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Derrington 2012 thesis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

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many of these students can seem directionless and the provision has to be timelimited<br />

due to the demand on the service from the high level of need at school, this<br />

sort of monitoring helps me to regularly review the impact and benefit that the<br />

therapy is making and understand when an ending is necessary.<br />

Relating work to the IEPs does not lessen the therapeutic value of the work. The<br />

purpose of IEPs is to enable the child to make progress, depending on their emotional<br />

state, not to change the child to fit the system (Cornwall and Todd, 1998). Music<br />

therapy adds to the student’s social and emotional aspects of learning (SEAL) and<br />

development. The SEAL initiative addresses students’ emotional literacy and<br />

promotes social and emotional skills that ‘underpin effective learning, positive<br />

behaviour, regular attendance…and the emotional health and well-being of all who<br />

learn and work in schools’ (DCSF, 2007b, p.4). These skills are based on Goleman’s<br />

(1995) categories of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, managing feelings,<br />

motivation, empathy and social skills (Vizard, 2009). Music therapy should be<br />

recognised as contributing to the emphasis on this aspect of learning and working<br />

with schools to meet these initiatives.<br />

3.5.1.2 Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) unit awards<br />

Achievement at The Centre School, however small, is acknowledged and<br />

congratulated. This is always recognised at each half-term’s assembly when prizes<br />

and certificates are awarded. Therapy and education both help a person to acquire<br />

knowledge and skill (Bruscia,1998a) but defining the work and maintaining<br />

boundaries can be challenging within a school environment that is based on awards,<br />

certificates and achievement. If therapy’s goals are distinctly clear from these<br />

educational targets, the acknowledgement of musical skill that a student has acquired<br />

through therapy is safe.<br />

Although the aims and the way of working may be different to other lessons and<br />

activities, music therapy can be included in one of the school’s systems of<br />

assessment: using the Assesment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) unit award<br />

scheme. It is a relevant and appropriate form of evaluation and it is obvious how<br />

important these awards are to the young people. They give students of all abilities<br />

! ("!

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