Northampton School for Girls
Introduction
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.
Objectives
NSG had over 600 instrumental lessons taking place each week, but there were
many students who missed out on this opportunity as the school simply did not
have the resources to cope. Gigajam was seen as a way to provide musical
instrument tuition to all of our students alongside the current offering from
the Music Services. The alternative would have been either no lessons at all or
expensive private tuition which would run to around £20 per hour, per student.
Implementation
Gigajam is being run by Northampton School for Girls as optional after-school
activities. Initially there were two hour long back to back sessions catering
for 30 students each. Gigajam though, has proved to be so popular that this was
quickly expanded to a second evening with another two sessions. These four
weekly sessions are now attended by over 70 students learning either Guitar,
Bass, Keyboard or Drums.
The sessions are run by Greg Myles, the schools ICT Technician, who happens to
be a gigging drummer. The ICT suite is used to host the sessions where all of
the equipment is stored between sessions.
On the subject of implementation Greg says, "The learning experience is often
driven by the students when following a Gigajam course. The students become
competitive and want to beat each other’s scores, making it easy to get them
motivated. When running a Gigajam session I find myself just providing technical
support and offering the odd word of advice rather than teaching full on."
Gigajam Director Brian Greene says, "NSG is a great example of how our resource
can be implemented to create greater music making opportunities for a larger
number of students. A key factor in the success of this project is the way the
students have been directed to work independently in a class situation."
Timetable
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Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
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Before School |
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During School |
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After School |
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16:00-17:00
17:00-18:00 |
16:00-17:00
17:00-18:00 |
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Impacts and Outcomes
"Gigajam
has enabled us to expand the range of contemporary music activities we offer in
school. As a Specialist Music College this is vital to ensure that we engage as
many students from as many musical backgrounds as possible." -
Greg Myles,
NSG.
"The most innovative
element of the Gigajam courses is the Analyser software. The idea that a
computer could in any way simulate the experience of one to one tuition seemed a
long way off until I’d seen the Gigajam courses in action." -
Greg Myles, NSG
Future Developments
Northampton School for Girls is planning to further expand their Gigajam
offering in September 2006 with a series of developments including, community
work with local schools, VLE based home access to Gigajam, and using Gigajam
within the curriculum.
Participants
Northampton School for Girls, Specialist Music College.