Awards for Young Musicians

Giving talent a chance
teacher and student playing the trumpet

Music teachers

After we discovered that a major issue for many young people can be the limited confidence among music leaders (whether class teachers in schools, freelance and community musicians etc.) in how to identify young people’s musical potential, we created a major online resource on the Youth Music Network website called How do you spot musical potential? 

Another key factor that affects the quality of teaching provision is how to support and nurture this potential once it’s been identified. This is largely because professional development for music leaders, whether they’re working in or out of school, tends not to focus on this issue. AYM offers support in a number of ways through our provision of:

  • a flexible training model for music leaders/teachers
  • the development of a series of film resources, that can be used both within and beyond training.

Music leaders and teachers say: 

“I feel much more confident about identifying gifted and talented children,
especially the ones whom you might not expect to be.”

“I learned that I need to reflect upon how I judge children to be
talented in music: they need to be judged individually, with their different
experiences and backgrounds taken into account.”

“I learned how important it is to spot children with talent so their needs are
best catered for and they have the opportunity to reach their potential.”