The oscars of the music education World

The Music Teacher Awards for Excellence are sometimes referred to, with only a little humor, as the Oscars of the music education world. Every year an award is presented to someone who is deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to music in their school.

The awards cover 13 categories, including Best Music Education Product, and for major contributions to music, the Lifetime Achievement Award. Nominations are usually made by colleagues, or even pupils - anyone who recognizes an outstanding achievement or contribution.

Perhaps a teacher turned a music department around, raising standards from tone deaf caterwauling, to perfect pitch harmonies. Or maybe a group of students, after much practice, gave a particularly good performance of a piece of music. The school needn`t have a full capacity orchestra, rivalling the size of the LSO - a committed production by a small group, or even an individual who gave a particularly good solo recital, can be reason enough for entry.

Tutor Hunt has been sponsoring the music department of Woodcroft Junior School for a number of years now. Information about the school can be found here on our resources section, which also contains data (including UCAS reports, pupil to teacher ratios, average grades) about most of the schools throughout the United Kingdom.

In 2015 Woodcroft Junior was shortlisted for the Best School Music Department category. Representatives of the department, along with members of the Tutor Hunt team attended a lavish ceremony at The Grange St. Paul`s Hotel in central London. The awards were presented by Classic FM`s Margherita Taylor, and the 230 guests from throughout the industry enjoyed performances by internationally renowned vocal group VOCES8, along with Yamaha scholar and Guildhall student Jonathan Morris.

At the ceremony Woodcroft Junior School was awarded a trophy for the `Best School Music Department`. As the head teacher, Mr Tallon, and The Music Leader Miss Sherring, collected their Award, no one was more proud of their achievement, and enthusiastic in their applause, than the Tutor Hunt team.

Head Teacher of Woodcroft Junior Mr Tallon, with Musin Leader Miss Shelling, proudly displaying their trophy

After the ceremony Mr Tallon said `It was my aim as Head teacher to bring the highest quality music and arts education and facilities to the Woodcroft community. This award is the culmination of three years` work; developing our choirs, introducing instrumental tuition, implementing state of the art stage and performance facilities, the creating an exciting range of extra-curricular clubs and participating in national events at world class venues. With the help of our dedicated staff we are raising the confidence and self-esteem of all pupils through music and the Arts so they can benefit from the highest aspirations in life`

Learning music certainly has a number of academic benefits - Mary Luehrisen, the executive director of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) has stated:

`A music-rich experience for children of singing, listening and moving is really bringing a very serious benefit to children as they progress into more formal learning,`

Language development has long been known to be enhanced by exposure to music. Luehrisen when on to say:

`When you look at children ages two to nine, one of the breakthroughs in that area is music`s benefit for language development, which is so important at that stage,`

The Children`s Music Workshop have conducted studies that suggest regular exposure to music, and especially having children actively engaged in making music, can greatly aid their linguistic skills.

`Recent studies have clearly indicated that musical training physically develops the part of the left side of the brain known to be involved with processing language, and can actually wire the brain`s circuits in specific ways. Linking familiar songs to new information can also help imprint information on young minds,`