Access to inclusive music making initiative by Creative United in partnership with The OHMI Trust and the Nottingham Music Hub enables disabled children to participate fully in Whole Class Ensemble Tuition at primary school
The pilot initiative launched in May 2019 by the Nottingham Music Hub (NMH) in partnership with Creative United and The OHMI Trust will enable children with additional needs to participate fully in making music through Whole Class Ensemble Tuition at primary school in the current academic year.
The Partnership developed in response to the findings of the Make Some Noise research, launched in November 2018 by the Take it away Consortium. The research identified Whole Class Ensemble Teaching (WCET) as a frequently cited barrier to music making for disabled children who are educated in mainstream schools. Both parents and music educators reported that WCET was often not accessible, and not meeting the needs of many disabled pupils.
Prior to engaging in this pilot programme, NMH received very little or no information in most cases about pupils ahead of commencement of WCET. As such, no preparation could be done by the Hub to address the needs of any individual pupil ahead of going into schools.
They also reported that they had only ever been made aware of a tiny number of students with additional physical needs who would benefit from adapted instruments in the history of their delivery of WCE, yet figures from the Department for Education show that 121 children currently in mainstream primary schools in Nottingham have a physical disability as their primary type of need.
In June 2019, as part of this pilot initiative, an online questionnaire was sent to all 76 Nottingham City Primary Schools. 57 schools (75%) completed the questionnaire, which helped to identify 78 pupils across 25 schools who would benefit from additional support with WCET as they faced significant barriers to instrumental music making.
Thanks to all partners involved, individual plans to enable each child to participate in WCET with parity of access and experience with their peers could be implemented.
The interventions range from producing large print resources and adapting teaching techniques to provision of specialist adapted instruments and carefully selected music technology solutions. These interventions were all made possible thanks to generous donations from Music for All, The OHMI Trust and Clement Pianos, a Nottingham-based retailer that is also a member of the Take it away scheme.
Paul McManus, CEO of Music for All said: “At Music for All, we believe everyone should have the opportunity to experience the wonderful world of making music. We are delighted to have been able to donate some of the instruments and equipment needed by these children so that they can fully participate and enjoy the experience of learning and playing a musical instrument as part of the Whole Class Ensemble Tuition being delivered by the Nottingham Music Hub.”
Ian Burton, Chief Executive of the Nottingham Music Hub, said “Inclusion is one of our core values and we work very hard to ensure that all children in Nottingham City can experience the joys of making music with others. This initiative helps further our mission and we are so pleased to be working with such fantastic organisations to make music make a difference.”
Crucially, all these interventions and resources were put into place ahead of the start of the academic year in September, meaning children could start their WCET experience on a level playing field.
None of the 78 identified children would have been brought to the attention of the hub prior to the start of term had the pilot not been instigated, and so none of these resources would have been able to be identified or supplied.
Rachel Wolffsohn, General Manager of The OHMI Trust commented, “The OHMI Trust is delighted to be working with NMH and Creative United to provide equipment and support that allows students to participate fully in the WCET programme and beyond if they wish. We hope that this groundbreaking project will lead to similar support for children with additional needs across the country, in line with current government policy”.
Peter Knott, Area Director at Arts Council England, said “At the Arts Council we believe that every child and young person should have the opportunity to take part and experience great art and culture. We’re delighted that Creative United and Nottingham Music Education Hub has joined forces to offer disabled/less able-bodied children the chance to learn to play a musical instrument, alongside their school mates. Opportunities like this may not have been available in the past and I, for one, look forward to seeing and hearing the results.”
The progress of the cohort across the academic year and beyond will now be monitored as part of the initiative and all partners hope to see a proportionate number of the identified children continue with music making beyond first access in comparison with their peers.
This pilot programme has been initiated by Creative United which operates the Take it away scheme, an Arts Council England funded initiative that aims to make the purchase of musical instruments and associated equipment.
