soundLINCS launch 'Early Ears'
regular drop-in music sessions at Children’s Centres across Lincolnshire
A new community music-making initiative devised and delivered by soundLINCS – Lincolnshire Music Development Agency – is, quite literally, music to the ears of thousands of families using Children’s Centres around the county.
Early Ears is being run by Lincolnshire County Council under its ‘Every Child Matters’ policy. Children’s Centres provide help, advice and support for all families and carers with pre-school children. 36 centres have opened since the scheme started last Autumn, with the figure expected to rise to 48 over the next two years, ensuring that every community across the county will have access to its own Children’s Centre before the end of 2010.
The centres are a source of guidance and information on a range of issues, including health and welfare, early education, employment and training. In addition, however, each centre now offers a regular drop-in session of Early Ears participatory music-making. Lincolnshire County Council has equipped every centre with a comprehensive kit of musical instruments appropriate for pre-school children, and soundLINCS facilitators have been contracted as ‘musicians-in-residence’, delivering regular music workshops devised to engage adults and under-fives alike.
Each centre has tailored its Early Ears provision to meet the needs of its users and community, and soundLINCS is engaging facilitators on a term-by-term basis to meet those needs. Some centres use the Early Ears time for mother & baby sessions, for example, whilst others opt to use some of the time for staff training, for carers of learning disabled children or to encourage music-making amongst groups for whom English is not their first language. Additional projects at individual centres, such as music technology sessions for older children during school holiday times, are also running on a bespoke basis.
Much of the Early Ears ethos draws on the First Notes project, which was devised by soundLINCS to run under the sound52 YMAZ banner. Over the last six years, a team of professional music facilitators has been recruited, trained and equipped by soundLINCS, and has delivered over 1,200 six-session First Notes residencies in nurseries, crèches and pre-schools across the county. The resulting skills and experience base has formed a firm foundation for the Early Ears programme.
More information on Early Ears in Lincolnshire Children’s Centres is available from soundLINCS
T: 01522 510073
E: info@soundlincs.org
W: www.soundlincs.org
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