Research Shorts: The Smile Project (Strategies for Music in Learning-difficulties Education)
13th May 2025
This week I’ve been talking to Dr Caroline Waddington-Jones about her work with the Smile Project. This vital work aims to improve music provision for learning-disabled pupils in special schools by empowering and upskilling their generalist teachers. It’s led by Caroline, Karen Irwin from Live Music Now and Professor Adam Ockelford.
Caroline explained:
‘Music provision in special schools is suffering from budget cuts and teachers’ low confidence in their music teaching abilities, and there’s a big gap between inclusive rhetoric in NPME2 and what’s actually happening in classrooms.’
In response to this, the Smile resource has been built ‘in response to what educators have told us they need to support their music teaching. It’s a free online resource with accessible and effective music activities and lesson plans on common curriculum topics.’ The team are currently expanding the topics available.
I asked Caroline how the research took place: ‘Lots of interviews and questionnaires with special school staff to understand current challenges they are experiencing in relation to music provision and how these might best be addressed.’ She explained that teachers had ‘systematically evaluated the resources in practice with their classes’ to help improve them and identify new areas for growth.
The team hope that the resources will be useful for ‘educators in special schools, hubs and services, visiting musicians working in special schools, and families of learning-disabled children – anyone who wants to support a learning-disabled child or children in music learning.’
I asked Caroline to tell us more about her work, and she explained,
‘I started out as a professional clarinettist and developed an interest in performance psychology that led to a PhD. My work as a musician and educator in special schools and community contexts inspires my research on musical inclusion and wellbeing.’
She went on, ‘Tackling real-world problems and collaborating with communities to solve them are priorities for me as a researcher.’
Find out more:
- Resources and information: https://smile.livemusicnow.org.uk/
- Dr Caroline Waddington-Jones: https://www.york.ac.uk/arts-creative-technologies/people/carolinewaddington-jones/