For further information about the Consortium research findings and/or the Nottingham Pilot Programme please contact:
Mary-Alice Stack Chief Executive, Creative United mary-alice.stack@creativeunited.org.uk Direct line: 020 7759 1115 Mobile: 07947 451355
Notes to editors
Nottingham Music Service/Education Hub Nottingham Music Hub believes that music makes a difference. As a registered charity and lead partner for the Nottingham Music Education Hub, it is committed to making music more accessible and inclusive. The charity runs/supports instrumental tuition in nearly 80% of primary schools in Nottingham City. NMH also supports young people from across the city to develop their musical skills by participating in diverse ensembles and performances, contributing to the cultural life of Nottingham City. - www.nottinghammusichub.org.uk
The OHMI Trust The OHMI Trust works to remove the barriers to music-making faced by people with physical disabilities. Any deficiency in an upper limb makes nearly all musical instruments unplayable to any reasonable standard. As a result, thousands are excluded from music-making, including most disabled children. The OHMI Trust strives for full, undifferentiated, participation in musical life for disabled people through the creation and provision of adapted musical instruments and enabling apparatus. It also undertakes and commissions research into pedagogic practices, instrument design, and manufacturing methods. - www.ohmi.org.uk
Arts Council England Arts Council England is the national development body for arts and culture across England, working to enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to visual art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2018 and 2022, we will invest £1.45 billion of public money from government and an estimated £860 million from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. - www.artscouncil.org.uk
Creative United & Take it away Creative United is an independent Community Interest Company that provides finance-based products and services designed to deliver economic growth to the arts, creative and cultural sectors. Creative United receives regular funding from Arts Council England as a Sector Support Organisation within its National Portfolio. - www.creativeunited.org.uk Take it away is a Creative United initiative that gives music-makers the backing they need. With subsidised interest-free loans for musical instruments, equipment, software and tuition, we help to support musicians at every level. Take it away is funded by Arts Council England and Arts Council of Northern Ireland. - www.takeitaway.org.uk
Music for All The Music For All Charity believes that everyone should have the opportunity to learn to play music. Making music changes lives. But not enough people are fortunate enough to have access to musical instruments or ways to help them to learn and discover. This is where we come in. Music For All receives no government funding so we rely on your donations and generosity. - https://musicforall.org.uk/
Clement Pianos Established in 1919 in Nottingham, Clement Pianos is now a third-generation family business. Owners Mick & Andy Wilson, both of whom are piano technicians, trained by some of the world's finest, have spent many years carefully selecting what they consider to be the ultimate instruments in each class and price category. - https://www.clementpianos.com/
Take it away Consortium The Take it away Consortium is made up of the following organisations which all specialise in providing inclusive access to music making: Creative United, Drake Music, Music for Youth, Open Up Music, The OHMI Trust, and Youth Music.
Since March 2018, these organisations have agreed to work together as a Consortium on activities that can help advance their shared objectives to help increase the provision of affordable and accessible musical instruments for children and young people, enabling them to progress to the next level of musical excellence and demonstrate their achievements through high quality practice and performance opportunities.
The objectives of the Consortium are to:
- Improve our collective understanding of the potential demand for adapted and specialist musical instruments for use by aspiring and professional musicians of all kinds and in particular disabled children and adults across the UK.
- Enable existing prototype adaptations (from OHMI, OpenUp Music, DM Labs and other sources) to be taken further into small scale batch production for wider distribution and use.
- Enable the development of bespoke new accessible musical instruments to meet the needs of an individual, and the documentation and sharing of designs in the open source model
- Explore ways in which we can develop and train a workforce that has the knowledge and skills to introduce and demonstrate adaptive instruments located in ‘centres of music retail excellence’ around the UK.
- Provide financial assistance to families and individuals that need access to these types of instruments by providing a combination of grants and loans to ensure equality of access for all.
- Raise the profile of music-making by disabled children and adults, increasing awareness of the opportunities and sources of support available to enable more people to access music.