Faye Oakland is OHMI’s new Music-Makers Manager and will play an integral part in raising awareness about OHMI amongst the music hubs and empower music teachers to better understand the needs of their disabled pupils and how they might best serve those needs with adapted musical instruments and enabling equipment.
Here Faye tells us why she has joined the OHMI family.
“I’m not entirely sure where my love of music came from but I started playing the tenor horn aged around 10 and joined a brass band in Flitwick, Bedfordshire where I spent my childhood. I studied Music first at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and later at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama before studying for a PGCE at Birmingham City University. My early career was spent as a music teacher in Sutton-in-Ashfield and as Head of Music in a Nottingham school.
It probably wasn’t until I joined Nottingham Music Service, where I spent ten years, that I really became aware of the disparity of access to music making. I was part of the Government-funded ‘In Harmony’ project which increased the number of whole class ensemble teaching time from 45 minutes to two hours each week, with a particular focus on bringing together children likely to be excluded from music for reasons of deprivation.
That passion to help ensure that no child is swept aside because of circumstance is something that I will bring to my new role at OHMI.
I’ve known the charity for a number of years now. As a senior leader at Nottingham’s music hub, I was involved in OHMI’s pilot project to introduce adapted musical instruments into schools. It’s clear to me that nothing ever stands in their way when it comes to making sure that, no matter how complex their disability, no child is denied the right to participate in music lessons.
First identifying the needs of a disabled child and then finding them the most appropriate solution is a really time-intensive process so an important part of my role as OHMI’s new Music-Makers Manager is to make sure the music hubs have all the skills and resources – developed by the charity over so many years – at their disposal.
It could be that the only adaptation a disabled child needs is a straightforward trumpet or trombone stand to allow them to play a brass instrument one-handed. If music teachers understand how to assess those needs and how and where they can source such stands, it empowers them to self-serve when it comes to implementing the solution. Not relying on OHMI to find solutions in such instances means it frees up the charity’s time to work on the cases of children with more complex needs or where there is a need for a new development, at which point it will call on its network of instrument makers for support. A perfect example is the case of a recent child who was unable to reach the valves of a trumpet owing to a disability where their forearms are very short and their hands bent at a particular angle. Assessing the needs of such children is best addressed through an OHMI visit so wherever else we can help music hubs to find their own solutions, means we can scale up when it comes to addressing more complex cases.
“From my earlier experiences of working with OHMI when I was a senior leader at the Nottingham Music Hub, it was clear that nothing stands in the charity’s way when it comes to making sure a disable child can participate fully in class. My role as OHMI Music-Makers Manager is to make sure that there are solutions in place for a disabled child ahead of the September return to school so that there are no awkward first sessions where a music teacher is unaware of a child’s needs until they meet them and then are scrambling around for a quick solution.
“It may take some years yet but we want it to become an entirely natural process that a disabled child’s needs are assessed ahead of time and that their chance to make music is no longer considered an afterthought.”
Learn more about OHMI Music Makers at: www.ohmi.org.uk/teaching
“I’m not entirely sure where my love of music came from but I started playing the tenor horn aged around 10 and joined a brass band in Flitwick, Bedfordshire where I spent my childhood. I studied Music first at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and later at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama before studying for a PGCE at Birmingham City University. My early career was spent as a music teacher in Sutton-in-Ashfield and as Head of Music in a Nottingham school.
It probably wasn’t until I joined Nottingham Music Service, where I spent ten years, that I really became aware of the disparity of access to music making. I was part of the Government-funded ‘In Harmony’ project which increased the number of whole class ensemble teaching time from 45 minutes to two hours each week, with a particular focus on bringing together children likely to be excluded from music for reasons of deprivation.
That passion to help ensure that no child is swept aside because of circumstance is something that I will bring to my new role at OHMI.
I’ve known the charity for a number of years now. As a senior leader at Nottingham’s music hub, I was involved in OHMI’s pilot project to introduce adapted musical instruments into schools. It’s clear to me that nothing ever stands in their way when it comes to making sure that, no matter how complex their disability, no child is denied the right to participate in music lessons.
First identifying the needs of a disabled child and then finding them the most appropriate solution is a really time-intensive process so an important part of my role as OHMI’s new Music-Makers Manager is to make sure the music hubs have all the skills and resources – developed by the charity over so many years – at their disposal.
It could be that the only adaptation a disabled child needs is a straightforward trumpet or trombone stand to allow them to play a brass instrument one-handed. If music teachers understand how to assess those needs and how and where they can source such stands, it empowers them to self-serve when it comes to implementing the solution. Not relying on OHMI to find solutions in such instances means it frees up the charity’s time to work on the cases of children with more complex needs or where there is a need for a new development, at which point it will call on its network of instrument makers for support. A perfect example is the case of a recent child who was unable to reach the valves of a trumpet owing to a disability where their forearms are very short and their hands bent at a particular angle. Assessing the needs of such children is best addressed through an OHMI visit so wherever else we can help music hubs to find their own solutions, means we can scale up when it comes to addressing more complex cases.
“From my earlier experiences of working with OHMI when I was a senior leader at the Nottingham Music Hub, it was clear that nothing stands in the charity’s way when it comes to making sure a disable child can participate fully in class. My role as OHMI Music-Makers Manager is to make sure that there are solutions in place for a disabled child ahead of the September return to school so that there are no awkward first sessions where a music teacher is unaware of a child’s needs until they meet them and then are scrambling around for a quick solution.
“It may take some years yet but we want it to become an entirely natural process that a disabled child’s needs are assessed ahead of time and that their chance to make music is no longer considered an afterthought.”
Learn more about OHMI Music Makers at: www.ohmi.org.uk/teaching
"From my earlier experiences of working with OHMI when I was a senior leader at the Nottingham Music Hub, it was clear that nothing stands in the charity's way when it comes to making sure a disabled child can participate fully in class. My role as OHMI Music-Makers Manager is to make sure that there are solutions in place for a disabled child ahead of the September return to school so that there are no awkward first sessions."
Donate to OHMIThere are so many disabled people who are desperate to play music with their peers. We can help to make that happen – but we can only do that with the wonderful support of our funders and donors.
As our instruments have to be hand-made by experts, they can only be produced in small numbers and are therefore expensive. Every little really does help.
|
Contact usIf you have a query or wish to contact us, please use the contact form available here.
You can also write to us: The OHMI Trust, 29 Woodbourne Road, Harborne, Birmingham B17 8BY |
Subscribe to our NewsletterIf you would like to join our mailing list and keep up to date with the latest news, please complete the form available here.
|
Privacy and Cookies Notice | Complaints Policy
All content © OHMI - Enabling Music-Making for Physically Disabled People
The OHMI Trust is a registered charity (Registered in England and Wales Charity No. 1143623, Scotland Charity No. SC052047).
Registered office: 29 Woodbourne Road, Harborne, Birmingham, B17 8BY
All content © OHMI - Enabling Music-Making for Physically Disabled People
The OHMI Trust is a registered charity (Registered in England and Wales Charity No. 1143623, Scotland Charity No. SC052047).
Registered office: 29 Woodbourne Road, Harborne, Birmingham, B17 8BY