Summary
Are you working with kids who are disengaged, lack confidence, opt out, lack social skills, or are on the verge of exclusion?
In this episode we sit down with Henry Walker-Brown (from Noise Academy) to explore the transformative power of music for pupils with SEMH needs in schools.
Henry shares his insights on using music to empower students, foster social skills and enhance emotional well-being in the classroom.
Important links:
To visit the Noise Academy website
Get your FREE Beacon School Support classroom management scoresheet.
Get our FREE SEND Behaviour Handbook: https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/send-handbook
Download other FREE SEMH resources to use in your school: https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/resources
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Show notes / transcription
Simon Currigan
Are you working with kids who are disengaged, lack confidence, opt out, lack social skills, or are on the verge of exclusion? Then listen to this episode very carefully because Henry Walker Brown is about to describe the principles that he uses at Noise Academy to engage kids through music to improve outcomes in school. And even if you aren't specifically interested in music, I want you to sit tight because Henry is going to describe a set of principles and strategies that are directly transferable to the classroom whatever subject you teach. There's something here for everyone. I'll tell you more after the intro music. Welcome to the School Behaviour Secrets podcast. I'm your host, Simon Currigan.
My co host is Emma Shackleton, and we're obsessed with helping teachers, school leaders, parents, and, of course, students when class room behaviour gets in the way of success. We're gonna share the tried and tested secrets to classroom management, behavioural special needs, whole school strategy, and more, all with the aim of helping your students reach their true potential. Plus, we'll be letting you eavesdrop on our conversations with thought leaders from around the world. So you'll get to hear the latest evidence based strategies before anyone else. This is the School behaviour secrets podcast. Hi there. My name is Simon Currigan, and welcome to this week's episode of School Behaviour Secrets.
You know, the podcast that broadcast exclusively from Behaviour Towers where we sit around reading trauma informed practice books all day, moping about, feeling hard done by. I'm such a victim, constantly worried about our mental health while listening to why does it always rain on me by Travis on repeat. I'm joined today by my cohost who I have to say is definitely more sunshine than rain, Emma Shackleton. Hi, Emma. Hi, Simon. Emma, before we get to the content of this week's episode, I've got a quick question for you.
Emma Shackleton
Okay. Go ahead.
Simon Currigan
So I'm gonna go with a music theme here. According to a 2023 YouGov survey, what percentage of people said they had ever heard a recorder played well?
Emma Shackleton
Absolutely nobody. Like, 0%. Well, that's my personal experience. In fact, my brother thought that he was hilarious when he bought my 2 year old son a recorder for his birth day many years ago when he was a little boy. That was not funny. But, no, let's be optimistic. Let me think.
10% of people say that they've heard a recorder played well? I'm sure there are some very beautiful recorder players out there.
Simon Currigan
10 percent's damning, isn't it? And your brother's a sadist. So the answer was 29% of people, 3 times higher, said they had heard the recorder played well. Now I think that's how I give my experiences. 59% of people said they'd never heard it played well, and they have my full sympathy on that point.
Emma Shackleton
Especially not by a 2 year old.
Simon Currigan
We're upsetting all the recorder playing listeners that do it beautifully.
Emma Shackleton
I know. So sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Okay. So what could that possibly have to do with this week's episode of School Behaviour Secrets, you know, around helping kids with their behaviour or social, emotional, and mental health needs?
Simon Currigan
Today, we're gonna share my interview with Henry Walker Brown who explains how he uses music to connect with disaffected pupils or pupils with significant levels of SEMH need and uses it to increase their engagement in school, improve their confidence, and bring about all sorts of positive outcomes for them outside of those music sessions in school. And what's great is Henry actually describes a set of strategies or principles that you can apply outside of music lessons. So this is going to be relevant to you whatever your position in school or whatever subject you teach.
Emma Shackleton
Oh, sounds good. But before we go any further, we've got a quick request to everybody listening. If you're enjoying School Behaviour Secrets and getting value from our podcast, please remember to hit subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss another episode.
Simon Currigan
And, of course, if you are experiencing difficulties teaching and engaging hard to reach pupils during lesson time, there may be some simple tweaks that you could make to the way you've organised, say, the environment or the format of your lessons that could improve behaviour in class.
