"We are very grateful for your grant to fund the entrance fees to enable all family members to come to Colchester Zoo to enjoy making music together, seeing the animals at the zoo and learning about the sounds they make." Jo Colton, Interim CEO/Director of Programmes for Soundabout
30 children with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD),
severe learning disabilities (SLD) and other special educational needs
participated in music making at Colchester Zoo through this project,
along with 29 siblings and accompanied by 42 parents/carers.
"The Soundabout Colchester Zoo summer music project provided an
opportunity for disabled children and their families to participate in our
first face-to-face music making sessions in the Essex area since 2020.
During the Covid crisis, many families from the area joined online music
making activities so we wanted an inspiring space for families where
they could gather for music making, spend time with our practitioners,
Matthew and Lauren, and also meet each other for peer support.
We planned small group, multi-sensory music-based sessions with an
animal theme, and this also included full access for our participants and
their families to Colchester Zoo for the day, thanks to your kind support.
Colchester Zoo has Changing Places toilet facilities, which is essential
for our families’ needs and allowed people to be able to travel from
further afield to join us on the day without having to worry about which
toilet facilities they would have to stop at on the way.
We used the Zoo’s theatre space to create an inspiring music making
area - we were able to project images of the animals that people could
see at the Zoo, while the practitioners explored the sounds and textures
of the materials.
We delivered six music making sessions over three days, keeping the
groups very small and person-centred. The practitioners were able to
work intensely with each participant to explore their preferences and
sounds and weave that into the music making"