Training Resources
In Summer 2024, NYJO hosted a series of educator training sessions for our Emerging Professional musicians. These allowed our members who were interested in education to dive deeper into key topics including working with young people with Additional Needs and Disabilities, developing a strong planning and evaluation process, considering communal singing practices, and the foundations of working with beginner musicians.
These training sessions were the springboard that allowed our Emerging Professionals to consider how they wanted to grow their own educational practice alongside the NYJO ethos, and we are delighted to be able to share some of the resources that emerged from these sessions with you all today.
Working with Young People with Additional Needs & Disabilities
“People are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference.”
It’s really important not to just focus on diagnostic labels when working with young people with Additional Needs and Disabilities. Labels will not tell you how different young people’s needs present or what you can do to best support them. Produced following a training session with Music Making SENse, this resource will show you what steps you can take to try and prevent common reactions when a young person’s needs aren’t met.
Planning & Evaluation
“Reflection and evaluation are your friends! You will gain the most from the process and your group will thrive following any time that you give to thinking about how your session plan worked in practice and what you would like to do next.”
Produced following a training session with Singer and Creative Practitioner Natasha Lohan, this resource will introduce you to the templates that we recommend for planning and evaluation. It will also introduce you to the process of personal reflection as part of your evaluation practice – you should not be looking to criticise yourself here, but instead to learn how to notice what is happening and how to make the most of your learning.
Working with Beginner Musicians
“Sometimes a ‘mistake’ in the room can open up a conversation which leads to the next part of the process.”
Think backwards: what is it you are hoping to achieve and what skills are required in order for the young person to achieve this? Produced following a training session with NYJO Resident MD Vij Prakash, this resource will explore our ideas of best practice when working with less-experienced musicians. You will learn how to introduce improvisation for this first time in incremental steps, as well as getting tips for leading, taking your time, and encouraging active listening. We often think that beginner groups take the most skill to work well with, so this resource pack will help you get started in a positive way!
Community Singing
“For us, community singing groups should be a place of agency – when participants feel heard and accepted within spaces like this, they feel a sense of agency which translates back into their everyday lives.”
Produced following a training session with Singer and Creative Practitioner Natasha Lohan, this resource will introduce you to the ways in which spaces of communal singing can model an ethos of acceptance where everyone feels that the musicality they bring is just enough. Through this Resource Pack, you will explore ways of breaking down hierarchies so that everyone can feel a sense of ownership over the music-making space.
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