Addington School near Reading is unique. It’s the only special needs school in the country to have achieved specialist music school status. With approximately 90 fulltime staff, Addington places a huge emphasis on music to support the needs of its 210 pupils, who range in age from two to 19.

‘Music is used in a number of ways in all classes and all parts of the curriculum and the school’s daily life,’ explains Matthew Kemp, who has been head of music at Addington for five years. ‘Music is used to signify changes of activity as well as the beginning and end of the day.’  It’s an impressive and imaginative use of structured sound – and it’s something that has been at the heart of Addington’s music policy ever since it applied for specialist status, winning Yamaha backing in the process.

‘We began to see how music was affecting our children and helping their progress in many areas,’ recalls Kemp.  ‘It seemed to release untapped abilities and help them to achieve success. The previous head, Nick Burnett, decided it was important to have fulltime specialist music and PE teachers. So we made the decision to apply for special status – and we were advised to concentrate on Music and ICT.’

The school was heartened by the amount of support shown by the local community for its plans.  ‘A number of groups and companies came to our assistance to raise the required £50,000,’ explains Kemp, ‘including our parents’ association (The Addington Association) and Siemens (a local company). The local Rotary Club set up a website called Music for Minds and this raised £20,000! Some individuals donated small sums and particular musical instruments. But we wanted to resource the school with Yamaha instruments as we needed not only quality but also durable instruments for our young people.’

With such enthusiastic backing, it was obvious people believed in the school’s ability to offer something special in the way of music – and its role in the school’s life has become all-embracing.

‘Music is a discrete curriculum subject in its own right,’ Kemp points out. ‘Children, especially those with higher abilities, learn music as a straight music lesson. We learn to compose, to play, to perform and sing.  But each class has a weekly music lesson. We’ve found that, with lunchtime clubs and out-of-school activities, music is a great way to bring our kids together socially. It enables them to express themselves, achieve more social targets and have the chance to perform. We put on lots of concerts for the confidence this gives some children for whom stepping on to a stage is a great achievement. They’ve managed to do that and play and receive applause. Of course they do this in drama as well but music is used throughout the day in all classes. We sing “hello” and “goodbye” and the children sing a “dinner song”.’

Such extensive musical activity suggests Addington has a high ratio of musically confident teaching staff.  ‘There is plenty of talent here,’ smiles Kemp, ‘but some of it is a little bit hidden. Most classes have a class teacher, teaching assistant and one, possibly two learning support assistants. But there are now two fulltime music teachers here.

‘Of course, my assistant Rona and I have to provide resources and training for our colleagues who are not specially trained in music,’ Kemp continues, ‘so they can feel confidant with music while teaching other subjects. We can provide the musical elements to other subjects – geography, history or whatever.’

The school has also just introduced individual instrumental lessons.  ‘I did a presentation to David Marcou and staff at the Berkshire Young Musicians’ Trust,’ Kemp reveals, ‘and now we have teachers coming here to offer wind and string lessons.

Through our funding we are able to offer the first year’s lessons free and also provide an instrument on loan from the stock we purchased through our partnership with the Rotary Club and Yamaha. We want the children to be able to take the instruments home and for parents to be involved in the whole process of encouraging them to play.’

Having these instruments, says Kemp, is something new in pupils’ lives and the benefits are tangible: ‘Making music increases their esteem and confidence and the will to succeed. Progress might be slow but our vision is to have ensembles here, giving them experience so that they might be able to go out and join musical activities in the  community.  That is our dream.’

Some of Addington’s children do have remarkable abilities – including perfect pitch and what Kemp describes as ‘extraordinary musical memories for melody and key’. ‘We rarely have any problems getting our youngsters to sing,’ he states.

Nor has Addington fought shy of introducing the latest music technology to pupils.  ‘Acoustic instruments – percussion and so on – are used with a variety of backing tracks from CDs and computers,’ Kemp explains.  ‘It is important to use some instruments that do not need a high level of accuracy but show a musical ability without being too physically precise,’ he continues. ‘We have a lot of keyboards linked to  computers and with “switches” where we are able to record vocal and instrumental sounds.  We have Sound Beam and a whole variety of switches suited to our children’s needs. As our work progresses, we are making plans to design a “sensory theatre” with wireless switches, DVD projectors with surround sound and theatre lights, making music more accessible to all our children – speakers and switches can be placed in or under wheel chairs and padded seats.’

It’s an area of music teaching that has presented Kemp and colleagues with many new challenges.  ‘Some of the children need a very plain and ordered background to help them focus on structured tasks so we are looking at ways of developing simple workstations for each task to make progress easier,’ Kemp explains.  ‘This will be particularly helpful for autistic children who find group work difficult. We plan single activities while “drip feeding” group work, gradually building up skills. We are not just teaching music but also life skills as well. Rona and I are constantly looking at new ways to engage and encourage our students.’  The core of everything the school does is teaching life skills through music, says Kemp: ‘I think that is really our  philosophy. Music seems to be not only pleasurable but the most accessible way. It is stimulating, it is team building and it gives the confidence and life skills our kids desperately need to be included and to find their place in the world.’