Brooklands is a mixed community middle school situated east of the town of Leighton Buzzard with 289 pupils aged between 9 and 13, coming from a variety of social and economic backgrounds. The school works in partnership with other local upper and lower schools and is an active member of the local learning community.

The Education Challenge

During July 2006, Brooklands investigated educational music ICT facilities in other schools, and were recommended to contact Counterpoint MTC. Brooklands had not previously implemented ICT within the subject of music, and were keen to update the facilities for both students and teachers. Counterpoint MTC was quickly deemed to be the only provider of a solution meeting the requirements.

The Solution

The new Music ICT facilities at Brooklands Middle are built around an audio network providing audio recording and remote control from the teacher's station to 16 pupil workstations. Each pupil has access to both a Casio portable keyboard and a Music PC, and visual networking tools add remote access, monitoring and interaction for the teacher.

Student work can be captured directly into the teacher's computer as both audio and midi recordings. These can then be used to help develop pupil learning as well as for on-going assessments. Assessment can be interactive in that teachers can make recordings, play them back to pupils and add comments and direction. The system enables the teacher to interact more directly with the pupils' creative and learning processes; to see and hear what pupils are doing, give direction in both spoken word to their headphones and even on-screen text messages.

Another facility proving popular with students is an electronic rehearsal facility for contemporary bands. This is built around electronic drums and piano, with guitar and bass instruments linking into a stereo PA system. In effect, this is the live room next to the recording studio, and is an often neglected aspect of many school's investment into recording studio facilities. Rehearsal is a very important part of the recording process, and this facility enables pupils to work together on performance and musicianship. An important factor is the reduced volume made possible by the electronic drum kit, which in turn enables better communication and group-work skills.

The Benefits

Brooklands report a remarkable improvement in student co-operation, inclusion and engagement since installing the suite:

Barbara Fleet
Head of Music
Brooklands Middle School