We finally unleashed the Rockhaq school music reviews blog at South Nottingham College this week. And the kids’ verdict? “It’s sick!”, apparently. We’re happy with that 😆

We’re also very pleased to say that Rockhaq is already engaging teenage boys to write music reviews, at home, in their own time, from personal choice! Not bad going in our first three days.

Going into more detail: three classes of students will start to use Rockhaq at South Nottingham College, with more to follow. There are a mixture of music, media and sports journalism students who will be using the system and for different purposes. Most of the teachers will embed Rockhaq into their teaching curriculum as it slots in very easily to different learning requirements that have been specified by various examination boards. We’ll add more precise information about who, what, how and where as our pilot continues and we gather more information to make up statistical case studies.

What are the good points about Rockhaq from the teachers’ perspective?
  • Their students find it very easy to use – in fact, some students have already shown interest in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) skills, or how to get their blogs to the top of Google.
  • The potential to to improve literacy skills is great, mainly because students are engaged to write about music that they love.
  • The learning experience is unique and the benefits for music and media students are very wide ranging – from providing them with practical experience and insights into careers, to showcasing their own skills and getting feedback on their own music.

And the music, media and sports journalism students seem enthusiastic so far. We’ve spotted some very talented young journalists and music producers already – so you’re bound to see some of their work featured on Rockhaq shortly.

We’re also going to be running lots of news, features, case studies, competitions and more across our website and Facebook and Twitter social media channels starting from NOW. To keep up, just follow us on this site, our channels or – even better – get our spam-free newsletter. It’s the easiest way to find out what is going on and how you can get your students or kids involved.

We’ll be announcing our latest pilot colleges shortly too – if you fancy joining our limited pilot before our final spots fill up then get in touch and we’ll call you back. Simples.

For now, it’s over and out.