Making music at Highfield Littleport Academy

A woman with curly brown hair wearing a checked dress with a red tank top, is sharing a djembe drum with a young girl in a wheelchair, who has light brown hair, is smiling and playing the drum.

Our musicians Steff and Shaun had a great time at our recent creative music project at Highfield Littleport Academy, near Cambridge. It is an area community special school catering for children aged 2-19 with significant and complex learning difficulties, who may also have associated physical disabilities, sensory, communication or medical needs. This is our second visit to the school, who were keen to develop their musical knowledge after our one-day workshop with them last year. We worked with classes across the age range over the five-day project, and it was great to see so many of the pupils engaging with and communicating through music. Claire, school music coordinator, shared that a real moment for her was when one pupil ‘realised that he was controlling the music – the change in his facial expression and movements, lots of laughing!’. Pupils told us that their favourite bits were: ‘I like guitar, guitar is cool’ and ‘I liked learning about how the instruments could make different noises’. Overall, staff fed back that they feel more confident in using music with their own classes now, as well as seeing improved confidence in the pupils too. It is thanks to the ongoing donations of our supporters that this project could go ahead, and we are so grateful for their generosity.