Learning made fun

The British Franchise Association and Smaller Franchises

AFTER three years of membership, Musical Minis isn't renewing its membership of the British Franchise Association (BFA). This isn't a decision we have taken lightly, and I wanted to explain our reasons. The BFA undertakes a very useful role for the franchise industry as a whole but I'm sad to say, for a business our size we have to look beyond this to the specific advantages and benefits we can gain through our membership. That's the reality for most small businesses and that's the reason behind our exit.

Musical Minis was delighted to be accepted as full members of the BFA in 2008 after stringent checks that our business matched the standards required to be allowed in. Our Franchise Agreement, business plan, accounts and training programme were among business elements thoroughly investigated.

Teach First - What Would You Change Competition

EMILY, my 17 year old daughter, decided to enter the Teach First 'What would you change' competition. She has agreed that I can share her entry with you. Emily has been brought up with the values and philosophy I consider to be essential and which I have based the Musical Minis programme on. I am delighted that these have now become important to her, especially the fact that she wants every child to achieve its full potential. Here is Emily's entry:-

"There are many hugely controversial and important issues surrounding education which need to be tackled. The one I personally believe most prominently needs addressing is Key Stage 2 Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) which are doing so much damage to our children’s future. I propose to abolish these futile tests which are stopping imaginative, energetic and excited learners getting the stimulation and enjoyment they need and want.

The problems the Government is trying to solve through SATs are not going away with these unnecessary tests. If they were then a horrific 35% of 11 year olds would not be starting Secondary School without the basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills. Therefore, there is an obvious problem to which SATs do not appear to be the answer.

The word educate is derived from the Latin word ‘educare’ meaning to draw out. Teaching therefore is not just about imparting knowledge or teaching facts; it is taking what the children already have and inspiring them to use this inbuilt knowledge to the best of their ability so they can flourish as individuals. This role simply cannot be fulfilled when teachers have to “teach for the test” to children that are learning for the test. It is therefore hardly surprising that SATs are one of the most unpopular education reforms in the UK with 4,005 schools in England boycotting the tests in 2010.

Musical Minis in video - it's all about fun

There's a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure that the children who come along to Musical Minis have an awful lot of fun.

Sometimes people get the impression we are all about teaching young children to learn instruments. But we are most certainly not as you can see from the video above.

But what this fun can help a child do, includes:

• Develop language and co-ordination to communicate well 
• Share stories and songs
• Meet new friends
• Grow in confidence by joining in activities in a relaxed group atmosphere
• Get creative exploring instruments, sounds, rhythm and movement

Books for children (and parents) in Authors for Japan auction

YOU can snap up some once in a lifetime offers for children and teenagers who love reading in an auction to help people devastated by recent events in Japan. 

There also some 'money can't buy' items open for bids for fans of modern popular fiction for grown-ups thanks to the support of some 'big name' authors.

Journalist and blogger Keris Stainton has organised the Authors for Japan project for the Red Cross.

Am I the only one who never spring cleans?

CLEANING is something I neither enjoy nor am I good at, so in a bizarre kind of way I was quite pleased to see a survey commissioned by Rentokil, which revealed that almost one quarter of the UK population spring cleans less than once a year.

I honestly can say that I have never spring cleaned!  I do realise this makes me sound awful. But my my house is clean -- honest! Any type of pests freak me out, especially mice and rats, so I certainly will do whatever I can to keep them out.

Running a business, Musical Minis, as well as being a mum meant I quickly realised that I couldn't do everything at both work and home. Cleaning was a duty I was really happy to delegate, so I've always taken on the services of a cleaner. My house does get cleaned regularly - weekly by the cleaner and inbetween by me, Rob and the kids. Periodically, but not as often as we should, we do clean out cupboards, light fittings etc. although it's not a spring clean.

A Day In The Life of Our Buckingham Franchisee

A GUEST blog by Amanda Perkins,the Buckingham franchisee, about her typical day.

I usually wake up about 7am and try to get in the shower before my little toddler, Niamh, wakes up. Niamh is 19 months old now and once she is awake and out of her cot, it’s all go! Once I am dressed and ready, Niamh and I go downstairs for breakfast. Niamh always gets very messy at most meal times so I don’t dress her for the day until after breakfast. My husband, Toby, rolls out of bed about 7.40am and takes our dog, Lucy, for a walk, before he gets ready and goes to work about 8.30am. Toby usually loads up my car with everything I need for class in the morning, so I have to be organised and leave everything ready by the door the night before.