Emma Shackleton
And if that sounds of interest to you, we've got a completely free download that fits really well with this episode, and it's called the classroom management score sheet. Inside the score sheet, you'll find a list of 37 factors that have a direct impact on classroom behaviour.
Simon Currigan
The score sheet has a checklist of things that you're doing or not doing. Think of it as a clear road map to improve your presence in the classroom. It's based on thousands of observations that Emma and I have conducted between us, so you know it's based on sound classroom practice.
Emma Shackleton
And if you're supporting a colleague with their classroom management, it can really help to make your feedback and action points even more clear and objective. The download is completely free. We'll put a link in the episode description. All you've got to do is tap on this episode in your podcast app, and it'll bring up the episode description, and you can tap straight through. And now here's Simon's conversation with Henry Walker Brown.
Simon Currigan
So I'm very excited to welcome our guest today, Henry Walker Brown. Henry, could you just tell us a little bit about what you do, a bit about your background?
Henry Walker-Brown
Yeah. Of course. Pleasure to be here, by the way. So I work for a music tech company called Noise Academy. We primarily focus on delivering music technology and DJ sessions to SEMH students all over the UK. We are kind of expanding into mainstream areas as well and also working with adults that are suffering with mental health. So we kind of incorporate all of the music technology to, yeah, to kind of help with behavioural issues, SEMH, to help with inclusion, to help reengage young people, and ultimately just to kind of support them to kind of unlock their inner creativity, to build up that self esteem and and confidence.
I got into Noise Academy about a year ago. Prior to that, my background is in SEMH and PRU. So I started off as a TA in a pupil referral unit in Lincoln.
Simon Currigan
And could you just explain what a pupil referral unit is for people who might be listening abroad or are new to a new to education or a parent even?
Henry Walker-Brown
Yeah. Absolutely. So the people referral units, we had students that had been either permanently kind of susceptible for exclusion or those that are potentially looking at a permanent exclusion, they would come to us, 1, because they'd be kind of struggling within the mainstream setting. And it also gives the school the opportunity for the students to kind of work with other people to gain that extra support for those students in the hopes that we can reintegrate them back into mainstream education. So, yeah, so I started off as a TA working with these students. And what I found was there was a huge, huge gap in support for these students that are SEMH, the students that are struggling to kind of engage in the the kind of mainstream educational approach. Because of that, it's, I don't know, ignited something within me, inspired me a little bit to kind of pursue that a little bit further.
So what I did then was take it upon myself to take various courses, training sessions to kind of build up to a point where I could actually have my ideas incorporated within the educational system that I was working within. Over the years, I kind of built up to be part of a behaviour team. So the behaviour team was the team that was called when children went into crisis. What it is that the behaviour team was there for was essentially to help calm the students, was to help the students reintegrate back into the classrooms, reintegrate back into the socialisation. So it wouldn't just be about we're coming in as the support because the child was is in crisis. We'd be trained in various techniques, various skills to be able to deescalate a student, to be able to support them. So, obviously, a lot of our students would have EHCPs.
A lot of the stuff we would use would be on their EHCPs.
Simon Currigan
That's a hard job to do. That's a skilled job.
Henry Walker-Brown
Yeah. Absolutely. And I think when you first get into that job, when you first are in the sort of Pru setting and the Pru environment, it can be quite daunting. You learn a lot about yourself, a lot about resilience. But, ultimately, because of my passion and I believe as adults, we are kind of responsible for helping support, guide, and bring up the younger generations. I feel that that kind of overpowers the experiences that you have, whether it's physical or verbal. It's about kind of helping these young people understand their own emotions, helping them understand how to deal with certain things that go wrong.
It's about giving them the knowledge so that future and later on in life that they can actually have the tools to be able to cope and deal with these situations so that they can function in in society. So that starts at such a young age, and it's kind of our job within these settings. So, yeah, to help them build on that and be the mentors for them. A lot of these young people can't help their behaviours. I'm a I'm a huge, huge believer in behaviour as a form of communication. As I've kind of progressed through the Pru systems and SEMH schools, I I've kind of worked my way up to a deputy head of school.
