CONCLUSIONES Y RECOMENDACIONES

The inclusion manager (A017) described how she was always searching for accessible musical resources to increase access to class music lessons for quadriplegic children attending her mainstream primary school. She found a set of coloured push-button hand bells. Although they were originally intended for use in the music classroom, a comment from a visiting occupational therapist (OT) led to the development of a nurture group intervention that had wider implications for inclusion, social integration and individual recognition:

A017: p. 20. I was just talking to our OT one day […] and she started saying “Oh that’s good for hand-eye coordination, that’s good for handwriting”, […] and it’s that sort of way that you pick up lots of things.

This endorsement led to the use of the hand bells as part of an intervention to support hand-eye coordination, handwriting, colour recognition and social skills. The

intervention was delivered twice weekly over a half term in a nurture group setting and as an extracurricular lunch and after-school club led by TAs:

A017: p. 20. At the moment we’ve got a group going on that are just more- SEN children, more just low level SEN rather than complex, and they’re using it [the hand bell] for listening skills, turn-taking skills, as well as the handwriting because they’re learning how to do colours, and the whole song will be “ When have you got to come in with your colour [coloured hand bell] When have you got to come in with your note? Are you watching? Are you listening? Are you paying attention? Erm are you getting self-esteem from it?” And they love it and some of our children […] can’t sit still in class and they’re wriggling and they’re all about the floor and everything, you put them on this and they’re so busy concentrating, trying to decide where they’ve got to come in that they’re brilliant!

Again the use of the term musical intervention is my interpretation. The inclusion manager does not identify this practice as a musical intervention, even though from her description it appears that the activity is explicitly targeting specific non-musical skills through musical learning. Instead, the inclusion manager sees the hand bell as a musical resource that is used to support other learning. Significantly, this simple

resource also had a wider impact, enabling non-verbal children to participate in whole school musical events that supported social integration and inclusion:

A017: p. 4. At the minute we’re doing Christmas carols, and then at the end of this they’re going to perform in a concert with the other children for the Nativity, but they’re also going carol singing, well they can’t sing,’cos a lot of my kids can’t talk, but they can use the hand bells.

Additionally, one example was identified, again post-survey, where two SEND music specialists working for the music service and in a special school respectively, had collaborated with a curriculum leader to design and produce their own programme of songs and music recorded onto a CD, with the specific aim of developing

communication skills through a focus on pulse. The resource was designed for non- specialists to use on a daily basis for five or ten minutes as part of their normal practice in a mainstream primary school, an attached specialist unit and a special school,

organised as a partnership.

Although similar to the literacy project in focus, the programme was designed in response to a perceived lack of music in schools. It sought to support non-specialists, by developing a ready-made resource and programme that was tailored to a specific but common need that was an identified school learning priority across the partnership of schools. The CD was introduced to teachers through a six-week training programme led by the SEND music specialists. The training was designed to address issues of low confidence amongst non-specialists by showing them how to use the resource through demonstration and shared experience. The SEND music specialist (A013) also prepared a set of accompanying learning objectives for teachers to refer to. However, although the songs, music, instruments, speeds and genres had been deliberately chosen to support the overarching aim of developing communication through pulse,

interestingly, unlike the literacy support project, the list of learning objectives, where musical outcomes were linked to other learning were compiled after the CD recording had been completed.

In these latter two cases, similar to the literacy support project, practice developed organically from informal conversations and personal ambitions in contrast to the more strategically driven singing project, although all participants were driven by a desire to support children with SEND. Across all these examples of bespoke interventions, music was tailored to meet a wide range of individual and collective needs, even if they were motivated by different aims, such as participants’ own desire to explore practice (A001, A005), address musical issues of confidence and delivery (A005, A011, A013,

A019) or ensure equal access to learning via accessible resources (A017). All these examples had wider educational and musical impacts, which satisfied wider school issues of inclusion, integration and equal opportunity as well as music training and creative practice.

This part of the discussion has considered how music can be used as a bespoke

intervention, indicating how music might contribute to the range of intervention-based provision in mainstream primary education. The CD resource highlighted how a packaged ready-made intervention might support practice. Other participants reported using commercial interventions, which whilst musically led, as exemplified by the bespoke musical practice described here, nonetheless involved music. They were of particular value to those with less musical experience that on occasion inspired spontaneous music-making between child and educator. They provide a useful comparison to the bespoke interventions described above, particularly when

considering how musical intervention-based practice might be sustained and developed in the future through ready-made programmes or interventions.