Music for Every Learner: Inclusive Music Teaching and Curriculum Design for Children and Young People with SEND

Music for Every Learner brings together music education, psychology, autism specialism and classroom experience to explore how music can be taught in ways that widen access while retaining musical purpose and challenge. The book grew from a scheme of work developed in a specialist residential school for autistic pupils aged 3–18 and has been expanded through wider work in SEND, communication and inclusive education.

Across 38 chapters, it examines participation, communication, agency and progression alongside the teaching of sound and silence, pulse, rhythm, pitch, dynamics, timbre, texture and structure. Further chapters explore singing and vocalisation, music and movement, instruments, notation, improvisation, composition, technology, ensemble work, assessment and curriculum design.

The book is written for specialist and non-specialist music teachers, classroom teachers, teaching assistants, tutors, trainee teachers and home educators. It can support practice in mainstream and specialist schools, alternative provision, further education and community settings.

Rather than prescribing a single programme, it offers adaptable principles, examples and planning tools for responding to individual learners and groups. The emphasis throughout is on age-respectful, purposeful music-making in which learners can participate, communicate, make choices and develop musically.