Drones Music Workshop Day

Drones Workshop Day Enjoyed by All.

A group of special needs primary school children were the lucky attendants of a stimulating and interactive workshop with The Drones at Soar Valley Music Centre. Children from Birkett House Special School,Eastfield Primary School, Fernvale Primary School, an King Richards Primary School attended.

The Drones, a contemporary quartet based in London, began playing music as the children were arriving, and had a captive audience from the start. There was a mixture of children from special schools, and special needs children in mainstream schools. There was a wide variety of needs, and this was catered for as The Drones have worked with children of all abilities, and they found ways to get all the children involved.
The atmosphere in the hall was fantastic, as even staff not involved in the workshop itself stopped to comment on how brilliant it sounded and how much fun the children seemed to be having. The teachers from the schools were equally impressed.

“It’s so creative, it gives the children freedom to express themselves and experiment with instruments”
“They get all the kids involved. I’ve really seen their confidence grow today, and children of all different abilities have got involved”

“I’m really impressed. They’ve been really focussed, everyone’s been taking part. It’s lovely how the group understand the individual needs of the children.
Our group is quite complex, so it was nice how patient the group was, and how there was both audio and visual stimulants. All of the children loved it, and they interacted well with the music. I would definitely bring a group to this event again”

The funding for this workshop(and several other similar workshops)was obtained by the Richard Attenborough Centre, who applied to Yoppital Wonga- a panel of young people who decide how some funding, held by the City Council, is given out. The project was overseen by Helen Tavener, who did a great job making this happen.

For more information about The Drones and their fantastic work, please visit www.dronesmusic.net
The day was a definite success, and it is brilliant to see the Music Centre motto of “Music for Everyone” reaching further still into the community.

-Rachel Wheeler