Music Therapy

Curnow School has offered music therapy since 2005

Music therapy is not the same as music tuition; its purpose is not to teach pupils/students how to play an instrument but to allow them to translate their emotions and psychological processes into music in order to release and heal. Music can offer an alternative method of communication or expression when words are not an option or inadequate. Indeed, for many children who find communication difficult, music can open a door into the world of interaction.

WHEN WORDS WON’T WORK – MUSIC CAN SPEAK FOR YOU

"Music expresses emotions which are too precise for words" Mendelssohn

The aim of music therapy is to bring out a person’s musical creativity in order to develop positive changes in behaviour, emotional and physical wellbeing, and communication.

A music therapist is a skilled musician who has undergone professional music therapy training at post-graduate level. All professional music therapists are registered with the Health Professions Council; further information can be found on-line (see links below).

In the music therapy room you’ll find a range of enticing instruments including keyboards, guitars, big African drums, congas, microphones, amplifiers, xylophones, gongs and various percussion. Pupils/students are encouraged to use any (or all!) of these to play music – and in doing so they communicate something of their inner world; this then becomes what the therapist works with.

Our music therapist, Robin Bates, trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music in Cardiff; Robin also supervises state-registered music therapists in Cornwall and across the South West.

Robin works intensively either in a one-to-one or with groups of pupils/students; Robin liaises with teachers and other support staff in regards to the work he is addressing.

Robin assesses pupil/student progress over time in Music Therapy sessions addressing personalised learning outcomes devised with the teaching staff within the school.

Robin contributes to Annual Reviews and writes reports for parents/carers of the pupils/students he has worked with; he also runs twice-yearly workshops for parents/carers to explain and illustrate how he works and where parents have the opportunity, over biscuits and tea, to ask any questions they might have.