SiFly health and education, music production

Brownies, Guides and Rainbows

Over the past couple of weeks we have been supporting one of the local groups.

My parents encouraged me to join the cubs as a young lad and it proved a good way to mix with other kids and learn about the outdoors.

Working in St Michael’s church in Skellow was a pure joy as we explored songwriting and beatmaking along with some electro acoustic Jams.

Thanks so much to Gemma and Fiona for inviting us. We met at a local Community gala organised by Well Doncasters’ Lauren Beaumont.

We met some young people who we had worked with previously and it meant a lot to us to witness them flourishing.

When parents get their children to participate in out of School activities they are giving them an opportunity to widen their social circle snd boost opportunities to develop support networks. This is increasingly valuable from a mental health perspective.

So a big thanks to all the parents out there who are putting the effort in, you will be rewarded with healthier more resilient young people.

SiFly #SEND, DJing, health and education

Cura-Care Music Sensory group

“I love bringing him here, it gives him time away from me (mum) and gives him space to be himself.”

So nice to hear one of the mums appreciating the work of Paige and Rachel who share in our passion for supporting young people.

It was encouraging to hear from the ladies that there have been some positive leaps forward today.

Massive thanks to Well Doncaster for supporting us over the last few months and allowing us to work with so many different groups.

The highlight of my day today was just after the photo above, this young fella began to get creative and when he started to do some thing above and beyond, he turned to me and said “high five”

I gave him some skin and we carried on.

Thanks to everyone who who joined us today.

Upcoming sessions this week are.

Woodlands Library from 2.45 Monday, mixed age Askern Shakers from 7.00pm 11 to 16 Monday, Adwick Primary After School Club closed session, Tuesday Bullcroft Memorial Hall from 4.45pm Tuesday 7 to 11 Highfields Boxing Club from 4.45pm on Wednesday mixed age.

Free to join us. See you then

SiFly health and education, music production

Adwick Primary, Askern Shakers, Woodlands Library.

Supercharging development in young people who don’t always engage is an important part of what we do.

At Askern Shakers youth club we worked on communication and respect. The mixed age group worked well. We talked about our connections to music and examined how music can support brain development. Our first visit to Shakers and what an asset for Askern, thanks to Mitchell for inviting us and thanks to Isiasha from Heal Me Happy for passing on our details.

At Woodlands Library we were joined by a group of 10 who had come from the Outwood Academy next door. They wanted to produce a Darkzy style tune, We identified the sounds and techniques and began emulating it using the technology. I explained to them that there would be a challenging journey ahead, but we use state of the art music production equipment, so coupled with our 25 years experience, we are able to get them there fast.

Week 4 of 6 and the Adwick Primary group are coming along as we expected, the initial shyness has become a burgeoning confidence and their coordination physically and socially is an achievement we are proud to play our part in.

The Charity Hub

We have also found time to update our level 3 safeguarding and visited The Charity Hub this week where we met with some local and national organisations and got to share our experiences while learning from theirs. Thanks to Vicki Beevers from The Sleep Charity and Nathan Kennedy from D. I. C. E. for guest speaking. And Brett Riley-Tomlinson and Clynton Johnson for inviting us.

And finally awesome to see our volunteers developing fast and getting a real insight into the research and skills which back up what we do, so big thanks to Dennis and Matt.

Upcoming workshops 👀

Me Project from 2.15 on Sunday Woodlands Library from 2.45 Monday, Askern Shakers from 7.00pm Monday, Adwick Primary School from 2.55 Tuesday, Bullcroft Memorial Hall 4.45pm Tuesday, Highfields Boxing Club 4.45pm Wednesday

SiFly health and education

The Ridge Employability College

An absolute joy to be invited this morning. The college specialises in supporting young people with additional needs in getting ready for employment and further training.

Great to meet up with former colleagues and reconnect with pupils who I worked with over the past 10 years while we have been developing 90 Minute Music.

We worked on communication and talked about how we feel when we are out of our comfort zone. Everyone engaged well and showed respect to myself and each other.

