Charanga

Charanga is the technology partner of choice for over 70 Local Authority Music Services and their Music Education Hubs. Lancashire Music Service is working closely with Charanga to help children and young people, Instrumental Teachers and schools benefit from advances in music education technology. The digital support programmes we're running throughout 2012-13 combine innovative technology with rich music content including music from famous bands and artists, to provide exciting and contemporary teaching and learning experiences for children and their Music Teachers. Charanga's approach to digital resource development focuses on helping teachers to engage children in a contemporary way and meeting children's digital expectations. Training and CPD for teachers around the digital resources concentrates on helping them use the resources in a pedagogically sound way. By making the resources stimulating and easy to use, we try to leave teachers able to concentrate on the important things: ensuring good musical teaching and learning; and making sure that all children are able to participate fully and make good progress. For children, the online learning of Charanga Music World draws inspiration from successful children's websites like Club Penguin and Moshi Monsters. By embedding musical instrument learning and practising activities in an exciting online world of avatars and games, we want to encourage children to practise more between lessons so that they progress more quickly through the early stages of learning. Charanga's partnership approach with Music Services and Music Education Hubs is to provide them with a customisable and locally-directed digital teaching and learning capability. This enables partners to retain local control and ownership of technology which encourages local innovation; to access national digital best practice which helps to raise standards; and to achieve national economies of scale which reduces costs.