingham, they currently offer 15 scholarships every year to new undergraduates who are studying a subject other than music but who wish to continue receiving tuition on their instrument and get involved in University Music activity. These scholarships are offered in three key disciplines: vocal, instrumental, and jazz, and tuition is delivered by leading professional musicians from the likes of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire tutors.

Here is a link to their website for a description of the scholarship: Music Scholarships – University of Birmingham

‘We wish to offer as many opportunities as possible to all students, no matter their subject of choice, and it would be great to see lots of prospective students keeping up their music-making through this scholarship.’  – The University of Birmingham, University Music and Concerts Team

On the other hand, for students who are interested in studying Music, the Department of Music’s degree programme offers a huge variety of modules and allows students to shape their own programme whilst also being able to specialise in composition, performance, or musicology. They also offer a variety of vocational modules and training schemes, plus financial support through the David Wright Pathway scholarship.

The University of Birmingham runs over 35 ensembles, covering classical, jazz, folk, vocal and experimental music – with over 30 professional and student concerts each term, and guest workshops and masterclasses.

With most universities offering these kinds of opportunities, there is bound to be something near you. It’s never too early or too late to get involved so have a look and reach out to the music departments. Even if you can’t find anything to suit you within the university, there may well be a community orchestra or hub near you.

We wish everyone going on to higher education the best of luck!

ArtForms

Further Information:

Here is a link to a UCAS article about music scholarships, grants and bursaries in general: Scholarships, grants, and bursaries: Music | Undergraduate, Conservatoires | UCAS

The Independent Society of Musicians has some information about specific bursaries for undergraduate and postgraduate courses: Funding for music students (ism.org)

You must be a resident in Leeds or attending a Leeds school/college (anybody from outside of Leeds will be subject to review).

The deadline to apply is 2pm on 26^th May 2024. Please complete the google form – https://forms.gle/sCCeyFGNsYrPeDW47.

If you have any further questions, please contact us via educ.artforms@leeds.gov.uk or 0113 3782850.

Audition information sheet CLYO CLYWO 2024