Profiles of collaborators
Profiles of collaborators: Germany
The core team of IGS Bertha von Suttner are Anne-Kathrin Böhm and Ulrike Müller who are responsible for the implementation of the project. They are both teachers of Music and are experienced in running Erasmus projects and the implementation in their subject.
Ulrike has taught Music, Physics and Sciences for 18 years at IGS Bertha von Suttner. She developed the ‘BandKlasse’: music classes representing the special music profile of the school based on the First Class Rock idea of Michael Fromm, together with two other music teachers – Nicole Prokzsa and Roland Lehmann – from 2005.
Anne-Kathrin joined the team in 2009. She now leads the music department. Her second subject is History. Both teachers are used to team teaching in their music classes, and experienced in classes with the inclusion of students with special educational needs.
The starting point for their Erasmus+ experience was a Comenius Regio Project with Denmark, in which they participated in 2010-2011. They then decided to focus on the Erasmus+-work with their subject, music. Their philosophy is to give students the opportunity to experience Europe in a special way and to set up special learning opportunities that they would never have without Erasmus+.
Other school staff
During the project there have been involved a range number of English teachers, a Special Needs Teacher and further Music teachers that took part in the mobilities and the development of the lessons for our toolkit. The head department of IGS Bertha von Suttner also maintains the activities of the core team.
External practitioners
The following external practitioners all took part in our students and staff meeting in February 2020 and delivered workshops during this meeting:
Martin Tchiba
Martin is a pianist and composer from Düsseldorf. Besides playing solo recitals and performing chamber music, publications with the content for contemporary music, he is engaged in the field of working with students and integrating new media in music. A music class took part in his project ‘NETZWELLEN’.
Emmerich Smola Musikschule
Since 2017 there is a collaboration with the local music school. There are extracurricular activities in the afternoon led by members of the staff of Emmerich Smola Musikschule and additional workshops in App Music during the regular music lessons. One of the staff members is Meik Landfried, a former student of IGS Bertha von Suttner who was the leader of the IGS musical group, wrote several musicals for this group and now delivers workshops on behalf of the Musikschule at the IGS Bertha von Suttner. Recently he has been specialised in the project ‘app2music’.
Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern
There a long-lasting collaboration of IGS and the local theatre, Pfalztheater. One of the staff members of the Pfalztheater teaches drama at the school and the theatre offers workshops within the framework of its pedagogical programme.
Tobias Urbanczyk
Tobias is a former student of IGS Bertha von Suttner and drummer. He attended and graduated Musicians Institute (MI) in Hollywood as Outstanding Player and played with bands like MINER and different artists and bands in the Pop, R&B and Country genre. Tobias is an instructor and part of the Modern Music School Professionals programme, while also working as a freelance musician. He has given several workshops for the students of IGS Bertha von Suttner’s drum class.
Further reading:
Tobias Urbanczyk
Profiles of collaborators: Hungary
There is a core team working efficiently for to implement the project successfully.
Marianna Budai, teacher of English, has been teaching English for more than twenty years. As Marianna holds a BA in International Communication alongside her BA in Teaching English, she was seeking real-life experience as motivation for the pupils of KJG.
Marianna has participated in numerous eTwinning, Comenius and Erasmus+ partnerships, and as a ruesult has vast experience in running international projects. This is why she has been responsible for ‘Innovate to Create II’ in KJG.
Zita Horváth, teacher of English and German, also contributes to the project. Zita has been teaching German for more than twenty years, and English for five years. As a participant of an international project, she has seen a lot of opporunities to improve in the fields of co-operation and methodology.
Zita was a member of a brass band as a young adult, so she has found it exciting to take part in a project focusing on both English and Music, hoping to find new approaches in cross-curricular areas.
Eszter Mits-Kovács, teacher of Music, is responsible for the Music element of the project. Eszter has been teaching Singing-Music for more than twenty years in various types of schools, including KJG. She has also been teaching subjects in classical music, such as Piano, Solfeggio, Music History and Folk Music, at Kodolányi University for ten years. She represents a high standard of professionalism. She hopes that theoretical knowledge will open up new horizons in the fields of classical music for students. Eszter is also open to new techniques in teaching, so she enjoys the pioneering elements of this project.
