School of Education

Evaluation of the Live Music Now Scotland (LMNS) Project

The LMNS project is a collaboration between Live Music Now Scotland (LMNS), South Ayrshire’s Creative Learning Network and five Additional Support Needs (ASN) schools and units. Using the medium of music, the LMNS musicians, classroom teachers and primary children explored how music can support and develop the students’ language and communication skills over two years in 2023 and 2024. The LMNS project sought to collaborate to ‘create a rich, aesthetic learning environment where collectively they can learn, share, reflect and grow together’. The project aimed to support the curriculum through music. It consisted of the placement of a LMNS musician within the participating ASN schools working in collaborative partnerships with teachers to build teacher confidence, skills and experience with teaching the curriculum through the medium of music. Ultimately, through teacher’s professional development, the goal is to support children’s confidence with communication. The focus on music emphasised song and songwriting, providing a supportive environment to develop speech, vocabulary, confidence and life skills. It involved the participation of five stakeholders: four LMNS musicians; five ASN schools/units within South Ayrshire; over 20 classroom teachers and over 100 children with additional support needs.

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation provided funding for the LMNS Project. An integral part of the Project was this external evaluation to assess impact, identify the processes involved and provide formative and summative feedback to allow LMNS and participating schools to adapt the model in the light of emerging findings.