Case Studies
See how Gigajam curriculum and software is being used around the country to create
more musicians.
Pleckgate High School is a multi cultural community of pupils, staff, parents and
carers. The school comprises of 1200 pupils situated on the northern outskirts of
Blackburn with Darwen and serves the communities on the northern edge of the town.
View Pleckgate case study.
Tiverton High School, a specialist arts college, has completed its first academic
year integrating some of the latest technological developments in music education.
Last year the music department purchased a Gigajam Essential Skills Course unlimited
licence to provide musical instrument tuition.
View Tiverton case study.
Bradley
Stoke Community School have recently introduced Gigajam’s Essential Skills Course
for gitar, bass, keyboard and drums. They are using Gigajam to support the development
of practical music skills which will enable their students engage more deeply with
curriculum music, as well music outside of the classroom.
View Bradley Stoke case study.
As part of the Kent Wider Opportunities programme, the Music Advisory Team wanted
to trial Gigajam to see if it was suitable to roll out. A pilot project was set
up with targeted pupils at the Cheyne Middle School on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent.
View Kent case study.
In 2006 Bucks County Council set up a music project to give 30 schools across Buckinghamshire
access to Gigajam’s Essential Skills Courses for guitar, bass, keyboards and drums,
giving thousands of students the opportunity to learn a musical instrument. Buckingham
Primary School was invited to participate by the Local Authority because of its
existing commitment to ICT and music specialist within the school.
View Buckingham case study.
In 2003 the then Scottish Executive established the Youth Music Initiative (YMI)
with an award of £17.5 million to put music at the heart of young people’s lives
and learning. By March 2008 a significant £37.5 million will have been invested
in music programmes so far.
View Highlands case study.
Gigajam had been invited by Wandsworth City Learning Centre to run a four day course
for the children of Wandsworth as part of the LEAs Gifted and Talented Scheme
Wandsworth CLC is a unique learning environment and is well equipped with state
of the art recording equipment, musical equipment and modern networked ICT suites.
As the first CLC in the UK to buy Gigajam Lesson Content and Interactive Music Education
Software, they were keen to demonstrate the power of learning using ICT and how
it could be used in both a Classroom environment and also as personalised learning.
View Wandsworth case study.
Salford CLCs, Buille Hill and Moorside run some of the most impressive inclusive
activities. They started with just one session a week and now have 6 sessions a
week running across both CLCs.
View Salford case study.
John Denney and Paul Ford are using Gigajam in two different sessions. Firstly,
they make the CLC available for of an hour at lunchtimes on Monday, Wednesday and
Friday working with their partner school Parrswood. The students range from Year
7 to Year 11.
The students from Parrswood School are enjoying it so much that they are often in
the CLC trying to snatch a quick practice session.
View South Manchester case study.
Gigajam and Dacorum Borough Council were working together to establish the viability
of using Gigajams lesson content and software to engage young people in the borough
in learning to play a musical instrument, and then go on to form bands.
View Dacorum Borough Council case study.
Northampton School for Girls provide four weekly Gigajam sessions as extra curricula
activity. It has become so popular that all sessions are now full and there is an
ever growing waiting list. NSG have been using Gigajam for a full term now and are
looking at how they can develop events for the students to perform at in the future.
View Northampton School for Girl case study.
Ealing City Learning Centre has a very good working relationship with surrounding
schools and was interested in supporting and hosting a wider opportunities initiative
together with Ealing Music Services. After trying out Gigajam with an initial short-run
project, the CLC decided to continue, and has since been awarded Accredited Gigajam
Interactive Music School status for the skills the team, along with Ealing Music
Services, has applied and demonstrated with the first roll-out of the project.
View Ealing case study.
Rawmarsh CLC, Rotherham has grown very rapidly and now have over 80 students a week
signed up to their Rock school, with 37 more on a waiting list. Their Rock school
is open to Primary and Secondary students as well as Adult learners.
View Rawmarsh case study.
Haywood CLC has supported the WMnet central purchase of content by investing in
musical instruments, so that students can get the most from the online music lessons.
The CLC shares the equipment with local schools and makes loans to surrounding schools.
One of the local schools, Smallthorne Primary School in Stoke-on-Trent, introduced
Gigajam to parents and children by holding a family learning workshop. Parents and
students were able to work through a Gigajam lesson and assess their performances
on their chosen musical instruments.
View Haywood case study.
Gigajam is delighted to be involved in its first significant international educational
project in partnership with BOA. Managing Director Brian Greene is working with
Saranna Maureau (Project Manager) and Bert Hoek (BOA Director), together with their
team, in making Gigajam available to all schools in Amsterdam across the high speed
fibre optic broadband network built by Dutch telecom giant KPN. BOA are developing
projects that utilise the broadband infrastructure to ensure that schools receive
high quality teaching and learning resources to help transform learning in the 21st
century.
View Netherlands case study.
Carranballac College is a government school at Point Cook in the fast-growing outer
western suburbs of Melbourne. Now in its fourth year of operation, the school has
two campuses covering Prep. to Year 9, with 70 class groups, 31 of which cater for
the middle years of schooling (Years 5 to 9). The principal, Peter Kearney, was
keen to create a music program that made kids really want to come to school. Assistant
principal Gaye Edmonds, using Soundhouse.com.au as external partners, set about
designing a program that would engage and motivate students to learn instruments.
View Soundhouse Australia study.