Boglarka Bobory-Michna and Daniel Szöllosi, teachers of Literature, are responsible for the spoken word part of the project. Boglárka is a drama instructor as well, and leads the Drama Society of KJG, having won several national prizes for the plays she has directed. Dániel is a musician, too – a lead guitarist and singer in a band – so he has brought his extensive expertise to solve technical issues alongside the spoken word elements.
Other school staff
In the project implementation other staff members have also played an important role. The body of the heads of school assists the core team with the tasks KJG has been responsible for in the project. Teachers in the language department also contribute to the project with their expertise in methodology.
External organisations
Kodolányi University is an external organisation collaborating on the project. The partnership benefited from the cooperation with the university during the research visit to Székesfehérvár. The university contributed to the project by commenting on the shared pedagogical approaches observed in the lessons.
In Hermann László Music School partners had the opportunity to observe how pupils in Hungary can learn music in the framework of curricular and extra-curricular studies, since pupils in Hungarian schools cannot learn to play an instrument. In a school like Hermann László Music School, which is specialised in music, pupils have the opportunity to play in a classical orchestra, brass band or folk ensemble.
Further reading:
Hermann László Music SchoolProfiles of collaborators: Spain
There is a core team teaching in the IES Mossèn Alcover team, inherited from a previous Comenius project and ‘Innovate to Create I’.
Bàrbara Duran Bordoy is one of the teachers who has been present since the very beginning, under the Comenius project framework. She has been working in IES Mossèn Alcover for almost 27 years, combining this alongside working at the Conservatori Superior de les Illes Balears, where she has taught several subjects in the Music Language and Musicology department.
Bàrbara holds degrees in Piano, Music Language and Recorders, as well as a PhD in Arts and Musicology. She is currently the manager of the restoration campaign for the organ in the Convent of Manacor, plays in a recorders consort, called Polissonia (medieval and renaissance music), and organ; as a writer she has published around 13 books, and writes programme notes for the Orchestra of the Balearic Islands and music festivals such as the International Pollença Music Festival.
As a teacher, Bàrbara focused on teaching music in English as well as designing tools to learn about the importance of the immaterial heritage present in many songbooks, world music and contemporary musical events.
Antoni Vanrell Moragues has been teaching English as a Foreign Language for 17 years and has been part of the teaching staff at IES Mossèn Alcover since 2014. He graduated from English Philology at the University of Barcelona in 2003 and, since then, has been training in foreign languages teaching methodologies, mobile technologies, emotional education, mindfulness and yoga.
Antoni is currently the Head of the Foreign Languages Department at IES Mossèn Alcover, and has also been tutoring students on the Teaching Master’s degree at the University of the Balearic Islands for three years. He was part of the core team in the previous Erasmus+ project, ‘Innovate to Create I’, and believes that working in an international environment is enriching and inspiring both for students and teachers.
Àngela Perelló Marín has been teaching Spanish Language and Literature for 20 years, and since 2001 has been part of the staff of IES Mossèn Alcover, where she currently teaches Spanish Language and World Literature in Spanish and English.
Àngela graduated from Spanish Studies and Literature at the University of the Balearic Islands and got a BA in Hispanic Studies from the University of Sheffield. She also participated in an Erasmus+ exchange programme in the Universität Gesamthochschule Paderborn, where she trained especially in translation. She is the Head of the Spanish Language and Literature Department at IES Mossèn Alcover and she is also the co-ordinator for the European-sponsored programme, PAE. She has recently applied for a Reading Plan and Communicative Skills Programme for the school. She is convinced that working with international students and teachers widens individuals’ points of view, and it is essential for opening the mind to multi-culturalism, communicative, linguistic and artistic skills.
