Building confidence through music

The National Plan for Music Education, published in June 2022, is clear that developing a strong foundation in music during the early years is vital.

Music is a communicative, it builds bonds, strengthens relationships and can support other areas of learning. Importantly, it can help to regulate mood and emotion, and help children to feel more settled.

Here, we outline some musical ideas which can help children to feel more secure and prepare them for transitions.

Continuity in the music session

Repeated songs and music that feature in your music time are useful. These ‘musical markers’ help the children know what to expect and when, such as the same hello and goodbye songs which mention everyone by name.

Also, at music time ask the children for ideas on how songs can be sung. Do they want to sing fast or slow? How high or low do they want to sing? This gives children ownership of the material. The presence of these known and expected songs is a comfort to children, as well as helping to embed and extend musical learning.

Building familiarity through routine can work with lots of musical activities. We recently worked with BBC Philharmonic, BBC Teach and CBeebies to develop Musical Storyland, which reimagines fairy tales and traditional folk stories, with music written especially for young children. There are 10 musical stories, with teaching resources, which you can use over a half term so children can become familiar with the music and songs.

Familiarity breeds confidence

Think about all the routines that take place in your setting throughout the day, there is the opportunity for music in every one of them! Tidy up time, break time, going home time and even lining up for the bathroom – these all offer musical engagement opportunities:

• Many settings have songs/rhymes of the week. Revisit them over the weeks - repetition will really help them to embed. Sing them in as many different ways as you can think of – high/low, fast/slow etc. Repetition doesn’t have to mean boring!
• There are many ‘tidy up’ songs available online. Turn this into a more ‘musical’ experience by asking the children to sing along as they go. It could even be used as a musical statues style listening game.
• Lining up time gives the opportunity for a clapping or copying game. If you clap a short rhythm pattern, can they clap it back? Can they take turns to lead?
• As and when a quiet time is needed, some calming music could be played. Having a small ‘bank’ of recordings (of different musical genres) to choose from can be calming and reassuring.

By adding one or two of the ideas into regular routines, the activities will become familiar, established and reassuring. What’s more, the children’s musical learning will be really moving on!

Engaging with families

Building a musical connection between setting and home is another valuable way to increase children’s sense of security.

Ask parents and carers about their children’s musical likes before they join. Could you create a half-termly nursery playlist which includes a favourite piece of music from each new child?

Musical Storyland might also be useful here as all the programmes are available on CBeebies with which most parents and carers will be familiar. How about letting families know which film you will be showing each week? Encourage them to sit down and watch at home with their child.

Supporting transitions

Moving to a new area or starting school can cause anxiety for children, but music can help to reduce stress. If children are leaving your setting, find out where they are going next.

Share the child’s favourite songs and musical activities with their new key person. Find out if there are songs that the setting, or their new class, will be singing. If there are, then introduce these into your own setting, explaining the link with their new nursery or school.

It is hard to even imagine the early years without sound of singing or the shake of a tambourine, but we hope these ideas offer even more potential for using music with your children.

Sally-Anne Brown and Vic Holmes are directors of Note Weavers CIC. The Musical Storyland classroom videos and resources can be found on the BBC Teach website www.bbc.co.uk/teach or on the CBeebies BBC iPlayer page https://bit.ly/49U8y34