The importance of inclusion within the community is sometimes overlooked, but we share the passion of the staff here as they understand the value of giving opportunities for young people to develop into employment.

Big thanks to Team Ridge for inviting us and can’t wait to work with you again soon.

SiFly health and education

Bentley Myplace Youth Hub

We have been supporting the young people of North Doncaster over the last few weeks.

We began our journey supporting young people nearly 10 years ago at Myplace, which sparked the idea of 90minutemusic. It has been an arduous journey from initial personal adversity, through curiosity about the watermark of potential for marginalised groups, to extensive research and expertise gained which was honoured in 2021 with the proud presentation of the UK Youth quality mark.

We will be offering FREE sessions on Wednesday evenings from 7pm, and a special workshop from 12pm on Friday the 28th of October at Bentley Myplace.

Get in touch to book your place.

SiFly Uncategorized

90 Minute Music with Active Fusion

I’ve loved it today and I would really like to do this again. E. B. age 8

Over 150 session attendances over the past week. Great to be teaming up with Active Fusion again.

Creating partnerships is vital for the work we do in the community and it is a special feeling to be able to support our local area.

One of the children today stated that he didn’t like music before the session began, but went on to contribute well with the group and engaged well with technology.

We have encountered this a few times over the years and showing young people that they can do things that they don’t feel confident about is important to us.

We are not going to pass on 24 years of experience in a short period of time, but we can show them that there is a place for them in the world of music.

Returning to join up with Active Fusion has given us the opportunity to build on the foundations of our previous work on communication and respect. We moved on to exploring music from around the world to coincide with the commonwealth games. The young people benefitted from being allowed to experiment with instruments from far and wide which in many cases they are experiencing for the first time. We believe in giving opportunity by removing barriers of cost and geographic location.

We will be back supporting Active Fusion again soon, big thanks to the staff as always for making me feel part of the team and thanks to the young people for their effort and enthusiasm.

SiFly health and education

Identity and Direction

Hey!! Where are you going? Or who do you think you are?

You have probably been asked these questions, but maybe not in a compassionate way. In the context of our work with young people we don’t ask these questions directly but the answers to them are vital to support positive mental health and development.

Our widespread culture of digital connections centre on watching others go in a “direction” while being exposed to a myriad of “identities”

We offer a unique way of reinforcing who we are by focusing on our positive habits while challenging our negative ones. Being able to accept our mistakes is also a courageous step towards good mental health.

We passionately advocate young people finding their way and following the things that they want to do, while offering advice as to how it can become reality.

Not all young people know exactly what they want to do when they become older, but having conversations and tying ambitions with current interests has a value in itself.

People say to me “I can’t do that.” …. My reply is usually a challenge, “how do you know?” or I may agree “you can’t do that today, but this is the path to be able to do it tomorrow”

In 90 Minute Music we don’t give you anything you don’t already have, we just remind you where it is.

We hold the UK Youth quality mark for working with young people and will be at :

Myplace Bentley from 6.00pm on Wednesdays and Bullcroft Memorial Hall from 4.00pm on Thursdays.

Get in touch to book on

SiFly health and education

Edlington Eco – Bullcroft Memorial Hall – Myplace Bentley

Another busy week with focus on collaboration and inclusion.

After a chance meeting with Sam Siddall MBE, who was awarded her honour for community work, we were Invited to Edlington and were given a warm welcome by Lynn and the team.

We enjoyed an energetic jamming session with a wide age range as mum’s enthusiastically supported their children. It is a always a pleasure to work with children who have additional needs, especially in mixed groups as it adds value to all who attend on a social development level. Great to see lots of smiles and we look forward to seeing you all again.

Myplace Bentley was a little different this week as we decided to write a song based on the positive messages which are artistically written all over the youth hub walls. This presented a couple of challenges which were overcome with some creative collaboration. As always the timing of introducing challenges is crucial to build confidence and develop essential skills. Once again it was the girls who took the lead and proved that music technology is not a male only environment.

