Parents & Carers
Find out how we can work together to support your child’s journey.
There are many ways you can support your child:
-
Try to get your child to make a regular commitment to their activity and their practice;
-
Encourage and reinforce their success by offering positive feedback, acknowledging their improvement and complimenting their growing ability;
-
Ensure they have the right equipment / their musical instrument is in working order;
-
Encourage them to join groups when they are able, so that they can have the enjoyment of music and arts as a social activity;
-
Show an active interest in their studies and keep in contact with their teacher.
Keeping In Contact
We use SpeedAdmin's Study Plan as a our main communication platform for all young musicians and artists taking part in our programmes. The features of SpeedAdmin's Study Planner are:
-
It allows CMA to communicate directly with young people outside session times while meeting Croydon Council GDPR compliance and Safeguarding policies
-
Communications can use a combination of artistic forms
-
Young artists can upload their work, receive feedback from CMA staff and our cultural partners, and create a digital portfolio to evidence their development
-
Parents and carers will be able to view all communications and their children’s portfolios
CMA staff will use Study Plan to guide young artists on their journey of discovery and development. As a service within Croydon Council we follow safeguarding and privacy protocols to keep children safe.
Permissions
When your child uses the Study Planner chat function you will be able to see all communications between CMA and your child. All communications will also be visible to CMA's Office Team, and Designated Safeguarding Leads to ensure full transparency of communication between teacher, parent and student. We hope you will wish to see the work they have uploaded and our comments.
The consent you give will be for your child’s work to be visible to our staff only. We shall ask further consent from you and from the young artist before any work is shared with others.
Star Awards
Star Award is a new qualification developed by Croydon Music and Arts (CMA) . It offers an opportunity for students to receive an award through learning with others and being assessed individually by a teacher in school or in an out of school class. The five levels of the award aim to:
- Encourage young artists to make progress across Key Stages 2 and 3 which can lead to specialist vocational accreditation and training and GCSE
- Provide a common assessment framework for school teachers and those leading out of school activity to support the development of young artists
Achieving a Star Award
An award is achieved by a young artist completing assessment tasks and meeting assessment criteria for that level. The teacher submits:
- A record of the young artist having met the criteria for Performing and Creative Skills and Conceptual Knowledge
- A record of the young artist completing Assessment Tasks which provide evidence for meeting Evaluation criteria and Personal Development outcomes.
- An audio or video recording of a final performance which is sent to CMA for moderation.
- An audio or video recording of a small improvisation or composition (with or without a backing track) sent to CMA for moderation.
Find out how our work supports their mental health and well-being