Like many I suspect, my first question about the small, Worcester-based charity ‘Snoezelen’ was ‘What does Snoezelen mean?’ The word - a mix of two dutch words for sniffing and dozing – perfectly evokes the experience offered by the charity: a multi-sensory environment for people with severe
Experiences
Making the music curriculum more accessible in Gloucestershire Special Schools
By Alex Ivanovich - 19/09/2011In the summer term 2010, I was given the opportunity to visit every special school in Gloucestershire on behalf of Gloucestershire Music Service (GMS). I was tasked with assessing each school’s needs in terms of accessible music resources and training, in order to improve access to the music curriculum in each school. GMS also set aside Wider Opportunities funding to buy new instruments and music resources for each special school in the county.
Supporting a disabled undergraduate music student
By Filhill - 09/09/2011For more than 18 months now I’ve been assisting a disabled student with the first module of a music degree course. My role has been a largely technical one - to create an Assistive Technology set-up that will enable the student to do the course, and to work with him in learning how to use it. I’m not going to name the student or the University, as the whole experience raises some potentially sensitive issues.
Bradley Warwick and the Drake Music / OCNSWR 'Introduction To Music' course
By jonathanwestrup - 25/05/2011Like many teenagers his age, Bradley Warwick is passionate about music. In this sense he is unremarkable; however, in 2010 he became the first student to pilot Drake Music’s Introduction to Music course (accredited by OCNSWR - Open College Network South West Region), achieving a Level 1 pass for all four units. Bradley’s success is especially significant because he has Cerebral Palsy and uses an electronic VOCA (Voice Output Communication Aid) to speak.
Breaking the ‘glass ceiling’ to get a degree in music
By Mark Rowland - 25/05/2011I didn’t have the opportunity to gain accreditation in music at my special school, so it was 10 years before I finally got a place to study music at LIPA (Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts) in 2001. From LIPA I moved on to Chester College, from where I graduated in 2006 with a degree in Commercial Music Production. If my school had offered the opportunity to be accredited in music, it wouldn’t have taken more than 15 years to get my degree!
Here’s some background on my work with Drake Music, and my journey towards getting my degree.
Charlotte White - Bronze Arts Award
By dougbott - 25/05/2011In 2008 Charlotte White gained a Bronze Arts Award through working with Drake Music at St. Rose’s school, Stroud. While it was undoubtedly a really good thing to have her musical achievements accredited, a Bronze Arts Award was, quite honestly, a poor reflection of Charlotte’s actual academic and musical abilities. In the same academic year she achieved an A and three A-stars at GCSE in English Languge, Media, RE & Art - the latter achieved largely through mouth painting, and she is now (2011) at the University of Kent studying for a degree in Sociology and Criminology.