We had a 110 students full time all with the EHCPs. So part of what I was doing was implementing an education system, I guess, within that setting that would benefit all those students individually. Obviously, those that have worked in SEMH and those that have worked within PRU settings know that not one shoe fits all. You have to kind of individualise the approaches, which kind of brought me on to Noise Academy, essentially. So I had Noise Academy in my school. So I saw firsthand the effects and what it was doing for the children I was working with. That kind of inspired me to kind of want to join Noise Academy because even though I could implement things within my setting, that was only a 110 children.
Now Noise Academy last year alone, we worked with around about 30,000 young people. So for me, even though I could implement and I could help and support the young people I was working with within the school, I felt that what I've got and my passion and my knowledge could be shared with more people.
Simon Currigan
It's a way of having a bigger impact.
Henry Walker-Brown
Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I'm a huge believer in creativity. I I my degree was in music production. In one way, it's kind of me coming over to Noise Academy incorporated my musical background and my educational background. We put our brains together, and we've come up with some absolutely incredible projects over the past year.
Simon Currigan
Before we get into exactly what Noise Academy actually does, which is really interesting because your approach is quite unique, could you tell us more about the specific backgrounds of the children that you support so that the people listening can kind of imagine where this is gonna be most effective or where you've got experience supporting children, who it's gonna be the most successful for. Does that make sense?
Henry Walker-Brown
So we work with everybody. We're fully inclusive. But, primarily, our focus is around the SEMH students. So students that are struggling to concentrate in class for long periods of time, students that are not attending school, students that have past traumas. So, like, my background is trauma informed. That's something that we kinda trickle down. So we use music.
Now we're not therapists, So it's not a music therapy, but we use it as a therapeutic approach. With everything that we incorporate within the sessions, it's aimed towards those people that are struggling, whether it's emotionally, whether it's physically, whether it's on a behavioural point, who we want to work with are those that that need that outlet. They need that positive outlet to be able to express themselves. Because what I found in the past is students that don't have the positive outlet, they don't have a sort of platform to be able to let their emotions out. They tend to let those emotions out in alternative ways, which tend to be quite negative. That's when you see students kind of going into crisis and doing things that necessarily they wouldn't normally do, should they have a platform to be able to to let those emotions out in in other ways.
Simon Currigan
And I guess we're often quite focused on those kids on the negative side, looking at negative Behaviour. But, actually, I remember interviewing Tom Brunzel, who's also, you know, a trauma informed expert in Australia. And he said, really, as well, we need to be strengths focused and looking for strengths for these kids where they can express themselves and have positive outcomes. And often that part of the equation kind of, outcomes. And often that part of the equation kind of just gets cancelled out or disappear because we're so focused on behaviour or aggression or difficulties in class that we lose that.
Henry Walker-Brown
Yeah. A 100% way back when I was at school. It was a case of if you got an A in English and an A in maths, but a D in science, they would put all your focus on science to try and build you up to science. What they wouldn't do is focus on, wow, you're amazing at English and maths. Let's really cultivate that.
Let's grow that. Let's make you incredible at that. What a lot of the time people tend to do is kind of focus on the area. Okay. That's not what they're doing so well at, so let's focus on that. And a lot of the time, you've got students that can't sit in class for 2 minutes or 5 minutes. So it's about finding ways of, okay, what do you like?
What's your interest? What does help you? And let's incorporate that into your daily routine so that therefore, we over time, we can get you sitting in class 5 minutes. Amazing. You've sat in class for 5 minutes. That's fantastic. It's a short term reward.
And then it's 7 minutes the next time. And you build it up rather than just kind of focus on you can't sit in class. Let's create something so that this person, whoever, can achieve. Now a lot of the students that we work with don't often achieve a lot. So for me, I think personal achievements, well done. You've been in a room with 2 people. And normally, you you don't speak to anyone. You're nonverbal.
You've had a conversation with me. That is a massive achievement for an individual. It's about focusing on those positives, and it's about really cultivating the positive behaviours, the positive achievements that each individual has.
Simon Currigan
Because success breeds success. No one wants to be in a room where they experience, from their perception, constant failure.
