£95,000 to help champion music for under-fives
ART FORM SEEN TO PROMOTE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN
AN arts charity has been granted more than £95,000 to promote the role of music in the development of young children.
Leicester charity, The Spark Arts for Children, has been awarded £95,390 from Youth Music to support musicians and early years practitioners to be “music champions”.
The project, using funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England, will promote the role music plays in the development of children up to four, through a newly created Leicester/shire Music Champions and Early Years Music Network.
There is strong evidence to suggest that music has a direct impact on a child’s communication and language development. In 2019, The Spark’s Tiny Sparks music project, supporting children from early years, revealed 98 per cent of participating children showed an improvement on the register of Stages of Confident Speaking.
Liza Foster, The Spark Early Years programme manager said: “Music is a vital part of the learning of under-fives, supporting communication and language, as well as personal, social and emotional development.
“Musical play experiences encourage the best early learning and ensure children flourish. I strongly believe this programme will have a long lasting impact on Leicester/shire’s children and families.”
Kay Hardiman, director of Talent 25, one of the scheme’s partners, said: “The families who are part of our research study have told us how much they and their babies have enjoyed music sessions and would like more, particularly music and stories from different cultures.
“This project gives families an opportunity to work collaboratively with great musicians and expert early years practitioners, helping more children have really special musical experiences in their early lives.”
To champion learning through music the network will provide training and networking for both professional musicians and early years practitioners. The programme will partner 10 professional musicians - including two from the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Emerging Artist’s programme, with early years professionals working with preschool children in nurseries, schools and libraries.
A programme of workshops will take place across the city and county between February and June 2022. Other partners working to ensure children who need music most in their lives include the city council’s Neighbourhood Services, Philharmonia Orchestra and the Mighty Creatives.