Comhairle nan Eilean Siar Instrumental Music Service

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar Instrumental Music Service provides music tuition, in a range of instruments, for pupils in every primary and secondary school throughout the island chain, from Lionel in the north right down to Castlebay in the south. 

A blog has been created for the Instrumental Music Service and this contains full information and instructions on how to access and set up Glow, Teams and Vscene, contact details for all Instrumental Music service staff, and in time the blog will also contain other information & news from the music service.

Every primary school has tuition in Gaelic Singing and Piping, and other instruments are taught in primary and secondary schools - dependent on the resources available in each local area. In addition to this, tuition is delivered through the Youth Music Initiative (YMI) to enable the Comhairle to meet the Scottish Government commitment that every child in school will have received one year of music tuition by the time they leave primary school.

During the school closures the CnES Instrumental Music Service will continue to provide instrumental music tuition via video lessons using Vscene. Our Instrumental Music Teachers have set up class teams for their pupils in each school using Microsoft Teams, which is available through Glow. This will be the method of communication between staff & pupils and resources & lesson timetables etc will be posted on those platforms for the pupils to access. All pupils in our schools have a Glow username, email address and password and will be able to access Teams once logged into Glow. If your child is unsure of their Glow details they should contact their school in the first instance for help.

Rhona Johnstone, Musical Development Officer, said: “The Western Isles has a rich cultural heritage and a wealth of musical talent exists amongst those in our schools and living in our communities. Over the years the islands have produced a host of great musicians, many of whom have gone on to become well known household names.

“During the current period of lockdown we are keen to continue the work that normally takes place with the pupils in our schools. We hope that our pupils will progress with their music lessons during this time and continue to develop their musicals skills and experiences.

“With the creation of the blog we look forward to providing you with all the information you need to know about the service and share some of the fantastic work that our pupils achieve with the support of our Instrumental Music Teachers.”

Parents and pupils, find out more about The Instrumental Music Service and Online Music Tuition (Opens in a new window or downloads a file)