Henry Walker-Brown
A 100%. And that is the majority of the cohort of young people that we work with have experienced that. So if they're struggling in academics, in maths, for example, they're not gonna achieve a lot in maths. If they're struggling in English, they're not gonna achieve a lot in English. When you're repeatedly kind of told or you're repeatedly failing, and it does have its toll, not just on your academics, but on your mental health, your self esteem, your confidence. Like I say, the majority of the students we work with don't have that that sense of achievement. So that's something that we absolutely try and incorporate with what we do.
Simon Currigan
So can you talk us through that approach? Can you tell us what you do with them at Noise Academy, how you embrace those strengths and create those strengths and start creating that positive kind of feedback loop.
Henry Walker-Brown
Yeah. Absolutely. So for me and my background, one thing that I will always talk to my staff when I was managing a team of people would be the first point of call is the positive relationship. A lot of the young people we work with don't have many positive relationships in their life. So how we start our sessions is that we kind of run a taster session. So we'll have a tutor that goes in. We tend to do our sessions in 1 to 1 or pairs, which gives students that that platform to be able to be themselves, to express themselves, but it also ultimately gives them the ability to be able to build up a really, really strong positive relationship with the tutor.
So once we've kind of done this taster and the tutor's kind of gauge the interests and the needs of the young people that they're working with, From there, we could just build up. So in terms of DJing, for example, it looks super scary. There's lots of buttons, lots of lights, there's lots of flashing. I think anybody for the first time goes, woah. It's like a mixing desk or a recording desk or anything. It can be quite daunting. But because we've got that positive relationship and we're building that trust, students are able to kind of achieve little short tasks.
So what we do is we will set them a task. So at the end of the session, they've completed something.
They've achieved something. Well done. This is amazing. Like, you've just achieved something.
Simon Currigan
Could you give us an example, like a specific example of what one of those tasks, those small tasks might be?
Henry Walker-Brown
Yeah. So we've got a specialist curriculum. And what we do with our curriculum, we have weekly blocks. Now, again, we tailor each session to suit the child. So we've got accelerated learners. We've got learners that may need a couple of weeks on one specific thing. So what the tutor will do is kind of set them a task.
So we've got an a, b, c mixing method. This could be achieved quite quickly, quite easily depending on the student. But what our tutors will do is make it achievable for them. Some if they might potentially be mixing maybe harder genre of music, might be faster, it might be various effects on it, which might make it difficult for those that are less able or those that are kind of just a little bit slower to pick up, then the tutor will kind of lower the expectation and lower the achievement. So it might be rather than mixing a, b, c, d, you might just do a, b. And if you do that, that is fantastic.
Simon Currigan
And what do you mean by a, b, or a, b, c, d?
Henry Walker-Brown
I might be giving away some, company secrets here.
Simon Currigan
This is the secret formula for mixing music together?
Henry Walker-Brown
Yeah. Absolutely. So, I don't want to give away too much. It's about selecting a track, bringing a track in, bringing up the bass, and then bringing up another track. I'm not gonna go into too much detail. So because
Simon Currigan
Okay. But just so people can imagine, this is like you've got 2 songs and you're mixing 1 song into the other, so it's smooth.
It's not jarring. It's kind of a gradual, subtle.
Henry Walker-Brown
I mean, sometimes that happens. But, yeah, it's about blending music. Now the students obviously select their music that they want to mix and blend together. It's the same with production. So when we do production, we kind of take their interest into consideration. Now if a child is saying this is what I like, this is what I want to do with this project, then what that does is gives them some responsibility for their own learning journey because they've kind of selected what it is they're interested in and how they want to do it. And then it's up to us to support and guide them to kind of get to the end outcome.
What we've found is, and I think with anything, if a student does have that kind of that responsibility of, yeah, I've chosen this, the engagement is a lot higher. Now the most amazing thing about music is that you can do kind of anything with it. You can mix any genres that you wanna mix. Now with the production side of things, you can produce anything. I've worked with some students that have created some very, very experimental music. I mean, technically, it's fantastic. Listening to it, I don't understand it, but that's fine because it's not about it's not about me.
