The Health for Life programme promotes an ethos and environment which encourages a proactive approach to developing a healthy lifestyle.

We focus on growing food, healthy eating and cooking, physical activity and try to involve families as much as possible in the process.

Education Advisers will work with schools to use the curriculum to embed an understanding of how to achieve a healthy lifestyle.

The Health For Life Programme has:

• Won the national award from FDF in Health and Wellbeing
• Featured at the International Symposium on Healthy Lifestyles, Granada 2013 & Chicago 2016
• Won the Regional Big Tick for Developing Sustainable Communities (twice)
• Was shortlisted as a finalist in two national Health and Wellbeing awards.

By working with lots of schools we are able to share good practice and give you lots of ideas and support. Find out which schools have taken part so far, here.

Our Cookathon – 2018

On 23rd October, our Health For Life schools took part in a cookathon to promote healthy living. The cooking is demonstrated by award winning chef Marcus Bean. You can watch the video and download the recipes, below.

At Services For Education, our mission is simple: to use the power of learning and of music to create and build confidence amongst children, young people, adults and communities.

That mission is exemplified by our charitable projects. One project that we are particularly proud of is our Community Choir.

From its inception in May 2018, it has been wonderful to see the choir grow and flourish.

In January 2018, our Head of Music, Stuart Birnie, was approached by a producer at BBC WM based in Birmingham asking if we would be interested in collaborating with them and a community choir in Wolverhampton for their BBC Dementia Awareness week.

The remit was, to form a choir (approx 50 strong) and to launch it in May as part of a BBC WM project in the Community based around dementia and raising the awareness of living with dementia.

The collaboration between ourselves and a community choir based in Wolverhampton was to be a 7 week project culminating in a performance if possible. We launched the sign up on BBC Radio WM’s Sonny & Shay show and underwent dementia friends training. The choir was around 45 in total from Birmingham and about 40 from Wolverhampton.

Rehearsals were led separately over 7 weeks and it was remarkable to see the journey some of the members made. We had an age range of 16-91 and everyone who turned up saw the sessions as a social building exercise and a great way of making new friends and talking about their stories.

In the meantime, we organised for the choirs to collaborate on some massed songs with the view of performing in Symphony Hall foyer as part of our pre-concert performances at our Services For Education Youth Proms Series in Symphony Hall during five nights in July.

Unbeknown to the choir, they were also going to be singing on the stage of Symphony Hall!

The choirs sung together beautifully in the foyer whilst being filmed for the BBC and then went on to sing in our first Youth Prom in July 2018 on Symphony Hall stage that same evening.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience and never thought for one minute they would be able to do such a thing.

Since then, Services For Education has kept the choir running on Wednesday evenings at Holt Court in Aston and this has been important to us as a service to continue bearing in mind the enjoyment and confidence it has brought to the members.

A lovely quote from one of our members….

“I joined the community choir having previously been involved with the Dementia Choir. I enjoyed that experience so much that I was hoping there would be an opportunity to continue!

What I enjoy about being part of the community choir, is simply the opportunity to do something that is fun and uplifting. We are a really diverse group and I love the camaraderie, the respect for one another and the development….it may not have sounded like it, but Emma (conductor) has done an amazing job in really getting us to think visually about music, so that we can collectively produce a more cohesive sound as a group.

This is an amazing accomplishment given that many of us including myself don’t read music and only ordinarily sing into shampoo bottles in the shower! Our confidence has also grown immensely and again that’s down to Emma’s skill encouragement and tireless patience!

Singing in short makes me feel grounded, happy and energised. I work in quite a pressured environment and singing is a wonderful release! Wednesdays are the highlight of my week even though I do some fabulous things most other nights too!!I think in terms of me as a person,  the choir has simply given me a new love, it’s like the Friday feeling on a Wednesday! When I think of choir, I smile and that says it all really. Professionally, I’m very aware of social prescribing and how well singing fits into this discourse, the community choir is an amazing opportunity for personal development in an environment which is diverse, supportive and fun!

