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A Mentoring Approach to Providing High Quality Music Education in the Early Years - by Danielle Ballantine-Drake

Oxfordshire County Music Service have been leading 'Musical Pathways', an Early Years music project, in 6 nursery / school / children's centre settings, over two years. Here Early Years specialist teacher Danielle Ballantine-Drake gives a breakdown of the approach taken to ensure that staff in the settings were upskilled and empowered to deliver more music in their own teaching, through a range of targeted CPD approaches.

The Oxfordshire Early Years music project 'Musical Pathways' has had a high degree of success due to the mentoring approach used, which sought to enable the early years teaching staff to continue with high quality music provision long after the project officially finished in their setting.

The project worked in six different settings, giving each setting 30 weeks of music sessions delivered by an experienced early years music specialist. In each setting, several staff were nominated to be mentored and trained by the music specialist. Their classes were split in half so that the music specialist modelled teaching with half of the children, and then the trainee was responsible for teaching the other half based on the skills learnt from their mentor. Each trainee was provided with plenty of resources to be able to deliver the sessions and by the end of the year had a planning folder with a repertoire of songs and activities and guidance for planning and including their own material.

A familiar structure was set up in every session so all the children knew what to expect and could feel confident to participate e.g. warm up activities, songs and games, percussion activities, movement activities (either with scarves or a scrunchie). The early years music specialist was able not only to demonstrate how to do various activities but also sensible ways to introduce the skills so that a session could be successful e.g. techniques for introducing percussion instruments rather than immediately starting out with a large box of mixed percussion which could lead to chaos with young children.

Additional CPD training was given to help staff better understand the rationale and importance of teaching music in the early years of life. They were also shown how music can be linked to all areas of the Early Years Framework and should not only be an isolated lesson once a week but rather an integrated part of their setting and their daily routines.

The fact that the project lasted for 30 weeks in each setting really gave a decent opportunity for the staff to develop their skills and their confidence – with remarkable results. One teacher gained so much confidence that she specifically planned a music a session for when she had an Ofsted inspection, which is something she never would have dared do before the project. All the staff involved have reported great gains in their confidence and abilities, and this was confirmed by the early years music teacher making some formal observations during the project.

In addition to all this, there was also plenty of evidence of progress for the children who were involved in the project. The aim was to improve the personal, social and emotional development of young children through participation in creative musical activity, and also to improve the development of their communication, language and literacy skills. The project tracked individual children throughout the 30 weeks and also the class as a whole, and identified success in all of these areas. Children who barely participated at all in class to begin with were able to come come out of their shell through the fun singing games involving puppets and toys. Children who had English as an additional language gained significantly in confidence and understanding. Children who started out confident and able were stretched further to achieve more, for example through learning to read rhythms.

The Early Years Music Project has had a significant and positive impact on the lives of several hundred people, both adults and children  – and the ripple effects will continue to be felt for years to come through the skills learnt by the staff who will continue to teach music, and for the children too who have improved communication and life skills that they can carry forth with them into their future.