It's about them expressing themselves. And if they wanna do it in a screaming music or shouting music or classical music, then that's exactly what we want. We want them not to just kind of follow everybody else. We want them to be themselves. It might not be everybody's cup of tea. And that's essentially what we do. And that's essentially the kind of, like, what we're here for is to give these students a platform to engage, to be creative, and to kind of express themselves.
Simon Currigan
I think you said 2 important things in the last 10 minutes, actually. The transferable to classrooms in general, you started there with being child led, especially for pupils with social, emotional, mental health needs. Filtering the curriculum through their interests and pulling them in is so important. Actually, something you said earlier that I think is worth unpacking and thinking about if you're driving, listening to this, or on a treadmill listening to this, talked about the difference between extroverts and introverts, and sometimes we confuse extroverts with those who are engaged with the learning and with introverts who we kinda think aren't participating, but they might be participating in their own way. The world needs different kinds of people. And, actually, what we do to encourage the introverts to come and join in with a task or activity and not kind of be drowned out by the extroverts, They're kind of participating in their own way, and we have to adapt our style and the way we approach engagement in our lessons for different character types really to be successful.
Henry Walker-Brown
Yeah. Absolutely. So it goes back to when I was working in schools and PRU's is that we would very much have our attention focused on areas in which staff can recognise behaviours and staff can recognise individuals to a point where if a if a student walks in with their hood up, but every single day you've seen that they don't have their hood up, then there's obviously something underlying there. Now what we can't do is if that student then decides they're not taking part in the lesson today, it's just decide that that student is just being difficult. Because there's obviously there's something that has happened that's triggered that's it's kind of like a snowball effect as it were. So in in terms of the introverts within the classroom, it's up to us as mentors, teachers, adults for the next generation to kind of help encourage them or even just to teach them how to engage in different ways. But I think the education system as a whole, maybe not so much now, but when I was younger, was very much focused on you sit down, you're quiet, you listen, you write.
And for me, I'm quite a talkative person. So I spent a lot of time sort of outside of the classroom working at the front of the classroom where I couldn't see anybody or speak to anybody. And rather than, okay, use your skill set within the classroom, maybe get up and maybe you can teach some of the students. So it's kind of peer on peer learning. And then maybe pair me up or whoever up with a, like you say, a quieter student where both our skill sets can kind of merge together. I'm hoping, like I say, that the kind of education is going in the way now where we can recognise these sort of traits in young people and what we can do is we can cater for them. And rather than punishing students for being individual or for being introvert or for being kind of different to the mainstream ideology, I think it's about like what you're saying earlier.
We we cultivate it and we kind of help these young people thrive. So it's about recognizing the the individual needs and trying to find these creative ways even within the classroom, trying to find these creative ways of how we can engage all students, give them that ability to be able to kind of use whatever it is they have to succeed in life.
Simon Currigan
I think you're spot on. On a slight tangent jumping off of what you said as well, I mean, in secondary schools, we often see children expected to sit in silence for an hour and just write quietly or just listen to the teacher. And then we complain they've got no social skills because they've never had the opportunity to engage in structured talk. That's a completely different issue.
Henry Walker-Brown
I agree. I agree.
Simon Currigan
I'm gonna ask you to give us a success story in a moment, but how well do you find that the kids transfer the skills and the confidence that they're learning at Noise Academy back into their schools and at home? What what's the larger impact on their behaviour, their confidence, their interpersonal skills?
Henry Walker-Brown
Once we've kind of gone through 3, 4, maybe 5 sessions, what we find is that, yeah, the confidence confidence and self esteem for me is massive for young people because if you haven't got the confidence, self esteem, you're then not willing to try things if if you think you're gonna fail. And if you're not confident in in trying things, then you don't progress. So what we have found is students and especially feedback from schools, feedback from parents is that students are finding this confidence, finding this self esteem, which means that, like you say, that they're transferring it into the classroom. Now in terms of the subconscious as well, because of what we're kind of drip feeding in with the cross curricular aspects of counting, waveforms, various different bits of bobs, the socializing aspect of it. So when we're trying to get students collaborating with one another through that subconsciously, they're learning in areas in which they either didn't like or or didn't think they could do. I mean, the power of our subconscious brain is immense. It's almost like learned so we don't have to.
