Bablake Twitterati- (2) Music

Our Music department was a major contributor to Interactive Schools' 2014 #SocialAdvent initiative. Mrs Cathy Scott-Burt (Head of Enrichment and Outreach Co-ordinator), who runs our Music department's Twitter feed, kindly explains the advantages for them:

'Twitter has been a really valuable tool for the Music Department to communicate information, successes, performance details, pupil reminders and, if I'm honest, some fun musical jokes as well!

We used Twitter extensively for the first time on the tour in the summer, letting parents know about arrival times as well as sharing photos of concerts and some leisure time too. Lots of retweets and 'favorites' from parents, as well as some lovely messages of thanks when we returned home, seemed to suggest that we were doing something useful.

Since then, we've made links with our partner Orchestra da Camera, as well as other local arts organisations, e.g. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and MAC, and several other school music departments. All of these help us promote what we are doing, as well as learn from the good practice and opportunities of other organisations.

Over the summer holiday, we tweeted pictures of all the pupils who had gained distinctions in their instrumental exams, as the ABRSM was celebrating 125 years and asking for pictures with the hashtag #MyCertificate. We had some lovely responses to those, with especial admiration for Avni Kant's grade 5 harp distinction. 

Relevant TED talks, instrumental workshop opportunities and university music department open day invitations have all featured on our feed, as well as Mr Cooper's appearance on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire and a fun exchange with Virgin Rail about having the brass ensemble to play at Coventry station at Christmas!

So, from a nervous start a few months ago, it's become a really valuable tool for us as well as (hopefully) a mine of information and cause for celebration to our followers. Why not follow us on Twitter?'

We thank Mrs Scott-Burt for her excellent comments and will let everyone know more about the 2014 #SocialAdvent analysis, once we have more information from Interactive Schools.