Encouraging Children to Perform in Public Without Fear

My Background Joined a brass band and started playing the cornet when I was 6 years old. At 7 years old played solo for the first time. Spent many years contesting at national level with the band. Played drums in a rock band. Studied a Bachelors Degree in Music at Southampton University. Played lead trumpet in an instrumental Ska band.

Relevance to St George’s School I love performing and want to encourage children to feel the same. Played with many people who were terrified of performing. An elderly principal horn player taking a small bottle of whisky on stage. School friends who failed ABRSM grades through fear. Colleagues at university who were highly talented musicians that nobody ever heard play. The lead singer of our rock band who failed her Spanish oral exam because she could not speak in front of the class. When I entered teaching I wanted to use these experiences to give ALL children the ability to think about ways to overcome fear. Thinking skills that they can pass on to others throughout their life.

Six Areas of Challenge. Inclusion of Children of all Abilities 1. Skills to deal with the fear of performing. 2. Challenging children who have no fear (but have low ability). 3. Challenging children who have high ability to become leaders. 4. Thinking skills to help self and peer evaluation. 5. To work as a team in supporting and encouraging each other. 6. Encouraging children affected by nerves to perform again.

Skills to deal with the fear of performing. Because of the emphasis on performance at St George’s, most children have performed at least 12 times when they arrive in year 2. As a result many children do not have inhibitions of performing so we don’t discuss fear unless necessary. Children with fear are taught to look at something in the room which is above the audience and talk or sing to that. Ralou. Marta and Lara.

Challenging children who have no fear (but have low ability). It is important to remember that they usually do not know that they have low ability when singing (providing nobody tells them). Overcoming timing and pitch issues.

Challenging children who have high ability and no fear to become leaders. Become a leader. Deeper and critical thinking skills through key questions? Are we doing our best? How can we improve ? Challenging children to raise achievement to the highest level.

Thinking skills to help self and peer evaluation. Developing self-evaluation through key questions. Developing peer evaluation. Teacher evaluation to support peer and self-evaluation. Visual graph to show evaluation of the group as a whole.

To work as a team in supporting and encouraging each other. Promoting thinking skills to be part of a team, especially in difficult times. Teacher self-evaluation critical at this point. Concentrating on the positive. Example from last year. Evaluation of last performance directly before next performance. Key questions. Promoting self-awareness and responsibility. Challenging them to aim for perfection. (Helping to raise standards to the highest level) Visual images to support thinking skills for performance.

Encouraging children affected by nerves to perform again immediately. Teacher questioning and support for children. Rasmus.

Summary A rich and full curriculum with many opportunities to perform. Using thinking skills before/ while practising. Using thinking skills before, during and after performance. Providing children with the thinking skills necessary to deal with unknown situations. Using thinking skills to help children in the aftermath of an uncomfortable situation during performance. Constantly encouraging children to raise achievement.