Southern Culture
Did You Know?
Canterbury
In 1170 Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in the Cathedral and ever since, the Cathedral has attracted thousands of pilgrims, as told in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
Music Start
Working with the Healing Arts unit at St Marys Hospital, Isle of Wight, the Centre has recently evaluated the MusicStart project, an innovative community music initiative that aimed to encourage singing and music-making in families with young children from birth to five, right across the island.
One of the original features of this proejct was the creation of a MusicStart pack full of stimulating materials and musical instruments, finger puppets, ideas cards and a CD - to help parents make music with their young children. The pack was distributed to families by the islands team of Health Visitors, and by the end of the project, over 2,000 families had received it. To gain feedback from families on the pack an island-wide survey was undertaken, and parents' comments were overwhelmingly positive:
Excellently presented, gratefully received! A great idea I've learned so many new songs and had my memory refreshed with others. A really good way to develop a childs love of music during the crucial early years giving lifelong benefit. Needs to be distributed as widely as possible.
I think the pack is excellent. It's great to hear new songs and other ideas for introducing music to our children.
I found the pack to be of great benefit, my daughter really responds to the instruments. The fact that its free is wonderful, and with that in mind, I cannot see there is any room for improvement.
One mother said of the MusicStart Pack:
I don't think it could be improved - it is a great pack and if I didnt have it, I wouldn't have known how much my daughter loves me singing.
A full report on the MusicStart Evaluation is available here