ount Me In! Developing and analysing the efficacy of pedagogical strategies for those providing music education to children with special abilities

Count Me In! is an internationally innovative project that explores the strategies that class teachers and musicians working with children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities can use to ensure their lessons and sessions are musically inclusive. Count Me In! is underpinned by the thinking set out in the Sounds of Intent framework of musical development and identifies four levels of musical engagement: 'sound-making', 'pattern- making', 'motif-making' and 'music-making'. The research will entail working with musicians from Live Music Now in four special schools, catering for a range of special educational needs.
Differentiated teaching strategies will be created in partnership with the musicians and class teachers, trialled, and their impact on pupils' capacity to engage in musical activities will be analysed using the Sounds of Intent framework. Beyond the research project, the resources that are created and trialled will be made freely available online, potentially transforming music education for pupils in special schools and inclusive mainstream settings.