Hallo again! Yes it was a large special school, originally PD, but expanding to take in pupils from other schools which were closing. The project was a collaboration which led to performances every term with other schools groups and a professional band. I think seeing the pupils perform had quite an impact.

Drake Music SW have developed a very successful relationship with St Roses (Special) School, Stroud over nearly 5 years; initially, we funded ourselves, but the school felt the students benefitted so much from the provision that they began to contribute financially to the costs, a commitment which helped to cement the relationship further. Alas, money comes and money goes (especially in a recession) and provision too often follows with it. Increasing provision is one thing, hanging on to it over time is another. As far as persuading mainstream schools, in theory, every child, whatever their needs, should have equal access to music in the classroom, but the reality is very problematic for committed, but often inexperienced and under-resourced music teachers. Training music teachers to use the resources they already have is ultimately a better solution of increasing provision than tendering the work out to outside organisations, and certainly costs less. As part of our Curriculum Development Initiative, we have recently run training days at Exeter and Bristol University for Music PGCE students around accessible music making. One last success story: we worked for couple of years with disabled/SEN students at a large academy school in Bristol (very inclusive policy) and built up a good relationship with the staff. The work of the students was given high profile in school concerts. The silver lining was that the school subsequently agreed to fund Drake Music to support a disabled student through GCSE Music, a first in terms of statuatory funding. Ultimately, the best form of persuasion for any school is the quality of the music produced and the enjoyment and progress of the students.

On Teachernet there is link to the Year of Music resources including a "World's Biggest Music Lesson" clip. In that clip Ed Balls actually states that there is a correlation between music and improved scores in Eng, Maths and Science. Great ammunition!!!!

Great to hear this - was this a special school? What type of project was it? Good to get back in touch

Hallo Diane! Yes, a school decided to employ 2 music teachers after being involved in a year long project........ where they hadn't employed a music specialist teacher for some years,
Sarah

A moment I dreamt of many years ago happened to me this week. A teenage boy [Ryan, not his real name] who is bright but severely physically disabled came for a taster session at the Gordon Parry Centre at Leed ArtForms, where we have our Sound and Light Room. This is set up in such a way that any student can play music using their own personal access switches.

We knew that Ryan was interested in heavy metal music so our technician programed three of our access switches to control the chords, melody and drum loop of Deep Purple's "Smoke in the Water". After fifteen minutes he was able, with his head switches and a hand squeeze switch, to put these sounds together in time with each other, showing his level of understanding, his musciality and what must be his eternal frustration at a life spent watching, not doing.

His reaction to this experience was very moving. On his talker he then used his head switches to write "That was very fantastic, thank you". The unit costs were very high, just for this one session, but we think worth it.

Hi Diane

This has the potential to be a very interesting discussion topic. Do you want to get the ball rolling by giving us one or two stories of your own? I think others may be more likely to pitch in then.

Might it be worthwhile messaging some members of SEN Special Interest Group for their contributions?