In this month’s Spotlight, we’re delighted to hear from Drake Music Scotland on their new documentary All Join In, highlighting the work delivered as part of the YMI programme in Aberdeenshire.
Drake Music Scotland Associate Musician, Francis Moore-Colyer, working with young people in Westfield School, Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire. Image by Westfield School.
Drake Music Scotland have been working in schools in partnership with Aberdeenshire Council’s Live Life Aberdeenshire for more than 10 years. In 2022/23, we worked in 10 Additional Support Needs Schools and Units, with around 200 disabled young people.
In the 20th Anniversary year of The Scottish Government's Youth Music Initiative, and in the launch year of Drake Music Scotland’s DMS Learn programme, we wanted to document the fantastic work that our freelance Associate Musicians deliver to disabled young people of Aberdeenshire with a brand new documentary film.
This short, 12-minute documentary film follows our Associate Musicians in two of the schools we have been working in this year. Abi Sinar has been working in Carronhill School in Stonehaven, and Francis Moore-Colyer in Aboyne Primary School in Aboyne.
The film follows the story throughout a year of delivering music education to disabled young people in these two schools.
Created by Tom Swift and Eddy Charlton at Tom Swift Films.
In the film, you will see examples of some of the fantastic and accessible ways Drake Music Scotland makes music with young people, like the alternative notation system, Figurenotes which is a very literal colour and shape based notation system and is used in all of Drake Music Scotland’s work. Figurenotes is built into the iPad app ThumbJam which is one of the many adaptive music technologies used by the young people we work with.
Music is far more than just music, it’s the full heart beat of everything that goes on in the school- Graeme Boyd, Headteacher, Carronhill
The work that we deliver in Aberdeenshire is part of an annual programme of activity called All Join In, under the DMS Learn strand. The All Join In programme delivers music sessions in around 60 additional support needs schools across Scotland, in 14 local authorities for more than 1,000 disabled young people every year.
This film, as well as all of the delivery to the schools in Aberdeenshire, is funded through Aberdeenshire Council from Creative Scotland's Youth Music Initiative.
