Strategy

A SOUND BEGINNING

There are three main strands to our Programme Strategy which together we are calling A Sound Beginning.

Harmony

Here we use high impact musical techniques to assist children in special schools who have chronic and severe learning difficulties.

Early Years

Focusing on the Early Years Foundation Stage syllabus, our aim is to deliver programmes that leave a legacy for children aged 3-5 using musical, art and cultural activities that will support societal change for children with learning difficulties in mainstream schools.This programme brings together teachers, early years practitioners and family members concentrating on the crucial interface between nursery and primary education.

By targeting early intervention, we aim to break the cycle of challenges these children face. For any organisation we fund we will need to see a clear link to the Early Years Foundation stage of the National Curriculum so that children gain the best start in life and are prepared for primary school education and overcome the challenges that their circumstances have given them.

The better start in life these young children have the greater the opportunities for them to break away from their challenging circumstances and achieve their full potential. It is important that any work we support has a clear objective to leave a legacy of change and continuing intervention once any training and support programme has been completed.

Welcome

Here we look to support activities that involve teenagers from the asylum and refugee communities, using music and other cultural activities to aid educational progress and understanding of life in the UK, encouraging integration across societal barriers.

Specifically……

Early Years

To achieve our programme aim we have initially sponsored Boogie Mites Community Projects CIC to deliver educational training packages in early years settings involving music techniques to teach Early Years Foundation stage subjects, a cornerstone of educating deprived preschool and primary school reception children so that they can start their educational journey at a par with more fortunate children.

Early Years has so far been delivered in 6 pre-school settings, targeting children and families from deprived backgrounds who may not otherwise have extensive access to art or music opportunities. The aim of the project is to involve practitioners, parents and children in easily replicable music activities that provide an exciting vehicle for creative self-expression and development across the Early Years Foundation Stage, with a particular focus on pre-phonics literacy skills.

Neuroscience evidence reveals that active music making is like “fireworks for the brain”, firing up early years’ cognitive development and wellbeing. Our project will follow the well-researched and evaluated Boogie Mites School Ready Literacy Music Programme that puts the neuroscience research into practice. With songs and music activities tailored to support Phase One Letters and Sounds, children’s increased access to active music making, will promote a wide range of school ready skills, with an emphasis on listening, speaking and phonological awareness.

Our project aims:

Increased parent and practitioner awareness of how active music making activities can be used to support early years development.
Increased parent and practitioner confidence and resources to initiate active music making activities at home and in the setting.
Boost children’s pre literacy skills in line with Phase One Letters and Sounds, through participation in active music making
Empower parents and teachers to be the music leaders at home and at school.

Project Structure:

1 x 3-hour practitioner training session
3 weeks of music workshops for pre-schoolers in a linked nursery where a Boogie Mites tutor will model delivery of the music and craft activities introduced in training
3 weeks of music workshops as above for year R children
3 weeks parent and child music and art workshops, where parents will learn new ideas for supporting their child’s learning and development through creative activities.

Harmony

We have developed options to deliver our Harmony Project for special schools centred on music and art themes. The charity Live Music Now has delivered musical programmes for the Lanyado Fund in various SEN settings.

We are also working on a teacher led music and art programme which can be adapted for both mainstream and special schools.

Our aim here is to increase self confidence and awareness in order to improve children’s ability to learn and be part of the community.

Welcome

We have initially supported Deborah Koder to support activities that involve teenagers from the asylum and refugee communities in Barnet, using music and other cultural activities to aid educational progress and understanding of life in the UK, encourage integration and break down societal barriers.

Next Steps

With limited funds, the Lanyado Fund, is now returning to both the special and mainstream schools to check to what extent these schools are continuing to use the methods we developed in our programmes.

Our strategy going forward is to look to strengthen the legacy components of our programmes to create a cohort of mainstream and special schools which can be used to spread the techniques we have developed for children with learning difficulties both organically and with additional funds.

A programme for 10 more schools is underway.

In the longer term our aim is to embed our programmes into the borough wide educational structures in England & Wales