SONGBIRDS FLEDGLINGS:
MUSICIANS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT 2024
Working musically with children in hospital pediatric ward settings
Songbirds & The Royal Northern College of Music
In 2023 Songbirds and the RNCM launched a new professional development programme for 8 musicians to work alongside Songbirds musicians, health play specialists and children & families across 4 hospital sites within Manchester Foundation Trust. The project develops musicians’ skills & experience to use their music in hospital settings, build networks and enable musicians to further their own career in this setting.
In the past year we have had 8 musicians join us to complete their Fledglings residency. These musicians played a wide variety of instruments and brought lots of different skills and experiences to their training.
We were very impressed with the standard of the successful applicants and loved being able to watch them grow throughout the past year.
After initial training, students worked in pairs to deliver a series of sessions independently, in conjunction with play staff from the Therapeutic and Specialised Play Services under manager Susan Fairclough.
What’s involved?
Introductory training: 3 days of practical workshops and skills training, introduction to working in paediatric hospital settings and connecting with professionals in this field
Shadowing visits: Led by Songbirds Specialist Musicians – observing work in practice in ward spaces at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital
Fledgling residency: An opportunity to work in pairs to deliver 4 sessions in a paediatric ward, supported by the Songbirds team and Health Play Staff
Creative reflection: Participation in an end of project meet-up and the opportunity to share your learning journey through the Songbirds website and networks
RNCM Fledglings Training Weekend Scrapbook
Feedback from the Fledglings
It has been great to have such positive feedback from the Fledglings musicians following the successful conclusion of their residency. Here is what they had to say:
“Volunteering with Songbirds has been such a valuable experience; to both my personal and professional life. I can’t thank Ros and Mark enough for helping us in each step we took, and being so supportive of us all. It’s something I’ll never forget doing, and I can’t wait to see what they do in the future.”
“At the start of the project, I think we all felt a bit overwhelmed with what we had in store for us, and the prospect of going into a hospital (the complete opposite from our music college environment!) was fairly daunting. However, as our training progressed we felt more and more prepared and excited to make music with hospital patients. After our group session in the MRI foyer, we were surprised at how natural we found it to play to children. We found the progression to our sessions in pairs much easier after having shadowed Ros and Mark for a few weeks. “
"I really enjoyed interacting with the children.. It was also really nice to share the music and more about our instruments with the children and their families... It was really encouraging when the children played around with the instruments that we offered them, and to see them enjoying making music was really heartwarming as well. Being able to make their visit to the hospital a more enjoyable one is certainly a really amazing experience."
"With my reflections from every stage of training in mind, I am better able to see the role that music plays in a hospital, and how best to implement this to engage with patients and their families."
