Valuing Music in Special Needs Settings

Valuing Music in Special Needs Settings is practitioner led research which explores a range of music making and singing approaches for whole class teaching (WCT) and group work in Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) schools.

Launched at the ISME World Community Music Activity Conference last summer, this is a truly unique collaboration between community music organisation soundLINCS and Nottingham Trent University’s School of Education. The joining of academia and practice in a series of inclusion led music projects within SEND Schools in the East Midlands, allowed the research to rigidly address core questions, including:

• What are the key problems that music practitioners face in implementing WCT and group work in SEND settings and how can these be overcome?

• What is the skill set required of the music practitioner to work effectively in a SEND setting?

• How do we monitor musical progression in special needs learners?

The research concludes that WCT and group work can be successfully provided in SEND schools and that musical progression was noted across a range of genres. Engaging the support of classroom teachers and assistants is essential and that music practitioners require a responsive pedagogy in addition to highly developed music and facilitating skills. The research noted that low expectations of what pupils with SEND can achievethrough music can hold back their progress.

This innovative partnership have then taken the findings to create an illuminating toolkit for work within SEND setting which offers the reader a training and development framework for discussion and provocations to be flexibly used in a range of training environments.

It could form the basis on an intensive day of CPD led by an experienced trainer or music facilitator or a series of informal meetings between mutually interested practitioners. It could be used as a prompt for CPD providers in the design of their own training events or be used by individuals to simply consider the range of issues relating to their work.

For maximum effectiveness it will be used in group situations where participants can share their individual knowledge and experience and learn from their peers.

soundLINCS is able to facilitate group work based on the toolkit or can discuss your plans for doing so. Valuing Music in Special Needs Settings can be download FREE from the soundLINCS website at www.soundlincs.org/sendtoolkit. Additional printed copies of the toolkit are also available to purchase, at a special ‘at print-cost’ rate of £5 to Youth Music Network members. Please contact info@soundlincs.org or call 01522 510073 for further information.