In the North West, dynamic early years networks are forming across the region. The Early Arts Champions Group was initiated in the North West by Issacs UK. Exciting initiatives like the Children’s First Forum in Liverpool – facilitated by NMGM and local groups in areas like Knowsley on Merseyside.

All four of the regions Youth Music Action Zones (YMAZs) have done some excellent work around the Early Years music-making agenda and are linked into all of the major initiatives mentioned above. They include the Liverpool Philharmonic’s Song for Home project supported by Mzone.  More Music’s The Clapping Song project -aimed at U5s and giving the children the chance to have fun with music, playing games, dancing and listening to stories and poems. Parents and nursery staff can also be shown techniques using music to help children’s learning and development. Sessions are weekly. And there is also Cradle Song – a Whitewood and Flemming programme for the Cumbria YMAZ, Soundwave offering creative workshops for the young music-makers as well as networking opportunities for those involved in Early Years practise.
More information on the YMAZs

In addition to the North West YMAZs’ early years activity, projects and programmes, I myself work closely with a range of agencies and practitioners in this priority area for the region’s children and families. For the last year I have been working with education staff and musicians from the Liverpool Philharmonic and Halle Orchestra Teams on our  Early Years Cluster Programme (which will hopefully build on the excellent work already happening : the Halle’s Magic Box programme which involves Early Year educational specialists  and EYDCPs in the Merseyside and Greater Manchester, supported by Music Services,RNCM  and other music colleges and college courses in the region.
More information on the Early Years Cluster Programme

So far we have invested £1,120,12  - a significant amount in projects targeted specifically at 0-5s – including working also with parents, carers and Early Years professionals around training and networking etc. Take up for our Early Years programmes around the NW is not as high as it should be and yet child poverty continues to be very high so this is an area I continue to prioritise in my work with some of the region’s Sure Start Centres and Early Years and Childcare and development partnerships (EYDCPs) to inform them of the benefits of music to children under the age of 5. 
Early Years research

The aim is to increase the number of applications to our First Steps programme as much as possible.  This year I also want to continue to spread the word about the excellent training opportunities being offered by Music Leader North West in partnership with the region's YMAZs to music leaders and Early Years professionals around the region and I want to continue to work closely with the region’s Schools Music Services to promote excellent specialist music leadership in the 0-5s age group.

If you want to discuss getting music going in your early years group or setting then I would love to hear from you. Please email chris.spriggs@youthmusic.org.uk

Youth Music target singing as one our key priority areas because we think singing is an activity that children and young people can participate in and enjoy, whatever their background and ability.  Here in the North West there are a range of excellent opportunities to take part in choral singing. We also have wonderful organisations doing diverse work around singing but there is a challenge to encourage and enable many more children and young people to enjoy singing and to offer more opportunities for trying non-western and informal singing styles and genres.

Here in the North West Youth Music has funded 26 projects specifically for singing and has invested £288,067 in vocal work in the region since 1999.

All of the region’s Youth Music Actions Zones (YMAZs) have provided a wide range of excellent singing programmes, projects, training and networking opportunities. The GMMAZ Vocal Collective has been meeting in venues in each Greater Manchester borough and has been open to all singers, rappers, beat-boxers and vocalists of any kind who want to get up and show off their skills. Exploring different music styles from gospel to pop to hip-hop, the groups have been meeting fortnightly and will come together to form one collective for the final performance in Summer 2007.
More Music in Morecambe – Singing Squad
Mzone – Hot House Sense of Sound

As the government appoints Howard Goodall to act as Singing Ambassador for the new National Singing Programme watch out for more exciting developments in the region with our Super Singing Communities Initiative and our Vocalise programme.
Singing news
Singing case studies

Our Singbook Initiative has already proved very popular in the region. Singbook is a singing resource from Youth Music to aid teachers and youth leaders in providing better singing experiences for children and young people.
Find out more at www.singbook.org.uk

This is the key time when young people give up on their music-making (and so Youth Music is targeting the transition period between primary and secondary school as one of its priority areas. Research tells us that many children give up at this stage in their music-making because the practices, infrastructures and strategy needed to support music-making at this crucial stage aren’t always in place. Music can also be used as a tool to ease the transfer from primary to much larger secondary schools.

Sutton Manor Primary School in a former pit village in the St Helens area ran a year long project (One World, One Voice) via a Make it Sound award that used song and composition to connect Yr 6 students with students from the local secondary school, Sutton High and St Helen’s College - specifically their Music Departments - that was aimed at easing the transition process. The project used gospel and world music forms to create a song for the school that was performed as part of the students’ end of year concert and then later in the town’s Citadel Arts Centre. Peer mentors from the senior school worked alongside the Music Leader and developed workshop skills themselves whilst getting to know the primary school students. Because the project brought in the Music Departments at the start the chance to ensure the students don’t get ‘lost’ to music-making when entering Secondary school have been greatly strengthened and skills for all concerned have been developed.
Transition news
Transition case studies
More information on Youth Music's Transition policy and priorities

Young people in the North West can be deemed at risk for a variety of geographical and social reasons, from issues of inner city deprivation to those of rural living. Youth Music is currently funding some exciting Make it Sound programmes working to the ‘At Risk’ agenda in the North West. Each project involves different client groups and uses music to re-engage young people. 
More information on Youth Music funding

The Aspire Trust Ltd – a creativity in education agency working with a number of schools in the Wallasey area of Merseyside is developing an exciting and challenging pilot – DERE ( De-schooled, Re-engaged) with partner primary and secondary schools in the area. The team is led by Martin Milner. He reports: ‘Our approach allows for much freedom of expression and participation. With a different set of behavioural ‘rules’ (operating at all times within the wider set of school rules) we can create a space where individuals can demonstrate their unique strengths. This inevitably means some pupils attempt to explore the boundaries with challenging behaviours. However, through discussion and active participation (rather than imposed authority) we have started to explore the effect this has on the group – and what individuals get out of it’. Another key aim is to develop and disseminate the work beyond the immediate schools taking part in the programme to enable its sustainability. To find out more about these projects, please visit www.aspireuniverse.co.uk

At Risk news items
At Risk case studies Youth Music's Respect programme

It’s a vibrant and exciting time in the North West for musicians and educators with Music Leader North West leading the way in offering a range of beginners, specialist and bespoke master classes, networking events, workshops and advice clinics for the growing practitioner and client groups in the region.
The work of Music Leader North West has also been responsible for opening up the idea of careers for musicians just about to graduate from colleges and universities who might otherwise not have realised what a vibrant sector the music education sector is becoming. Mzone is currently developing its Interns Programme to offer talented young people opportunities to take up six month paid internships at a range of appropriate music organisations in the Merseyside area.
Through Youth Music’s Musicleader.net initiative, all music leaders across the UK have access to online information, advice and guidance.
Workforce development news
Workforce development case studies

All Youth Music funded programmes have to employ a paid trainee and offer professional development opportunities to strengthen and develop the workforce. We have a number of examples in our region where trainees on previous projects are now leading workshops as music leaders themselves.

‘I am in my final year at Liverpool Community College and these workshops have really opened my eyes. I would now really consider working as a musician in the education sector – it would be great!’