Partnership & Collaboration 

2023 was a year that saw us forge relationships with new partners as we sought to extend the reach of our charitable aims of levelling access to music education for all children and young people.

EXISTING PARTNERS

We have continued to deepen relationships with our existing partners, working alongside them to realise how to benefit our shared stakeholders.

EXISTING PARTNERS - MUSIC ON SEA

We continued to work with Music on Sea to develop workshops in Schools and deliver our joint programme of holiday workshops.

As well as their support for The Hands Together Project, Music on Sea supported a full programme of half-term and School holiday workshops. This included beginners songwriting, band and singing, recording, music production, recording vocals, playing instruments for beginners. With their support, all children and young people from low-income households can take part in these programmes free of charge.

In March we were once again invited to take part in their annual show; Southend Makes Music, at The Palace Theatre. As always, this is an excellent opportunity for the most senior group of young musicians and vocalists from our community, to perform on their largest platform.

EXISTING PARTNERS - EWANS MUSIC TRUST

Ewans Music share our ethos of supporting children and young people from low-income households to learn music. In 2023 they continued to support our student bursary programme, meaning those on existing bursaries could continue their tuition with us for another year.

They also continued to support our Drum Scholarship. This student shows exceptional promise and has continued to thrive in our environment; this year further developing their performance skills.

In addition, they have also supported our School holiday programme, meaning children and young people from low-income households can attend for free.

BURSARY PROGRAMME REVIEW

Under the backdrop of the cost of living crisis, we reviewed and extended the scope of the bursary programme, seeking new partners to allow us to review the entry criteria and support more young people.

Not only did we review all of the elements affecting household bills - inflation, interest rates, fuel and food; we also looked at the real living wage to establish a realistic household income to qualify for the the student bursary.

We will continue to keep an watchful eye over the crisis and are planning to review again at the start of 2024.

NEW PARTNERS - ESSEX COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

We received support from ECF in December 2022, meaning we could review the entry criteria and offer more students support ahead of the new term.

Reviewing the entry criteria also meant we were able to take individual student cases into consideration and build awards around theirs and future students needs. As a result, we awarded the very first Young Musician’s Award to a student who shows exceptional promise AND a desire to move into industry. This has helped us develop our Artist Development offering for all experienced students considering a career in music.

NEW PROJECTS - THE 2023 HANDS TOGETHER PROJECT

In May we were awarded Arts Council funding alongside support from new corporate supporter c2c Rail; plus existing partner Music on Sea, to run The 2023 Hands Together Project in partnership with our new friends at Project Southchurch.

Hands Together was originally launched by Project Southchurch in 2021, in the wake of the tragic passing of Sir David Ames. The original concept was a banner to signify unity across the City of Southend.

2023 saw new life breathed into the project through youth engagement - the themes of the original project were explored by participants in workshops across the Summer and Autumn School holidays. The objective - to create a new original song and accompanying music video.

As well getting involved in writing and recording the song, participants were able to work either in front or behind the camera to create the final piece. c30 young people aged 5-18 were involved in the project, with 50% from low-income households.

NEW PROJECTS - DROP THE MIC!

In June we received the news that Southend Council, via the Community Investment Board would support our Youth Open Mic. Drop the Mic! is open to all young musicians from Southend and the surrounding areas and is an opportunity for them to come together once a month and practice their performance skills in a safe and nurturing environment.

The monthly event was launched in August 2023, in partnership with local arts venue Twenty-One. The event is free of charge to attend and to perform, offering The Song School opportunity to further extend their ethos out into the wider community, enabling more children and young people to benefit without financial barriers.

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REGULAR CLASSES

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WORKSHOPS

‘UNITY’ IS THE OUTPUT FROM THE 2023 HANDS TOGETHER PROJECT

live shot of one of the bands taking part in drop the mic!

Day to day

IMPROVING OUR SPACES

Improvements to our HQ on Alexandra Street (or ‘The Studios’) have continued. At the start of the summer holidays we completed our most major works to date of creating a new wall in the large downstairs studio. This created a new space named via an instagram poll and subsequent vote - ‘The Lyric Lounge’, owing to the new chalkboard wall!

increased profile

2023 has been the first full calendar year as The Song School, after the March 2022 name change. Previously we struggled to attract students for music disciplines outside of vocals. The impact of the name change has been truly realised this year - we are receiving as many enquiries from new students wanting to learn instruments as we are vocals: as a result, right now all junior keys classes are full!

reviewing the board

Becoming a CIC in 2022 meant working with a board of non-executive directors for the first time. We began small with three board members to enable us to establish how to work in the structure effectively. They brought with them expertise in buildings, finance and music that has been invaluable.

In September 2023, we added two new board members to strengthen our representation in education, mental wellbeing, neurodiversity and to support the development of our equality and diversity priorities.

With all of these skills on board for 2024, we are already forging plans on how to develop and realise our true impact of our community.

student mentors into employment

2022 saw us appoint our first student mentors. The programme is designed to offer insights into coaching, leadership skills and insights for students who are interested in a career path working with young people.

In 2023 we began creating career paths into employment at The Song School and currently have two transitioning onto staff in both coaching and office support. We plan to further formalise this process in 2024.

improving mental wellbeing

In May 2023 we began strengthening our response to the mental health challenges our young people are increasingly facing.

Thanks to the Community Investment Board, we introduced a series of training sessions for staff, focussed on dealing with practical examples to support our young people with the mental health challenges they are facing.

The sessions have taken on a neurodivergent focus as we identify more young people who need support growing and developing in a neuro-typical world.

This has opened all staffs eyes to the challenges they are sometimes subconsciously dealing with, provided them with practical strategies and giving them confidence and assurances they are making the right calls.

For our community, we have seen our young people go from strength to strength this year. Many pushing themselves out of their comfort zones; particularly around performance and through developing their social networks - something, that for many of them, hasn’t previously been possible.

first annual student survey

In 2023 we conducted our first annual student survey. Questions were inline with the introduction of our new student values helping us to create a standard across all of our activities and monitor the outcomes for all projects.

The results were very strong, with students telling us;

• ‘It has literally saved my life’

• ‘it has improved my life for the better’

• ‘I always feel myself when I’m there’

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

HOW TO SUPPORT US