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Did you know that music-making can help even the youngest babies form attachments with the adults in their lives?
That’s why Darlington Borough Council and Blue Cabin teamed up in 2023 to create a special programme of music-making for babies, children and their foster carers, hosted by Theatre Hullabaloo and funded by Youth Music, Darlington Borough Council and Creative Darlington.
Now, thanks to additional funding from Youth Music, This is the Place has expanded into Redcar and Cleveland.
We spoke to Rachael James from Redcar and Cleveland Virtual School about the impact she hopes the programme will have on care-experienced families.
I work as a pupil inclusion officer and my role is to work collaboratively with social care and schools to ensure that children in care are not further disadvantaged in their education by their care status.
I meet regularly with the care team around a child to review their education plan and offer support, advice and guidance as and when required.
On a more strategic level, we also look to change the hearts and minds of those we work with to encourage people to think differently about how they interact with care-experienced children. This has involved being a part of our Virtual Reality Trauma awareness session roll-out and becoming a licensed THRIVE practitioner.
I have been a part of the early logistics for the This is the Place project in Redcar which involved securing a location and making our families aware that the sessions were going to be taking place.
I am also in attendance at every session to support the families and the musicians in their delivery of the sessions.
I am hoping that the programme will provide a consistent, positive and safe space for our foster families to meet on a weekly basis.
I hope that we will see relationships form between foster families and relationships bloom between foster families and the children attending.
It would be wonderful to see the children become familiar with the songs and watch their confidence grow as they become more and more willing to take part in the sessions.
I am looking forward to working closely with the Blue Cabin team to positively impact the lives of our foster families and their children. It will be wonderful to watch and support the children to grow in confidence and nurture a love of music and rhythm.
The weekly This is the Place sessions are now up and running and a core group of attendees has already started to form.
We are already witnessing the families form lovely and supportive relationships with each other. We have seen lots of evidence already that the children are coming out of their shells and are really enjoying their time spent engaging with all of the elements of the sessions.
The next steps will be to grow the group over the course of the next academic year and to continue to support the growth and development of all those involved.
The response from the families that have attended so far has been fantastic. They have expressed how much they enjoy coming to the sessions, to the extent that they wish they could keep coming over the summer!
They have invested in their own instruments after engaging with them in the sessions and are keen to share with us how they have been using them at home. They have been talking about the sessions within their networks and encouraging others to attend as they have been enjoying them so much!
Talk to us about running a project like this in your area – email Lucy Ridley on lucy@wearebluecabin.com.
