On the 26th March, Southfield and Herts Music Service welcomed over 30 teaching professionals from across the county to our inaugural Music for SEN conference.

Teachers, subject leads and SENCOs came together to learn about, discuss and embrace the incredible power that music has in education.

Our primary focus for the day was how to use music to support SEN pupils but also included using music as a tool for embedding information and the use of music technology to help support learning and focus.

Our own music lead, Rebecca Starling led the conference and the morning session, which focused on how music can be used in classrooms and outside to support behaviours. Her session touched on emotional regulation, music for activation, musical timers, transitional music and quick ideas to help you get started – especially if you deem yourself unmusical.

Our guest speaker, Victoria Webb, gave an interactive and musically minded presentation on how to use music to support maths and literacy. As Head of School at London School of Design and Engineering UTC, she leads with a clear strategic vision, ensuring the college delivers high-quality, inclusive education that empowers learners to thrive in a fast-paced, technology-driven world. She studied Mathematics at King’s College London, with a music scholarship and music has influenced her teaching practice ever since. Attendees were invited to engage in her learning strategies and by the end of the session we could all sing the quadratic equation.

Throughout the day, Jonty Hines from pBone had a phenomenal set up of accessible instruments for attendees to experience and experiment with. The technology was inspiring and showed the scope of what can be done to create an inclusive musical education for those who may struggle with conventional instruments and notation.

Matthew Dear from Herts Music Service gave a brief introduction to Trinity Board of Music: Sounds of Intent and the Sound Sensations programme, detailing how more young people could now access musical qualifications that could be tailored to the individual instead of requiring them to conform to a set programme of study.

The day was full of understanding, great discussions and shared ideas. There was so much that could be said and done to include music to create a diverse and cross curricular education for young people. The only negative we could find? That we hadn’t done something like this sooner!