It's like a lazy way of learning as it were. But what I found is when we drip feed these things through our sessions is that their confidence builds whether they notice it straight away or not. But their confidence in, let's say, maths, for example, builds because of the cross curricular stuff that they're kind of taking in. Now if I was to say to a student, right, we're gonna do some maths within this DJ lesson. No. I'm not doing that. But if I was to say to a student, right, I need you to count the beats.
I need you to look at the waveform, things like that, they don't know that they're doing these cross curricular things, but it is going in. So therefore, when they do transfer into a classroom, subconsciously, the confidence is there because it's all I've I've kind of done a bit of this. So I kinda know what I'm doing. But with the short term achievements, like I say, the short term achievements, the self esteem, I'm gonna talk to you about a specific success story in a minute that incorporates everything that we're just kind of talking about now and about how over time, they can use the skills to kind of develop themselves, which, like I said, the confidence and the self esteem is the starting point of everything.
Simon Currigan
And then that transfer from one domain to the next domain to the next domain, you carry it with you. Go on. And get into that success story then. Tell us give us a practical real world example.
Henry Walker-Brown
So this was just before I started so this was one of my students in in my school. This student was an introverted character. He was not sociable. He didn't kind of socialize with any other students. He had real issues with this sort of auditory processing system. So he couldn't take part in lunchtime activities. He couldn't be in the dining hall.
Unstructured time was just was too much for him, overwhelming. He showed a bit of interest in music. So we gave him a guitar, and we started doing some guitar lessons and things like that, which was alright. Like I said, it was 1 to 1 and guitar's quite mellow, quite chilled. So he got on really well with that. I then introduced him to a Noise Academy tutor. So we had Noise Academy in our school.
I explained to the tutor what I kind of wanted out of it essentially for him. So he agreed to start having the lessons. The auditory going in was to help him control it, essentially. So almost like cognitive therapy. So he was able to repeatedly kind of take part in these sessions. He was able to control the noise input into his own sort of processing system essentially. So over time, what we found was he started off doing some, like, low level mixing without headphones on, and he'd do it for, like, 10, 15 minutes.
We'd then kind of up that time to maybe 20 minutes, and then it would kinda get a little bit louder and he'd kinda chop and change different songs. We started on mellow music, and we got up to kind of a little bit faster music where it's a bit more hectic. We then started mixing with headphones on, so that's quite concentrated sound in into your ears directly. So over time, what we found was the more he got into the music, the more he was able to control the sort of the sound input. He was eventually able to kind of sit in the dining hall at lunchtime because he's kind of his brain and his kind of whole processing system has now kinda got used to these different sounds and noise levels. We then introduce another student into his class.
Simon Currigan
Before we move on to that, can I just say that's really interesting because it's almost like by that exposure therapy, you've trained his brain to be able to cope with more and more input, which then leads to greater success at lunch times, break times, and so on?
Henry Walker-Brown
Yeah. Absolutely. So this goes on to that snowballing effect that I was explaining earlier. So now that he's kind of at that point and bearing in mind, this didn't take 2 weeks. This was over a period of about 8 to 10 weeks. We then introduced another student into his session that he could collaborate with and kind of DJ with. Because as I said before, because of his issues with sound, it didn't socialize because unstructured time like lunchtime, break time, those sort of times are where students socialize the most.
It meant that his is sort of the social aspects of his life was kind of going down, and he wasn't picking up the skills that all the other students were picking up., so we introduced another student which meant that he then at lunchtime had someone to sit with and our tutor would sit with both of them at lunchtime as well. And mentor model the model as it were in terms of socialization, asking questions, sort of appropriate communication things. His confidence grew because he could be around other people. His socialization and his social skills grew because he was around other people. Because of the first little bit, we recognized we stripped it back. We recognized it was the sound. It was the overload, the overwhelming.
We've built up from that, which has built his confidence, built his socialize, and built his self esteem. That young man, when he left at 16 years old, was a different lad. He was confident. At one point, he was probably one of the loudest in the room. He's actually gone on to music college. And I did hear about maybe 6 weeks ago that he's thriving. He's doing really, really well.
