Thirty years is an enormous milestone! Congratulations to our extensive freelance team and beneficiaries (from birth to adult), many of whom have gone on to choose artistic career paths. I founded my school to address an urgent shortfall in multiple music opportunities. Our provision has grown from teaching babies and nursery ages to instrumental teaching, vocational study, and music courses to support teachers in the field. Many of our programmes nurture communication and musical ability in neurodiverse children and those with language delay. Former teachers have adopted our teaching models from Australia to Canada.
Neurodiverse students now study vocational courses and enjoy placement schemes in the industry. Our bespoke storytelling workshops and podcast nurture early communication and language. Little Birdsong Concerts continue to delight families and babies with live music, from classical to rock and jazz. Our multi-arts programmes have documented notable outcomes in specialist groups including Little Cricket’s Deaf group, Beyond Autism, Action on Disability and family support services. To date, we have 11 albums (released by Moonbug) to encourage interactive musical play in families and nursery settings around the world.
Collaboration
A key factor in sustaining a non-profit organisation has been collaboration and partnerships. With over 850 workshops, special events and research projects, we have shared financial pots, skills and resources. Many bespoke projects for neurodiverse communities and children with language delay have been collated in research papers available on the platform Academia. These inspire others to collaborate and gain new resources for their communities.
Adopting models and frameworks
At a time of depleted funding, music and the arts continue to be sidelined. Does education always have to be governed by a statistical framework? Investment in music is economical and, at the same time, sustains children’s interest in learning and subscribing to one of the largest, most popular industries in the world.
Music House for Children’s provision includes training courses, curriculum models and teaching resources. Regular consultation with educators and specialists helps to keep our work fresh and relevant. The flexible nature of our frameworks fosters imaginative teachers and keeps our children interested. Businesses such as our collaborators Bush Hall and Next Door Records provide lucrative pathways to vocational careers.
Endorsing music and arts education models will help to shift the UK’s rigid, antiquated educational landscape into more flexible options. Applying tried-and-tested models also provides a useful foundation for international organisations to adapt for different demographic groups and digital use. Indeed, if artistic integrity was truly immersed within education, I believe the emotional barometers between home, children and their school would become more stable.
During a time of enormous technological advances, engaging with music and the arts becomes ever more crucial to early learning experiences. If children are to become creative, analytical, independent adults, learning has to reflect artistic integrity; be joyful, creative, flexible, and imbued with practical and theoretical experiences. With this foundation, the next generation can become collaborative agents of positive change in our fragile world.
We are proud that over 400,000 people have engaged with and benefited from music at my school. But what if all 32,163 schools in the UK were given a compulsory multi-arts model to inform statutory learning? The late Sir Ken Robinson’s much cited message – to immerse the arts in learning rather than the other way round – is as relevant today as it was 30 years ago. Just imagine the creative outpouring of a new generation.
A defining comment was made by one of our parents: ‘Coming to your music classes made me look at my children and be in awe of their wonder.’
- For details on all framework models, contact emma@musichouseforchildren.com
- For developing skills to nurture young children’s musical learning, visit musichousecourses.com
- For information on vocational courses (Bush Hall), contact sarah@bushhallmusic.co.uk