Margalida Guiscafré Galmés is a Special Needs teacher, specialising in Communication and Language. She graduated from Primary Education & Special Education at the University of the Balearic Islands in 2013. She has been part of the IES Mossèn Alcover staff since 2016 and is currently the Head of Studies of the first cycle of ESO (secondary compulsory education). She holds a Master’s Degree in Inclusive Education for Special Needs Students.
Margalida participated in an Erasmus+ programme in Rome while studying at university, and that is why she wanted to take part in the previous Erasmus+ project, ‘Innovate to Create I’; she believes that the cultural and linguistic diversity that is present in these type of projects is a source of inspiration and richness for students’ learning.
External organisations
IES Joan Maria Thomàs
Neus Porcel is currently the IES Joan Maria Thomas Headteacher. The PEI gives facilities to all the students that combine secondary and baccalaureate levels with a very demanding programme of studies at the Conservatori. At IES’s premises, students attend the core subjects each year: Catalan Language, Spanish Language, English Language, History, Mathematics; as well as the specific subjects for each year. At the Conservatori, they study Music classes.
Conservatori Professional de les Illes Balears
Josep Alarcón, is the Head of Studies at the Conservatori Professional de les Illes Balears. The Conservatori and IES Joan Maria Thomas collaborate each year in an innovative programme of study, the PEI integrated studies programme. Professional conservatoires in Spain offer a wide range of studies in music: organ, guitar, piano, singing, string instruments, percussion and some other subjects. As well as the instrument subject, students also take music language, harmony, history of music, chamber music, choir and some electives. The Professional Music Grade in Spain is very demanding, so students have to manage a busy schedule each day. The PEI programme allows student to have the subjects better scheduled by combining studies across both the IES and Conservatori premises.
Before the PEI programme, some students began school at IES every day at 8.00am, and finished at 9.00pm at the Conservatori; the PEI allows them to co-ordinate all of their learning activities. This is possible because IES Joan Maria Thomas is about eight minutes’ walk from the Conservatori Professional.
Txema González de Lozoya is an anthropologist, ethnomusicologist and sound artist. He has been working for more than twenty years recording soundscapes around the world, especially in Morocco. He collaborated with IES Mossèn Alcover in a Sound Workshop, where he taught first year baccalaureate students how to record, mix and produce a piece based on soundscapes. The concept was developed initially by the composer and music teacher, Murray Schaffer, and spread among the Music Studies framework around the world.
Profiles of collaborators: Sweden
Emil Gefvert
Emil graduated from Örebro University in 2014 and has been teaching English for about seven years, all of them at Almby skola. Apart from English, Emil also teaches Physical Education. He and Joakim Gillman are part of a group of five English teachers teaching grades 7 to 9 at the school. They have both been responsible for planning and executing the Erasmus+ project for Almby skola.
Joakim Gillman
Joakim graduated from Uppsala University in 1991, meaning that he has been teaching English and Physical Education for 30 years and has the most experience in the Swedish team. He has been working at Almby for six years, and before that for 24 years at another school. He, together with Emil Gefvert, has been responsible for planning and executing the project.
Petter Lobell
Petter graduated from the music university of Örebro in 2000. Ever since then he has been teaching music at different schools, with students from ages 6 to 19 years old. He has also worked with different cultural projects together with drama and art teachers in elementary school, and taught guitar, bass and ensemble at the cultural school of Örebro.
Apart from the above mentioned, a number of additional teachers contributed during the mobility in Sweden.
External practitioners
The Cultural School provides an important opportunity for children to develop further their interests in music, theatre, dance, and art. It is a public school form also run by the municipal and exists in all parts of Sweden but is not obligatory and the lessons are often given in the afternoon and evenings, after the compulsory school. The lessons have a smaller fee and are heavily subsidised by the municipal.
El Sistema
El Sistema started 1975 in Venezuela and is often described metaphorically and philosophically as a method of education based on the idea that teaching orchestral discipline promotes social and intellectual development for the individual and creates alternatives, beyond poverty and street violence and crime. By extension - a better society. Today El Sistema is a worldwide movement and in Örebro it is a part of The Cultural School.
