The SoundWaves Network 2018 - 2021 Evaluation Report

Case Study - St Pauls Nursery
School and Children’s Centre
At St Pauls Nursery School and Children’s Centre, senior staff were looking to build and extend their
knowledge across the staff team and were excited to learn. They did however, have some reservations
about EYPs’ capacity and confidence to fully engage with the musicians or the ideas they may introduce.
Previous experience with visiting artists had not always been good.
The setting had large room sizes with 35 children or more in some cases. Individual staff reflected on
their own experience of music:
“ I was a bit hesitant as to how it would fit with professionals coming in and whether I would have to learn
to read music. It’s something I don’t do. I was never encouraged at school, so I was a bit reserved about
that, but quite excited that people could come in and it was going to be a regular thing... and it was
going to keep going.” - EYP
“When they came in - Roger and Eliza , it was just like that chaotic craziness, but you could really see like,
the absorption and the direction they were going and it really fed through - the constant conversations
and the excitement Roger and Eliza show really makes you feel like ‘oh, I can do this’. - It can be chaotic,
and things can be everywhere, but it's the learning that comes through that is so visible and I think really
inspired everyone.” - EYP
Staff went on to embrace the project:
Seeing how focused children in groups of 38 can be when they are engaged in music
Seeing the different levels of engagement children can have, from gentle moving to imitating
Finding new ways to use exciting instruments, identify and investing in new ones, based on clear
understanding of how and why to use them
Finding new ways of including music in planning
Utilising music as a way of working effectively with large groups “everybody suddenly finding a
musical groove for 30 seconds or 5 minutes”
Finding ways of modelling to silent play partners, “how to respond sensitively to children and then
build on it “
Finding new ways of supporting children “we were actually able to help them join in or just move on”
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