How does South West Music School support musical ability

South West Music School share their approach to encouraging and developing the talent and potential of young musicians, in this collection of films, case studies and practice write-ups.

South West Music School (SWMS) is a Centre of Advanced Musical Training which encourages and develops young people who show exceptional musical talent and potential as performers or composers, regardless of their social or musical backgrounds. SWMS is unusual because it isn't in a building but instead operates as a network, covering the whole of the South West from Gloucestershire to Penzance.

SWMS commissioned Mary Schwarz, an independent evaluator, to write case studies of five students. Mary interviewed the young people and also their parents, siblings, teachers, tutors and mentors to follow their learning journeys and explore how the components of the SWMS model – residentials, mentoring and specialist tuition – support a wide range of outcomes. The case studies and outcomes evaluation are presented in this online resource which also features film clips of auditions and performances alongside the results of giving the young people flipcams to use as they wished: video diaries, interviews and films of mentoring and tuition sessions.

I worked with Mary, SWMS and Youth Music staff to put together this online learning resource.