It was just one of the most amazing things to kind of see unfold over time. So that person was in there. That person was he was that person. He just had a barrier. And all we did is help him slowly knock down that barrier so that he can now thrive within society, can deal with stressful situations. He can be around lots of people. Yeah. It was it was fantastic.
Absolutely brilliant to see.
Simon Currigan
That's massive. If you're a teacher or a parent listening to this podcast, we've talked about a lot. What's the first step you can take today to use music or the principles that we've been talking about to support your student with their social and emotional needs?
Henry Walker-Brown
So I'll just really quickly, I'll go into one that I use with my own children. So musical statues. Okay? Musical statues from the outside in just looks like you play music, you stop music, you stand still as a statue. If you look into it further, musical statues encompasses so much for the sensory processing system. So a lot of our students that suffer with SEMH needs or whatever, their sort of processing systems need various tweaking as it were. They need stimulating or down regulating in various different aspects.
So with musical statues, you incorporate lots of different stuff. So your vestibular processing system, when you stop the music, student, they balance, they stop, they freeze, they get in various different positions. It's it's about, like, that fine motor skills. It's about sort of using that vestibular to be able to to kind of form these shapes. But also yourauditory processing. So you're listening to the sound. You're listening when it's gonna stop.
You're listening when it's gonna start. Responsiveness, obviously, you stop the music, you have to freeze it at the same time. So in terms of using it in the classroom, what I would suggest to, people is to kind of start off with the music quite fast, get them up regulated, get them almost like a sensory circuit. And then what you can do over a series of a couple of tracks is slow the music down, slow the movements down. And then what that does, it down regulate students ready to kind of engage within their learning. Also, this sort of call and response, the sort of I clap, you clap. I sing a note, you sing a note.
There's so, so much that music can kinda help with. Even to a point of if you're a teacher, have some kind of mellow music playing as students walk into your classroom. Because what that does, if they're hyped up from break time, they're gonna be up here. What you don't wanna then deal with is 20, 30 students that are all up regulated and only down regulated by the time they leave. So what you can do is use music, so calming music as they walk in, Maybe even just as quiet as to the point where they don't really notice it's there for the same similar music to what you hear in a spa, for example.
It's very calming. It's relaxing.
And it is a great way to kind of to down regulate students that are upregulated from activities or break times or a fun lesson they've had before. Just having that kind of music on in the background, I wouldn't kind of recommend having drum and bass playing as students walk in from break time because it could be fairly chaotic. But any form of music where students can kind of either express themselves or whether they can kind of just listen to it and kind of just take a moment, yeah, just really, really does make a huge, huge impact. Those that do have access to musical instruments, to recording studios, then it is a absolutely amazing way for students to either talk about their feelings or express their feelings. We work with a lot of rappers and a lot of singers and what we found is that they use that. They won't necessarily talk to someone about what's going on in their head, but that what they will do is use music as a form of getting that out. I've spoken to various students, so now I'm not talking to you about that. That's fine.
That's not a problem. But then when you get them in front of a microphone and you sit there and listen and you kinda go, oh, wow. That's what's going on up there.
Like, it's amazing. Not only is amazing for them to get out, but it's also amazing for us as educators to understand what is going on. Because I think it's the is it the the limbic system which is kind of involved in our brain, which is involved with our emotions and memory? And when our ears perceive music, that kind of triggers. So there's various different bits out there, research and videos and stuff. I think there's one amazing one of a of a gentleman that had dementia. And they played him some music and sat him in front of a piano.
And all of a sudden, he was able to play this piano like nothing that ever happened like he did before. So the power that music has on our brains and our emotions and memories, yes, just it's amazing. And what we're doing, yes, people might think, oh, it's DJ and that's not gonna be mentoring aspect, the social aspect.
It's the cross curricular aspect. It's the self esteem aspect, the encouragement. And also it's relevant it's relevant to a lot of the students we work with. I I think I would struggle with a lot of our students if I was to say we're gonna now learn the violin because it's something that I mean, there are there are people out there that that are absolutely into their sort of contemporary and classical, and that's absolutely fantastic. But what I found with music curriculum as a whole, it's quite dated. So we bring a kind of new, a fresh, and more relevant experience for these young people. It's what they're listening to.
