Student of Life: Mr Breis and hip hop literacy workshops

For me, some of the best teachers are like MCs,’ says Breis (pronounced breeze), a charismatic musician, MC, and hip hop literacy workshop leader. ‘An MC must gauge the vibe and energy of the audience and figure out what is needed at certain times. Sometimes as the MC you don't want to tell everyone to wave their hands in the air – the audience might be tired and just want to listen. You must be very thoughtful about the audience, and a teacher has to be very thoughtful about their class.’

Mr Breis (as he is known to his students), the founder of music education workshop company Student of Life, shares these wise words from his experiences with different school groups over the years. His company offers one-off workshops, and six-week and 12-week in-school residencies exploring expression through rhyme and rap, often with classes of students who struggle to engage with mainstream education. At the end of these projects, especially the 12-week courses, students are left with an anthology of their pieces and, in the past, they have even made a professionally recorded music video with their own lyrics. Online, you can find a music video one school created about safeguarding which ingeniously includes the bopping head of the school's chicken.