Inspire

In 2016, Live Music Now launched Inspire – a workforce development programme to enrich music provision in special schools. Delivered by professional musicians from Live Music Now, the programme benefits partner schools by providing additional live music experiences for pupils, offering opportunities for non-specialist staff to develop confidence in supporting musical activities, and enabling specialist music staff to draw on the additional resource of professional musicians in the classroom.

Live Music Now musicians (at Stages 5 and 6 of our training programme) benefit from working alongside school staff and a mentor to become flexible, responsive and inclusive music leaders. The programme uses the Sounds of Intent framework to support the children and young people’s musical progression, including those still learning to process sound.

Since 2016, 2,500 children and young people and 1,250 school staff from 90 special schools and 185 Live Music Now musicians have taken part in 130 Inspire training projects across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“Music is what brings people together. It’s kind of boring if you don’t have music!”

“A non-verbal child started to sing the ‘hello’ song when she saw Dan and the instruments – amazing!”

“There is now more singing and expressive music making across the school.”

“[The] Legacy is about building music into the curriculum and re-embedding it in communication work [which is about developing students’ communication skills and expression].”

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we moved sessions online to continue being able to reach those who needed them most. This has now become part of our core offering, enabling us to tailor our offering based on individual needs.