The Marsh Academy - Music ICT Suite

The Marsh Academy, formerly Southlands Community Comprehensive School, opened in September 2007 as part of the government’s Academies initiative. Having recently reintroduced music into the curriculum together with the AS Music Technology course, the school is now enjoying the benefits of its new status, in terms of student motivation, engagement and classroom performance.

The Education Challenge

While operating as Southlands School, the music department was identified as being heavily under-resourced in technology and subsequently the subject had to be withdrawn. The Marsh Academy was therefore keen to embrace music technology from the outset.

"We were determined that the music department would be a leading example in local education."

Jamie MacLean
Head of Music

It was identified that a music ICT suite was necessary with capabilities to support GCSE and A Level music and the AS Music Technology syllabus. The school was also intending to offer the A2 music technology course the following year, so the provision of high-end audio and MIDI sequencing facilities was essential. In addition, it was required that this room also serve the purpose of a traditional keyboard lab, as available space within the department was minimal.

The Solution

The music ICT suite consists of 16 student computer workstations with musical keyboards, a workstation with additional functionality for the teacher and a dedicated network server with RAID data storage and backup. Classroom control software allows teachers to lock student systems, broadcast screens and remotely start/shutdown systems, whilst the multimedia assessment software allows capture and assessment of pupils’ work.

Each workstation is linked into Counterpoint's Matrix audio network for reliable teacher-to-student communication, monitoring and real time recording of student work for exam submissions and electronic assessment. The audio network can be used with either the PC workstations or the musical keyboards, successfully achieving the dual purpose requirement for the room.

The Benefits

The new facility is already having a huge impact on the teaching of music:

"The behaviour and attitudes of students have improved significantly since the commissioning of the new system. Students are treating the equipment with a measure of respect previously unseen in the department and there are 14 AS Music Technology students, the largest number of any AS group in the school."

Jamie MacLean
Head of Music

Following the success of this project, the Academy is thinking to the future and looking to implement a range of vocational music courses over the next few years, alongside a commercial recording studio and project radio station.

The Marsh Academy
Installed System:
  • Music ICT Suite
  • Audio Network

"The behaviour and attitudes of students have improved significantly since the commissioning of the new system. Students are treating the equipment with a measure of respect previously unseen in the department.."

Jamie MacLean
Head of Music