It's what they like. And therefore, let's use that. As we said at the beginning, let's use what they're interested in, what they're good at, and let's infuse that with their kind of day to day education. And if from that we can build up the confidence, the self esteem, we can get them kind of working in classrooms, then it's a winner. Giving them an outlet where they can kind of use it in a positive way.
Simon Currigan
If someone's listening to this and they want to learn more about Noise Academy or they're interested in working with you, how do they get in touch? Where do they go to on the web?
How do they do that? How do they engage with you?
Henry Walker-Brown
So our website is www.noiseacademy.co.uk. And on there, there's various different kind of tabs. So if you're looking for one off workshops, you're looking for courses within your school setting. There's various different places that you can go to on there. Now, again, we are very, very open to tailoring specific courses. So if what you can't find is on there, then please, please just give us a ring. We can have a discussion.
And like I say, we're super passionate about kind of making it fit settings. So what we won't do is come to a setting and say, this is how we do it. We will discuss, and we will liaise and then so we can get the package right so it meets the needs for the students and the setting as a whole.
Simon Currigan
And finally, we ask this of all our guests. Who's the key figure that's influenced you or the key book that you've read that's had the biggest impact on your approach to working with children?
Henry Walker-Brown
So the key figures would be quite a lot of the people that were around me growing up as a child. I wouldn't say I was the easiest child. And seeing their approach, teachers as well, seeing their approach to kind of helping me and supporting me made me understand that actually there's there is a need for this. There's a need for adults to understand children rather than like what we said before is just punishing from face value. So he's behaving like that because he's naughty.
Not Why is he behaving like that? Let's see how we can support that. So all of those individuals that have kind of supported me growing up into an adult have been the reason why I've really wanted to kind of support young people now. And the book, which I will name is, The little book about big stuff about the brain by Andrew Curran, which basically goes into a lot about how the brain works, which I think is so important if you're working with young people. Because to understand what's going on in their brains and what's going on in your brains as an adult, we get stressed out. When you're working with a child that is constantly tapping his pen and doing bits and bobs, it can stress you out, but it's about understanding as to why. Why is that happening?
Why am I feeling like that? So for us to understand our brains and how young people's brains work, I think for me, it's an absolute must, really. I think it's super, super important. But, yeah, it's a great, great, great book.
Simon Currigan
Henry, fascinating discussion. Really enjoyed it. Pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you for joining us today.
Henry Walker-Brown
No. Thank you for having me. Yeah. I've really, it's been great.
Emma Shackleton
Oh, that was a great interview.
Simon Currigan
Yeah. Henry definitely knows his stuff.
Emma Shackleton
And what I really enjoyed was that the strategies he talked about could be used in any classroom.
Simon Currigan
Absolutely. And if you're interested in knowing more about Henry and his work, I've put direct links in the episode description.
Emma Shackleton
So if you found today's episode helpful or useful, don't just keep it to yourself. Leave us a review as this will prompt the algorithm to share the show with other teachers, school leaders, and parents who might also find it helpful.
Simon Currigan
Subscribing and reviewing really do help the show grow. We both really appreciate it.
Emma Shackleton
It. What? Is that it?
No ridiculous reason to subscribe? Like, you'll feel as happy as a clown who's just been gifted an especially large pair of trousers, or as thrilled as a dieter who's just peed on a testing stick and discovered they're in ketosis. None of that rubbish.
Simon Currigan
No. I'm just out.
I've written over 150 surreal reasons why you should celebrate subscribing to the show or smashing that subscribe button, and I am spent. I've got nothing left. I'm as empty as a balloon at a hedgehog hugging workshop, as empty as a Liz Truss economic policy, as empty as a post by a 3rd rate social media influencer sharing their views on thermodynamics.
Emma Shackleton
Well, to be honest, that's no great loss. Anyway, we hope you have a brilliant week, and we look forward to seeing you next time on School Behaviour Secrets. Bye for now
Simon Currigan
Bye.
(This automated transcript may not be 100% accurate.)
