RAISE! Cross-Curricular Musical Creativity & Digital Enterprise Project

Raise money, self-esteem, and attainment through musical creativity and enterprise in your P6/7 class

What?

Help your P7 Class Make Their Own Music and Sell A Digital Album to fundraise for your school with rich cross-curricular learning in music, compositon and creativity, enterprise, literacy, numeracy, IT, media, visual art.  Ideal for improving confidence & raising attainment in Literacy & Numeracy.

Go here to listen to the album made by the Fishcross Primary P7 class in 2023.

Why?

As well as creating huge enjoyment and engagement in children, and all the cross-curricular learning outlined above, developing creativity skills in composition and visual art, this project is perfect for raising money for P7 leavers hoodies or for another charity of the school or children’s choice.

How?

The project is divided into 2 stages:

Stage 1: Musical Creativity 

Stage 2: Enterprise/Fundraising

CPD 1: Creativity covers the use of 4 hour-long video-led lessons, teaching the P7 class working in groups of 2-3 children, to compose their own melodies using ABC’s unique Create With Pitch software. 

Go here to see videos of the Create Woith Pitch software, which uses shape notation so any child can learn it, and any teaher can tech it.

ABC staff then arrange 8 melodies to make a digital Album ready for Streaming or Download, and set up online Ticketing- so family & friends can buy, stream or download the album easily from their PC or phone.

CPD 2: Enterprise introduces teachers to flexible online resources for planning, designing and delivering a Digital Enterprise project promoting and selling your album to friends, family and wider community.

Here's a video on marketing for example.

 Here's a workbook on profit and loss.

Raise_Ent Lesson 3- FinanceWorksheetFD

Workbooks and handouts are available at different levels of difficulty- more structured for less able groups, shorter and more open for more able and independent groups. Teahers can match the correct resources for each group in their class.

Who?

ANy teacher can run this programme.

Teachers do not need to be musically confident, read music, or know how to compose.
All Creativity lessons are delivered via video.

Your P7 Class Teacher receives training and support throughout, with an Online CPD at the start of each stage, with access to ongoing telephone and email support.

They can learn alongside the children.

How Much Classroom Time?

Creativity: min. 4 x 1-hour sessions- eg 2 hrs per week for 2 weeks.

Enterprise Prep: min 4 x 1-hour sessions- eg 2 hrs per week for 2 weeks 

before the album launch.

Fundraising: You decide how much time to put into fundraising after the launch.

Teacher Feedback...

My P6/7 composite class started working with Phil at ABC Music last year. I found the idea of creating our own music album a much more intriguing Enterprise Challenge than what I had done in the previous years.

From Day 1, the support was excellent. The lessons in class led by Phil were pitched at the correct level and the progression each week worked well. The online resources, worksheets and challenges were clear and well documented. The children remained engaged throughout and I really appreciated how excited Phil was with the rhythms that the children were producing.

I really felt the lessons progressed, not only in terms of rhythm, pitch, instruments and beats but in terms of the album becoming a sellable product. The children got to experience new skills such as marketing, promoting and advertising with an achievable goal in mind.

The work put in by Phil was second to none. Weekly meetings to discuss progress, phone calls to answer questions and online resources taking you through each step in a language that both the children and the class teacher can work from.

I would recommend to any class teacher working in the upper level to get involved.

Neil G P7 Class Teacher, Clackmananshire

For More Details- read on..

Musical Creativity using ABC’s Create With Pitch Resources:

P7 class teachers receive a fun Online CPD demonstrating the powerful Create With Pitch composition software, that allows everyone to compose meaningful melodies.

They are shown the structure and lesson plans of 4 video led lessons, with a clear idea of how to layout their class, what IT equipment is required, advice on the make up of groups, and instructions on saving and emailing compositions.

Class Teachers do not need compositional experience or to be able to read music- they can very much learn with the children.

Children will work in up to 8 groups of 2-5 children using headphone splitters (supplied for schools to keep as part of the project), to compose and select up to 8 melodies for their album. Classes can send in a few extra melodies, which may be used if time permits.

ABC staff then produce arrangements of each of the 8 melodies, and upload them as an album to Bandcamp as digital soundfiles (AIFF/MP3 files).

ABC staff set up a simple online Sales page on peoplesfundraising.com, where parents, family and friends can pay for a ticket using credit or debit card. They then receive a link to a password protected streaming or download page, so they can listen to the album in their phone or on their laptop or tablet.

All income from the ticket sales go to the school, apart from 1.75% commission taken by peoplesfundraising.com.

Listen to an example album here- created by Banchory Primary School P7 class.

Enterprise Project- Raise Money and Raise Attainment:

The class is divided up into a flexible number Enterprise teams- with each taking on a different Enterprise task.
Resources are provided at 3 levels of support.

• A brief handout for confident independent groups- who must research their task then plan and design their approach to it.

• More supportive worksheets provide guidance and advice for moderately-confident groups.

•. Fill-in-the-blanks templates allow even the least-confident groups to take part, while learning genuine literacy and IT skills.

This allows teachers to target the right level of support for each team in the class.

Classes choose Enterprise tasks from a list which include planning an album launch event, arranging a photo op, run an email campaign to parents, compose a social media campaign, produce Videos or an Enterprise blogs, compose and send Press Releases to local press and radio, Track project income and expenses, Design and create posters to be displayed around the school and local community eg in local shops.
Teachers can decide how sinple or complex their campaign willbe, and how much time they wish to devote to it in class.

Cross-Curricular Learning…

This rich cross-curricular project celebrates children’s creativity, and helps them learn about…

Musical Creativity- explored through ABC Musics unique Create With Pitch resources,

covering Rhythm, Pitch, Simple Arranging skills, Phrase Structure/Form.

Literacy- children work in teams to write Press releases, email campaigns, an Enterprise Blog, Social media campaigns, invitations to a Photo-Op etc

Numeracy- children learn about income and expenses, profit and loss, break even points and targets, and then track project income, expenses and profit.

Visual Art- design Promotional Posters and album covers

Copyright, Advertising and Social Media- learn about copyright and how Media and promotion works

IT and Communication skills- children will gain experiencing in using a variety of software, and experiencing planning and executing an digital promotional campaign.

Contact:

Email  Phil Bancroft at if you have any questions or 
are interested in taking part in this project.