Following a fantastic project at James Wolfe Primary School in South East London, with the enthusiastic participation of Roberta and Lesley from the school staff team, we have received a final blog post from the delivering music therapists, Ruth Kumar and Leana Crookes (pictured below either side of Roberta and Lesley):

“We have now finished the delivery part of our skill-sharing project at James Wolfe Primary School. Two members of staff have completed a six week training, during which they learnt to apply some of the practical skills of music therapy within the school setting.

The skill-sharing took place in the nursery class, and consisted of groups of 6-8 children. Staff were shown how to use music with pre-school children in order to encourage listening, turn-taking, sharing, and language development. The content of the groups was informed by the Interactive Music Making approach, which is a joint initiative between Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust and Music As Therapy International (please see www.interactivemusicmaking.org for further information).

We will now get to work on reviewing and evaluating this project, thinking back on what elements were most effective, and consolidating all that we have learnt. We look forward to meeting with Alexia and Lindsay in the coming weeks to discuss our findings, close this project, and put some thought towards our next skill-sharing venture!”

This project was delivered in partnership with Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust Music Therapy Service, and we are grateful for the support of Sarah Hadley and Oonagh Jones for making it happen and helping things to run as smoothly as they did.