Nick Cutts

Those of you who know me will be aware of my interest in developing more creative learning links between music and maths.  I’m getting more opportunities to expland on this work at the moment and will be beginning a Creative Partnerships project at a primary school in Sheffield soon to explore this further.  We are going to explore this through a Mantle of the Expert approach, something I have spent considerable time exploring with the fantastic Dr Dorothy Heathcote.  Mantle of the Expert (see www.mantleoftheexpert.com) is an approach to learning and teaching through dramatic inquiry, placing the children and young people within an enterprise in which the teacher can adopt the voice of a colleague.  This is a great approach which gives the children and young people a sense of ownership of their own learning, and makes learning both real and relevant.  Should be an interesting project!  

Apologies for not writing for such a long time - things have been busy (see previous post).  The week in Paris was great - we spent lots of time discussing the potential of music in healthcare settings and sharing experiences.  The guys at Musique et Sante have spent a lot of time developing their approaches to music in healthcare in French hospitals and it was really helpful to have their input.  We also spent some time creating music together and trying out ideas within the group - a great opportunity to experiment and critically reflect on our own practice.  For me this was the most useful part of the week.  We are all in Manchester for a week soon spening lots of time on the new Children’s hospital putting some of the theory into practice as a group with lots of time for critical analysis of our own work.  Should be a good week. 

Off to Paris early (very!) tomorrow morning to spend the first week of my Musicians in Healthcare development work.  Really looking forward to working alongside 3 other musicians from the UK and those form Ireland, France and Poland.  I know the week will be exhausting as we explore all the competencies, attributes etc needed of a musician to work in healthcare settings, but there will i’m sure be a lot to be gained from it.  I’m hoping to bring what I learn back to my OPUS colleagues as we are to be carrying out a short residency at the Derby Hospital from November onwards - this should be a great opportunity to consider how we might approach that and similiar work.  I’m expecting to be doing lots of playing, improvising etc. and trying out some ideas in some of the Parisian hospitals.

I’m leaving early on Friday morning to get back home (we should finish at lunchtime on Friday but I’ve been excused!) as I have the small matter of getting married to get back for on Saturday!  I know it’s going to be a fantastic day spent with family and friends, and my new wife!!

As I said … quite a week ahead … 

Some really interesting and developmental work this week.  A few months ago I was asked by Derby University Initial Teacher Education along with Creative Partnerships to spend some time with their second year BEd students, exploring the pontential of music for learning across the curriculum.  Well, this week saw the work take place which resulted in a series of ‘lectures’ to around 100 students.  The students (and staff) seemed to get plenty from it, taking the time to explore approaches to creative music-making, but also looking at links across the curriculum, the potential of music as a tool for deep learning and the impact on their practice as teachers.  It’s been really interesting for me and forced me to take time to reflect on my own work - always a good thing!   

As you may or may not know, I’ve been selected as one of four musicians from the UK to work on a leonardo funded programme to help develop a European training course for musicians working in healthcare.  This is something I have been interested in fr a while, and OPUS will be delivering a residency at Derby hospital in the near future.  This is a great opportunity to share and develop practice within a European context.

We start in Paris on 19th October where the four of us musicians from the UK, four from Ireland, four from Poland and two from France will first meet for the week - some time spent in the training/practise room, the rest in Parisian hospitals.  Lots of playing, improvising, sharing stories, sharing culture … and no doubt a fair amount of socialising if we have the time!  We’ll all be in Manchester for a week in December, then off to Dublin, Krakow and back to Paris again next year, by which time hopefully we willl have more than scratched the surface of it all!

Thanks to Royal Northern College of Music with whom i am working on this, along with Musique et Sante in Paris, Music Network in Ireland and Academy of Music in Krakow.  Thanks also to Leondardo European Funding for having the foresight to support an inititiative such as this!

Well, it was time for an update, and as updates go this is a big one in that I have decided to leave my trusty MS Frontpage behind and give WordPress a go - seeing as that seems to be what the res tof the world is doing.  Not that I’m one to follow the trends, but needs must.  Anyway, welcome to the new site, sit back, put your feet up and see what’s going on …