Case Study: The Sobell Programme: a three year programme of concerts for special schools
Funder: The Sobell Foundation
In this programme, fifteen schools from across England are hosting two LMN participatory concerts each year for three years. A total of 1,060 children and young people with varying learning and physical disabilities will experience classical, world, folk and jazz music over the course of the concert series. Outcomes for pupils reported at the end of Year 1 include:
- Increased access to high quality cultural experiences: “We value these events as they are the only way that all our children will experience live music in a concert situation”.
- Increased social interaction: “The concert was not just a musical event for these children with autism but also provided a wonderful social and socialising opportunity for all our children to mix without restraint, dancing together across age groups and have a thoroughly enjoyable time without anxiety.”
- Increased engagement – encouraging harder to reach children to join in: “A joy to see the reactions and attention of pupils who often are non-reactive.”
- Increased confidence and self esteem: ““Two pupils who lack confidence gained a lot when ‘conducting’ the improvisation with hand signals – they smiled and ‘grew in stature’ at their achievement”.
- Increased learning opportunities: “It was fun and exciting, as well as offering learning opportunities – they were working with professional musicians and learning new skills.”