Carcroft this week was all about communication and Jamming. We had an increase in numbers due to a bit of canvassing outside the local school. We also welcomed attendees from across town who whole heartedly contributed.

Thanks again to Well Doncaster and Director of Public Health, Rupert Suckling who we met with this week. We look forward to sharing some more detail of our recent success stories.

Bentley Myplace from 6.00pm Wednesdays

Carcroft Bullcroft Memorial Hall from 4.00pm Thursdays.

SiFly Uncategorized

Machines: Better or Worse?

For us technology has enabled us to do what we love every day. Supporting young people with their development while working creatively with music.

But has the development of technology made things worse? Do we have shorter attention spans? Are we becoming more anxious? Is anybody truly bored anymore?

Our philosophy in 90 Minute Music comes from researching how humans utilise technology and exploring how we can add value in terms of sociability and building resilience.

There is often a perceived conflict between us and technology especially when it goes wrong.

When technology fails

In our experience some young people are more likely to be enthusiastic about engaging with technology than each other.

We use this to our advantage by using the technology to focus on the things that technology has begun to erode. We share our knowledge of music, production and the world of DJing to identify how we can synergise groups of individuals by learning about their primary needs.

We have supported thousands of young people with their development by identifying areas of support and quickly putting that support in place through our training and expertise.

Although our aims are to support health and development, the nature of our work is having fun and sharing each others qualities.

I didn’t like 90 Minute Music, I loved it.

C. B. Age 10 Doncaster

We will be at Myplace Bentley from 6.00pm on Wednesday 8th of June.

Norbreck Communal Hall Askern from 5.00pm on Thursday 9th of June.

Bullcroft Memorial Hall from 7.15pm on Thursday the 9th of June.

Follow us on Facebook to find out when and where you can access free sessions for young people.

SiFly Uncategorized

Bentley Myplace, Askern Norbreck, Bullcroft Mem. And Eco Power Stadium.

Proud to support Eve’s Trust

Great to spend an afternoon with my own kids. We took some drums down to the Eve’s Trust legends charity game between Doncaster Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday. Rovers were schooled by the ex pro’s from the Wednesday team with tidy performances from Chris Brunt and Paolo Di Canio. An honourable mention goes out to our own James Coppinger and Colin Douglas who kindly gave my son an autograph. I spoke to Duggie after the game and he said that he may be aching in the morning but as everyone who gave their time he was happy to support such a positive cause.

Myplace Bentley

We bring everything to create Electroacoustic Music to your venue

Another busy week of delivery as we began our return to Bentley. As we had discussed with senior youth leaders and identified a need for our provision, it was good to get going. We were proud to have our new volunteers supporting, both did a great job of engaging and I’m sure will go on to do great things. Our vision is to nurture, build confidence and resilience and ultimately give young people the tools to be both cooperative and assertive. We began this work through volunteering 9 years ago, so we recognise the value to not only the community but the volunteer and their family.

Norbreck Communal Hall Askern

Week two at the Norbreck, a great vibe as our growing group shared humour and we learned of the growing number of events for local people. It is always rewarding to hear the young people reminding me of what we did the previous week. The simplicity of our approach gives a great framework for fast progress and cohesive group work. We got hands on with the digital equipment and created beats using the step sequencer, we also had the adults on hand to write a rap, which was excellently delivered.

Bullcroft Memorial Hall Carcroft

This venue is beginning to gain momentum and is a fantastic resource for the community. We had primary aged children, who engaged really well with the Digital gear. Big respect goes out to the parents who got involved whole heartedly. Massive thanks to my new colleague Tina for bringing her boys and spreading the word in the local area. We are in the early days at Bullcroft but already seeing a positive attitude and learning of essential skills.

We still have places available at all venues next week, but they are limited so get in touch.

  • Myplace Bentley 5.30pm Wednesday
  • Norbreck Communal Hall 5.00pm Thursday
  • Bullcroft Memorial Hall 7.15pm Thursday