Brief
At KS3, students normally only get 1 hour of music tuition a week. Lesson time is spent covering the essential learning in the curriculum, and pupils are often in mixed ability classes . As a result, teachers rely heavily on ensuring students are inspired and motivated to continue their own development independently, and further their skills and nurture their enthusiasm.
With that does come the consideration of access. Students across the country have differing access to music services, practical equipment and general exposure to it in their everyday lives.
Therefore, when meeting the BBC’s brief for engaging educational content for the age-group, we needed an idea that any student could relate to and engage with, anywhere.
Approach
For this BBC Bitesize commision we plotted an idea for a series of content that would inspire students to be musical in their own time, and outside the classroom.
Our creative revolved around a group of friends who had decided to make music together. They didn’t all play instruments or have the know-how but together - taught each other and learned enough to put together a song throughout the series.
This formed the basis of our creative approach, which was brought to life thanks to the help of our in-house creative team, music educational specialists and the BBC Bitesize team.
Outcomes
We filmed the series using real musicians aged slightly above the audience group, in order to give a sense or inspiration and an idea of what they could achieve in their own future.
In addition to the scripted series watching them work together creating the song, we included films where they visited real life music professionals from a wide variety of settings. These films helped showcase the wide range of career paths a musician might take, whilst also demonstrating some key learning relevant to the KS3 curriculum.
Overall, since the launch of the films, the series has proved a great success. As well as positive anecdotal feedback across teacher and school networks, it has been a key feature of the BBC Bitesize content across all of their platforms, including the newly launched Bitesize Daily service.
As well as the video above, you can view the whole series here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zmsvr82