(These notes are intended for head of music at the school, or other senior responsible music teacher, OR Arts Award advisor, if going through that programme.)

The idea of the Bachtrack Young Reviewer programme is to give young people aged between 12 and 16 years old the chance to attend a classical concert or opera, free of charge, and to write a review to be published on www.bachtrack.com. In this way, we hope to encourage more young people to go to classical music, and to provide a voice where the people who put on concerts can understand what appeals to a younger audience.

To be accepted for the programme, the applicant must first get the agreement of the head of music at the school (or Arts Award advisor) that he/she is a suitable person to take part in the programme: we expect young people with a reasonably serious interest in music who are sufficiently mature and articulate to express their opinions coherently in a way that will interest visitors to the site.

Before the young person goes to the concert, one of the school's music teachers (or their Art Award advisor) should conduct a short session with him/her to help understand how to listen critically and write an interesting review. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra have very kindly agreed to provide some notes to help in this: we hope to publish them soon at www.bachtrack.com/youngreviewer/howtolisten).

There is limited space in the programme, but we will try to select as many of the applicants as we can. When we have selected an applicant, we will telephone the school(or advisor) to verify that the name and contact details that we have been given, and we will contact the head of music by email to verify agreement that the applicant is a suitable person.

Finally, when the young person has written their 300-500 word review, we ask that you give it a brief checkover to ensure that it is reasonably fit for publication before they post it onto our site.

That's all you need to do – your student is then a published reviewer!