Music Exchange and Cultural Learning Alliance Erasmus Project

Project Title

Music Exchange and Cultural Learning Alliance

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Creativity and culture; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

The 3 year MECLA Project involved partners in the UK, Czech Republic and Denmark, who engaged in a trilateral project to realise the aim of producing an online Music Technology resource, focusing on the development of General Musicianship skills for 7-8 year olds prior to starting instrumental studies, and resources linked to the development of whole class instrumental tuition for 7-11 year olds.
Both of these outcomes were met and exceeded, with the Charanga MECLA online teaching resource localised to meet the needs of individual partners and translated into Czech and Danish. This resource centred around Singing as a starting point for musical learning, and included the addition of folk songs from each country, intended to introduce all children to each language and promote cultural awareness. Significantly, this resource was ultimately launched nationally in the Czech Republic and Denmark, with further plans to develop materials and embed online Music Technology pedagogy. Charanga, is already an established online teaching methodology in the UK , and MECLA as a 1 year General Musicianship course for 7-8 year olds will be available to 11,000 schools and potentially 950,000 students.
Following a research visit by the Halton and Warrington Music Support Service (HWMSS) to Copenhagen in May 2018, and subsequent conversations with Czech colleagues, following teaching observations in the UK, it was decided that the whole class materials content would be adapted, to include a suite of differentiated ensemble materials for any instrument combination and standard. The materials were essentially intended for use in Denmark and the Czech Republic, but were also piloted successfully in schools across Warrington and Halton, on behalf of Accent Music Education Hub, contributing to a 46% student continuation rate of those moving onto a second year of instrumental study in 2019 -2020. Lincolnshire Music Hub also used HWMSS resources extensively from November 2019, following the national launch of materials at the Music Mark Conference, and reported that they had done much to promote and prove the worth of differentiated ensemble materials for different combinations of instruments.
Materials were developed during Transnational and Learning /Teaching activities between 2017 and 2020. MECLA did much to promote valuable debate across 3 countries concerning the value of Music Technology and the success and challenges posed by the delivery of whole class instrumental teaching. The project gained support from EU networks, and was nominated for an award through Pearle EU in relation to workforce development. MECLA forged new links between traditional and technological pedagogy and demonstrated how students could engage with Musical learning through online platforms. The promotion of orchestral outreach programmes with schools through Music Technology (especially in Denmark and the Czech Republic) brought an interesting additional concept to MECLA and we hope to develop this work in the future.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 293982,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

Warrington Borough Council & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Zakladni skola, Nachod, Pavlisovska 55
• Danske Ensembler, Orkestre og Operainstitutioner
• Bradshaw Community Primary School
• Halton & Warrington Music Support Service LLP
• Charanga Limited
• Zakladni umelecka skola Police nad Metuji, okres Nachod