THE team at Cardiff and Vale Music Service (CAVMS) don’t claim to have the ability to see into the future, but their decision to develop a new content-rich website just months before the UK was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic has yielded a number of benefits for budding musicians, along with the ‘Digital Innovation of the Year’ accolade at last year’s South Wales Argus Schools & Education Awards.

The site, put together with the help of Icon Creative Design, makes it easy for teachers, administrators, parents and young people from South East Wales to engage.

CAVMS is an independent music service set up in 1993 to supply music tuition across South Wales. Nowadays it’s involved with more than 80 schools and teaches in excess of 2,000 students every week. The service provides peripatetic tutors for the full range of orchestral instruments, along with rock and pop-style keyboards and guitars and voice.

Director of CAVMS David Miller says the new website has made a huge difference to those learning musical instruments over the past year.

“It now includes lots of information and guidelines about learning musical instruments, including a series of videos,” he explains.

“It enables online enrolment for lessons without the need for leaflets and forms.

“We’ve continued to develop the web site over the past year; it’s almost as if we foresaw the need for this just before the pandemic hit.”

Over the past year or so, CAVMS made the most of its online facilities so that music students could continue to make progress with their instruments despite the various lockdowns.

“Within a week we were up and running with our virtual online environment,” David says proudly.

“We had to ensure all the safeguarding provisions and other considerations were in place.

“All in all we were able to maintain around 60% of lessons online, especially when it came to secondary schools, during the lockdowns and we’re now up to 80% and hope to return to 100% once all restrictions are eased.

“With the online lessons, most people found Zoom to be quite user friendly and music friendly.”

CAVMS continues to work with ICON and has recently received a grant, part of which funds the development of a Welsh language part to the website.

For David and the team, one of the advantages of having a strong digital presence is being able to portray a professional image.

“For us it was essential that our site was easy to use, and simple for us to keep up to date,” he says.

“We believe music lesson are important for lots of reasons: music is a wonderfully creative world for young people, particularly at this time. Wider benefits include transferable life skills such as perseverance and team work.

“We look forward to putting Covid behind us and getting back to face to face lessons and ensemble playing.”

The digital innovation category of the South Wales Argus Schools and Education Awards recognises excellence in the use of digital technology. Judges look for evidence that the technology has had a positive impact on educational outcomes of students through its use inside or outside the classroom, supporting teaching and learning directly, or by easing the pressure on teachers and administrators.

A spokesman for Icon said: “Education is one of the most rewarding sectors that we work within.

“It’s fantastic to be recognised for the work that we have been doing for a client such as CAVMS.

“We were over the moon to know that the digital project had been recognised for a South Wales Argus Schools & Education Award.”

South Wales Argus: Schools logo

MONMOUTHSHIRE Building Society is the sponsor of the digital innovation category in the South Wales Argus Schools & Education Awards.

The society opened its doors for business in 1869, with the sole purpose of helping local people save and have a place to call home.

More than 152 years later, it continues to provide local people with savings and mortgages through a network of 23 branches and agencies in Gwent and beyond.

As a mutual building society, our members are at the heart of everything we do.

Unlike banks, the society is owned by members.

With no shareholders, we are free to re-invest profit back into the society to benefit current and future customers.

The society is a major employer in the area, with around 200 colleagues working across our community locations and in our Newport Head Office.

The society has been a host company for the University of South Wales Network 75 programme since 2012, offering students the opportunity to gain handson experience working in their desired sector, whilst completing their degree.

As a local society we’re also passionate about supporting our communities through funding initiatives and sponsorship, volunteering initiatives and offering financial education.

We’re delighted to support the South Wales Argus Schools and Education Awards.

In what has been a challenging 12 months, we are proud to recognise the commitment and dedication everyone in this sector has shown during the COVID-19 pandemic.