By 9am Niamh and I are in the car and on the way to the child minders, Pippa. Niamh goes to Pippa’s house on Tuesday, Wednesday and half a day on Thursday. She loves Pippa and her daughter, Grace and enjoys all the activities they get up to. Niamh still goes to Musical Minis in Grange Park on a Monday with me when my mum very kindly assists me. Once Niamh is dropped off I head off to my first class. As my region covers Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire I could be teaching locally in Milton Keynes or have a 45 minute drive to my furthest class in Weedon Bec. I teach private classes, Sure Start Children’s Centres and in nurseries. Once I get to the venue I cart all my equipment in such as my MP3 player with speakers, crate full of puppets, whistles, parachute/ or bubble machine or/ footballs, and a large box of instruments for the little ones to play with. I always ensure my instruments are cleaned with anti- bacterial wipes for class, especially with all the bugs and colds going around in the winter. My whistles are also sterilised in Milton after every class. All we need in a venue is a table to set up and access to power. It only takes about 5 minutes to set up and be ready to start the class.

Pancake Making

 

MY 20 year old son Alex and his girlfriend, Charlotte, decided to make pancakes. I did suggest buying a mix but Alex insisted they don't taste as good. As you can see from the photo the result wasn't  how I remember making pancakes - they tasted alright though! The kitchen floor also suffered a bit from a covering of flour and sugar!

After the excitement we settled for sugar and lemon on the pancakes. What's your families favourite topping?

Have fun pancake making!

Franchise Meeting 2011

Last Saturday we held our annual Franchise Meeting at the Hilton Metropole NEC in Birmingham. Despite the huge amount of work that goes into both the preparation and follow up to the meeting, it's a day I really look forward to each year.

On the Friday afternoon we drove to Birmingham, after packing the car with everything the franchisees had ordered from us, so they could benefit from not having to pay postage. Thankfully, my major panic this year that everything wouldn't fit into the car, was unfounded! Once we've arrived, the car is unloaded and the room set up, the excitement of seeing everyone again begins. 

I speak to my franchisees at least once a month, email them regularly and see most of them during the year; however, meeting up with everyone together is great. I consider my franchisees as extended family - I know about their lives outside of Musical Minis and they know about mine. Franchisees often come with husbands and children - it's really lovely to see how the children have grown over the year and for Musical Minis to be as much part of their lives as it is for my own children.

A few franchisees stayed in the hotel on the Friday night and we met them for coffee. As we pack so much in on the day of the meeting it was really great to have time to spend with these franchisees just chatting about life in general.

The annual Franchise Meeting provides an opportunity for us to all work together to achieve the most across our franchise network. Unfortnately, this year we had a few franchisees not being able to attend on the day due to illness. As usual franchisees were provided with statistical and analytical information - each franchisee is given 10 different graphs showing their own franchise as compared to the franchise as a whole in relation to members, income etc. This year we were all delighted that there has been a steady increase in the number of children attending and the amount of income generated by Musical Minis as a whole. There has been a noticeable increase in the amount of both classes and contract work being run, across the franchise network.

Franchisees know it's their meeting and we cover aspects of the business they wish us to - this year due to popular demand, we concentrated on marketing and in particular social media (we had an outside speaker for this). The only flaw in our plan was that we had assumed the Hilton would have WIFI in it's meeting rooms - we were wrong!

As usual, the meeting seemed to be over so quickly. It takes the whole day but so much is discussed that time passes really fast. Franchisees manage to relax, catch up with and meet new franchisees over coffee and lunch breaks.The ideas and views which are shared, result in everyone leaving feeling positive about the future. Off the back of this, franchisees are encouraged to set themselves objectives for the year ahead and to share these with me so that I can support them in achieving them. They can decide whether to expand their activities or just to keep going as before - a key aspect of being a Musical Minis franchisee is that we allow each franchisee to set their own targets and don't force any upon them.

It's now over a week since the Franchise Meeting and I still have a bit of sorting out to do. The minutes have all been written and circulated. Franchisees have been reminded of the things they need to follow up on and we are aware of what we need to do. In fact, this year we've been super efficient and have already made quite an impact on the items we needed to follow up on.

I find the annual meetings inspiring and from the feedback received, it seems that the franchisees do too. I feel very lucky to have a lovely team of franchisees who I really do like; both to work with and as people. It makes it all so worthwhile.

St. David's Day 2011 Celebrations in South Wales

SOUTH Wales Musical Minis are celebrating St. David's Day this week in all their classes.

There is a seasonal story, inflating daffodils and welsh cakes. Children are invited to dress up in Welsh costume.

Come along and join in the fun!

Email jo@musicalminis.co.uk for further information

An Evening With Cadburys

LAST Thursday night I was really excited to be invited to 'an evening with Cadburys' for bloggers.

The evening was to launch Race Season, which is all about finding the fastest people in Britain, people who are unbelievably fast at everyday tasks. It is part of the Spots v Stripes campaign, which is a two year long project that's been put together to support the Cadbury 2012 Olympic and Paralympic sponsorship. Cadburys are the official treat providers at the Olympic Games.

I took Emily, my 17 year old daughter, along as my guest. Emily is always up for an evening of fun especially when chocolate is involved! Over welcome drinks and canapes we had to decide whether to be a Spot or a Stripe - we both chose to be Spots. It was great to meet other bloggers some of whom I had already connected with on Twitter or read their blogs but had never met in person.