I am feel incredibly privileged and thankful to be given this wonderful opportunity , to be involved in all of the projects that we have and will be, to receive such great teaching and leadership from Emma and of course more latterly to be joined by the wonderful pianist Maria!”

For the past two years, Services For Education’s Music Service has implemented music provision so that all Year 4 pupils at ‘Birmingham Virtual School’ can choose to play a musical instrument – of their choice – and have weekly one-to-one lessons.

Birmingham Virtual School is the Children in Care Education Service (CiCES – formerly the Looked After Children Education Service).

The Birmingham Virtual School coordinates education services for children in care and works in partnership with the child’s school to make sure they are supported at all stages of their education and have the best opportunities to be successful in their adult lives.

Children in care attend schools and education providers across Birmingham and other local authorities. The Virtual School monitors their attendance and achievements and ensures that their education success is a top priority in care planning.

As an organisation, we want to widen our music provision and extend our reach and for the past two years, we have worked in conjunction with the Birmingham Virtual School to enable all Year 4 pupils to have the opportunity of playing and enjoying music.

These lessons form part of their Personal Education Plan (PEP) and all our staff at the Music Service have undergone training to enable this provision to happen.

The results have been stunning – for both children and teachers!

All Year 4 pupils have received lessons across the year culminating in an invitation to take part in a workshop day at The MAC, Birmingham. The children were involved with vocal leaders from Welsh National Opera and Samba sessions from the Music Service.

The day finished with a performance for carers and school staff.

“We are passionate about providing this opportunity to the children as they move into Year 5,” says Stuart Birnie, Head of Music Service at Services For Education.

“We now have around 70 Virtual School pupil learning an instrument and with support from individual donors, this important work will develop and carry on for years to come. Supporting children in their musical journey and letting them flourish in something they show an interest in is really important to us.”

The Year 4 programme is supported through part-funding from the Virtual School and the Music Service has raised funds to enable the children to carry on their music lessons in Year 5.

Find out more about our Music Cares project.

Tiger Tiger, Burning Bright

Music is often the only way those with severe and profound learning difficulties are able to communicate – but until now many people over the age of 18 with special needs have been deprived of creative music and arts activities for special needs groups years.

Enter Tiger Tiger – The Birmingham Sensory Project – a programme of weekly multi-sensory and creative activities for up to forty individuals from Birmingham with severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties and autism.

“The majority of music provision is focussed on school-aged children – which leaves many young adults and their carers struggling to access appropriate activities,”  explains Services For Education’s Inclusion Lead, Sophie Gray.

“Our goal is to use music as a way of opening communication and interaction with the wider world, promoting motor skills, emotional and social outcomes and enabling participants to work together, forge new friendships and gain a sense of achievement. And we also want them to have fun!”

Invitations to take part are being issued to Birmingham day centres, colleges and special schools that offer provision for young people who are 18 years and over.  Recruitment will start as soon as funding for the programme is in place, and will be organised on a first-come, first-served basis.

“We have places for up to 40 participants each year with the opportunity available for individuals to continue engaging over subsequent years if they wish.  We reckon that half of any year’s cohort will continue to the following year – so we expect to engage up to 80 individuals across three-years.”

A small charge of £5 per session will cover some of the costs of the programme and encourage participants to commit to engaging with the programme over the course of the year.

“We want to make this accessible to all regardless of financial circumstances but have learnt from experience that a small charge gives the activities a value thus reducing the likelihood of individuals dropping in and out of weekly sessions and ultimately improving the continuity and development of the creative experience for all involved,” says Sophie.

“We’ll also offer volunteering observation sessions for local musicians and students interested in doing this kind of work.  That will help secure the future of and expand our pool of practitioners – as well as helping to spread the word of the work that is happening, its benefits and impact.”