Profiles of collaborators: United Kingdom
Richard Harrison
Richard is Regent High School’s Director of Community Engagement and the project lead for this Erasmus+ project. Access to, and participation in, cultural education are Richard’s personal and professional preoccupations, as well as being a driving idea behind this project.
Having worked in theatres, universities and schools, and with MAs in both arts policy and education, Richard has drawn on his experience to anchor the research in both the formal and non-formal learning spaces. Richard led our previous Erasmus+ project, is a director of the Knowledge Quarter and Chair of Trustees of Camden Spark, Camden's Cultural Education Partnership, as well as a primary school Chair of Governors. Richard is a Cultural Learning Evidence Champion and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Claire Troth
Claire has a degree in Music Education and a Master’s in Education Leadership. Claire has been teaching for 10 years and has been Head of Performing Arts for the last five years. Claire has taught Music, Drama and Dance across Key Stages 3 to 5, and is an advocate of the arts. Prior to teaching, Claire was a professional dancer and a music event facilitator, which saw her travel the world. This sparked Claire’s love of learning and the exploration of music and the arts as a global language. She is interested in investigating how music is taught across Europe and believes that there are no barriers to enjoyment and fun.
Ugo Rosano
Ugo is an Italian music teacher, who relocated in England in 2013. He has a degree in Musicology, obtained in Cremona, the city where the first violin was made in the 1700s, and where Stradivari and Monteverdi were born. During Ugo’s university years, he participated in the Erasmus project as a student, in Heidelberg, Germany. After his university studies, he completed a two-year teaching qualification, plus an extra year for SEN qualification, both for secondary schools. In the UK, Ugo was able to convert his qualifications to receive Qualified Teacher Status, which has allowed him to teach music in secondary schools. After teaching in two schools in East London, Ugo joined Regent High School.
In the past, while still in Italy, Ugo was more involved in musical performances as a singer, which he still does in his spare time. While teaching in Italian secondary schools, Ugo participated in a precursor to Erasmus+, Comenius. That was when Ugo came to England for the first time, in a small town called Leominster. The rest is history.
Justyna Oakman
Justyna graduated from The Foreign Languages Teachers’ College in Wroclaw, Poland, in 2007 and has a BA in English Philology. Justyna also holds an MA in Bilingual Learners in Urban Educational Settings from the Institute of Education, University College London. Justyna attended Karol Szymanowski’s Music School in Oswiecim, Poland, for seven years and learned how to play the piano and guitar. She also studied music theory, singing, and aural skills. Justyna has worked as the EAL Co-ordinator and has taught English as a Second Language to students in various London schools since September 2008.
Anna Kedzior
Anna graduated from the Teacher Training College in Tychy, Poland, in 2002, and has a Diploma in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Anna also has a BA in English Philology from the University of Wroclaw, Poland. She has seven years’ experience of teaching English as a foreign language in Poland both in primary and secondary schools, as well as teaching adults.
Since moving to the UK in 2008, Anna has had experience of being both an EAL Teacher and an EAL Co-ordinator in secondary school.
Roundhouse
The Roundhouse is a cultural behemoth for Camden and beyond. Housed in a former railway engine shed at the heart of the London Borough of Camden, the Roundhouse offers a phenomenal artistic offering alongside a youth programme that gives 11-25 year olds physical and creative space to grow and develop.
As long-standing partners of Regent High School, it is the Roundhouse that inspired our exploration of spoken word and performance poetry as a core element of this project.
Further reading:
The Royal Society of Arts Fellowship
The Royal Society of Arts Blog: Evidence champions are go
Profiles of collaborators: Students from Germany, Hungary, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom
We have collaborated with over 150 students through the life of this project. They have participated in our lessons and workshops, taken part in activities that are new to them, and provided considered feedback throughout. They have been co-collaborators in this journey, and fundamental to the development of the toolkit you are reading. To each of them, we say danke, köszönöm, gracias, tack and thank you!
These profiles were current at the time of writing (summer 2021).
