The Regent's School, Pattaya is an international school with 1,000 students, age range 3-18, with a typical class size of 20 students.

20-30% of students are involved in instrumental/vocal tuition, and 30-40% are involved in extra-curricular music projects.

Director of Music Stephen Tomlinson began Musical Futures in 2007 after hearing about it from a colleague in England, and currently approximately 80 students are involved in Musical Futures (notably the informal learning model) activity.

"The idea of allowing students to bring in music of their own choice really sold this project to me. Working in an international school we have students from a variety of different cultural backgrounds. By allowing them to bring in music of their own choice it allowed them the opportunity to sing in their native tongue. This alone had such a positive effect on their music lessons and the process of making music that no real extra encouragement was needed.

I did play them original recordings of songs followed by cover versions of the same songs, to show them how songs could be altered effectively when covered.

We have resourced Musical Futures by trying to make a drum kit, guitar amp, bass amp and keyboard amp available in each classroom and practice room.

After we introduced Musical Futures the GCSE uptake did increase, however it has dropped again this year. However the standard of our annual Battle of the Bands competition has improved, and more students have started using the practice rooms at lunchtime.

Music has always been a popular subject at The Regent's, but when teaching Musical Futures the atmosphere in the department relaxes. I'm very interested in looking at some of the classical resources, as I believe allowing students to learn and experiment with these classic pieces is a real learning opportunity.

I feel more comfortable teaching in this way, and I feel our students gain more as well. A favourite saying in our school is 'step out of your comfort zone', and that's what you have to do when teaching Musical Futures for the first time. I believe as teachers we should always be looking at different ways to deliver our lessons to keep us energised. But it's not really about us, it's about the students - and watching them respond and work within the Musical Futures format should be reward enough."

sjtommo1@yahoo.co.uk