Music Mentors

Our Manifesto:

Western House Academy’s Music Mentors use the values of ‘teamwork’ and ‘ambition’ and are creative in helping the younger learners become better musicians. They use platforms such as BoomBoxRadio and Google Slides to reach the whole school, working collaboratively with other pupil leaders (Head Pupils for example) to plan and write the scripts for the radio shows. They aim to introduce the children to a range of different musicians from different cultures and musical genres. The Music Mentors also create topical shows based on the school’s curriculum learning and invite younger children to be recorded on the radio. The whole school community can access the BoomBoxRadio shows through Google Classroom and via mixcloud both in and out of school. During the Year 6 Singing Assembly, the Music Mentors take on the responsibility of leading the warm up for the year group by singing and playing the piano. They encourage good singing, help in awarding dojos and house points and also the Singing Trophy. They are positive role-models. 

The role of mentoring younger children also forms a core part of their job as pupil leaders. This ranges from creating instructional videos for how to play musical parts to ‘live’ teaching and mentoring in their own classes and assemblies. The Music Mentors also volunteer to assist with mentoring younger children in their free time. Their aim is to help younger children develop a growth mindset in learning how to play different instruments, which reinforces the school’s focus on ‘mastery’ in music. The music mentors aim to influence the next generation of children to become more proficient musicians and have a deeper knowledge and understanding of a wide range of musical styles and genres. By being comfortable on a range of instruments themselves, they are able to model musical skills to the younger musicians, thus helping to continue the development of musicianship across this school.