Treloar’s Director of Music is working on an exciting Incubator project with NASS

We’re excited to showcase the work of Jocelyn Watkins our Director of Music who alongside her day job, is working on an Incubator project with the National Association of Independent Schools and Non-Maintained Special Schools 

Her work has just featured in their latest newsletter but you can read all about it here:

Incubator Spotlight: Music For All from Treloar – accessible music assessment

‘The problem with pounding a square peg into a round hole is not that the hammering is hard work. It’s that you’re destroying the peg.’

(Paul Collins)

Many students with SEND do not fit into conventional assessments, whether it is early on in their life and regular milestones, or later on in an educational setting. This can make it challenging for students with SEND to demonstrate their skills, and to feel a sense of progression in their work.

Working with children with profound, multiple and complex needs as a music teacher, I struggled to find a music assessment framework that worked for my students. I wanted to demonstrate their progress, and show how developing music skills supported students with core subjects, well-being, skills like team work, physical health and a range of other areas. That’s why I developed Music for All.

Music for All provides a holistic method of assessing students in music whilst maintaining a focus on well-being and links with core skills and core subjects. It is specifically designed for students with SEND – including those with PMLD – and will suit teachers of children and young people from birth to pre-GCSE.

To develop Music for All, we reviewed over a dozen different curricula covering music, literacy, SLT, PHSE and other areas. From that, we pulled together an assessment framework that is carefully crafted to be uniquely accessible, for children of all types of additional needs.

This greatly pared down example of using a simple ‘hello’ song demonstrates the skills used in an activity that is used every day by many teachers.

You can view a short film from our student Open Orchestra, setting out the importance of music for all students, here.

Should you wish to know more about Music for All, collaborate with us, or even support with funding then please contact Jocelyn.watkins@treloar.org.uk