Mental health and wellbeing column: Nurturing, nourishing relationships

As a music teacher who continued teaching throughout the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns, I saw the benefit to children of continuing their music lessons through a time of enormous uncertainty and social isolation. Each week, children would log on to their lesson and enjoy singing and playing together. Sometimes just seeing their friends on screen was enough to give them a boost. For many, the music lesson was the highlight of their online learning week.

The recovery from those lockdowns and all the time spent in a socially isolated class-bubble has been long, difficult and is still ongoing. Children have needed help, particularly with social skills and with building up their resilience to cope with the setbacks that are part of everyday life and learning.

So, how can we continue to help children to recover from this collective trauma? Through building relationships with them. As a peripatetic music teacher of several hundred students each week, I appreciate it can be difficult to know how and where to start with this. I was delighted, therefore, to be offered the opportunity to deliver a trauma-informed Music Nurture Group through funding awarded by Changing Tracks. Approximately 20 Music Hubs are involved in this exciting programme in a range of settings and schools.

Working therapeutically

Music is a key therapeutic tool that can be used to help children and young people recover from traumatic experiences. Training and monthly discussion groups, involving critical reflection, are a key part of the programme. These are important sharing opportunities to pool ideas and discuss successes and challenges, but also an important accountability tool for any kind of therapeutic work.

To set up the group, I first had to identify a school that was keen to participate and could support the programme. Once the school was identified, the school’s SENCo selected appropriate children, targeting those who may be at risk of exclusion in the future. The Nurture Group consists of six children who attend a half-hour music session regularly each week and have some input and agency over the musical activities undertaken. The main aim is to improve social outcomes and musical skills.

I have been a teacher for many years and did not think that I could adapt my teaching style so significantly as when I started to work therapeutically. I work with the conscious and the known – I am not providing therapy. However, the activities I choose help to increase the students’ social skills, their confidence and their decision-making abilities. As they are given more choice about what they can do, their attitudes change and they feel that the group and the musical outcomes belong to them.

The group is very different to a traditional music lesson because the outcome focus is much wider. As the tutor, providing an active musical experience and handing over control to the students is the key aim, rather than imparting knowledge or teaching a particular skill. The development of musical skills through the group happens organically, rather than being planned and dictated. Members of the group are invited, rather than expected, to participate and they understand it is acceptable for them to decide to change the level of their participation for a while. As the leader of the group, I simply facilitate the session and guide the activities rather than direct them.

Outcomes

Throughout the course of the group, the children created their own song and learnt how to play it on the ukulele. They have engaged in activities developing eye contact with each other in order to communicate, which builds their confidence and social skills. The students have been given free rein with the creative musical process and have produced compositions using classroom percussion instruments.

Students say that they feel calmer and more ready to focus on their English and Maths lessons after attending the Music Nurture Group. They have created their own group charter and they remind each other to abide by the agreement – this is another way in which the group is given over to them.

So far, I have seen evidence of boosted confidence and social skills – one child asking to share the group ‘goodbye song’ and then singing with me in front of her classmates. On other occasions, children show kindness and teach each other musical skills.

There is a significant body of evidence pointing to how important therapeutic, nurturing relationships are to helping students to become rounded, resilient and thoughtful adults. Music is a fantastic tool to use in this endeavour, and it remains vitally important to ensure that every child and young person has access to music education, whatever their background.

portsmouthmusichub.org