Bournemouth and Poole College is advertising for a new Wessex Starter Strings/Wessex Middle Strings Conductor

(Post made at 1842 UK BST time on 3 Sep 2018 in a personal capacity. Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).An advert was placed last Wednesday (29 August 2018) at https://www.educationweekjobs.co.uk/jobboard/cands/jobview.asp?v=7841343.For some reason the closing date is only a week later (Wednesday 5 September 2018, so now only 2 days away).A copy of … Continue reading Bournemouth and Poole College is advertising for a new Wessex Starter Strings/Wessex Middle Strings Conductor →

The Bournemouth and Poole College’s poor compliance with the Freedom of Information Act continues, having failed to reply to internal review requests after almost a year

(Post made at 1618 UK BST time on 6 Jun 2018 in a personal capacity. Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).The Bournemouth and Poole College is extremely late in responding to two Freedom of Information Act internal reviews:How often have fire drills taken place at the Centre for Wessex Young Musicians? (see here).andDiscrepancies in … Continue reading The Bournemouth and Poole College’s poor compliance with the Freedom of Information Act continues, having failed to reply to internal review requests after almost a year →

Credit where credit is due: the College have finally corrected their website

A thank you to Bournemouth and Poole College who corrected their website earlier this week: it no longer says that my wife conducts the Wessex Starter and Middle Strings (which is good because she stopped doing that just over a year ago).

A year ago, Bournemouth and Poole College and the Centre for Wessex Young Musicians carried out an act of senseless destruction, which was not in the interests of the children in my opinion

(Post made at 1727 UK BST time on 11 May 2018 in a personal capacity. Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).An act of destruction11 May 2017: an act of destruction at the College and the Centre for Wessex Young MusiciansIn my view, a year ago (on 11 May 2017), Bournemouth and Poole College … Continue reading A year ago, Bournemouth and Poole College and the Centre for Wessex Young Musicians carried out an act of senseless destruction, which was not in the interests of the children in my opinion →

More incompetent (unethical?) behaviour (false advertising) by Bournemouth and Poole College/Centre for Wessex Young Musicians

(Post made at 1409 UK BST time on 13 Apr 2018 in a personal capacity. Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).The Bournemouth and Poole College are still advertising the Wessex Starter and Middle Strings courses on their website (see this page) as being conducted by my wife, 11 months after she stopped conducting … Continue reading More incompetent (unethical?) behaviour (false advertising) by Bournemouth and Poole College/Centre for Wessex Young Musicians →

In my opinion, the downplaying of the younger CWYM groups continues

(Post made at 1130 UK time on 06 Mar 2018 in a personal capacity. Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).Further to "The younger groups have got the short straw in the CWYM Summer Concert on 1 July 2017", something which seems to be happening again in the 2018 Summer Concert, there seems at … Continue reading In my opinion, the downplaying of the younger CWYM groups continues →

Something I hope I’ve never adopted as a management style!

(Post made at 1106 UK time on 06 Mar 2018 in a personal capacity. Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).I found the above cartoon (amongst several on the theme of micromanagement) amusing. Managing a team is a challenge, with a balance between delegation and supervising, and I know I've not always got it … Continue reading Something I hope I’ve never adopted as a management style! →

Bournemouth and Poole College: why do the concerns I raise matter?

(Post made at 1046 UK time on 27 Jan 2018 in a personal capacity. Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).This is a follow up to a previous post, Why is this public?Great music education is a partnership between classroom teachers, specialist teachers, professional performers and a host of other organisations, including those from … Continue reading Bournemouth and Poole College: why do the concerns I raise matter? →

The Bournemouth and Poole College’s Wessex Youth Orchestra spent just under £2,000 on extra players for two concerts

(Post made at 1412 UK time on 02 Jan 2018 in a personal capacity. Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests). On 3 December 2016, as still then Chairman of the Society for Wessex Young Musicians (SWYM), I was very surprised to be asked to sign cheques totalling just over £3,000. This included just under … Continue reading The Bournemouth and Poole College’s Wessex Youth Orchestra spent just under £2,000 on extra players for two concerts →

The Bournemouth and Poole College’s Centre for Wessex Young Musicians Facebook page claims it is a charity – I don’t believe it is one

(Post made at 0855 UK time on 02 Jan 2018 in a personal capacity. Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests). The Centre for Wessex Young Musicians (CWYM)'s Facebook page, set up by the Bournemouth and Poole College early in 2017, is at https://www.facebook.com/cwymwyo/.This states that it is a "Charity in Poole, Dorset" (click on the … Continue reading The Bournemouth and Poole College’s Centre for Wessex Young Musicians Facebook page claims it is a charity – I don’t believe it is one →