Outreach with LEYF!

The beginning of the latest phase of the Conservatoire’s outreach activities got underway on 3rd September with our conference on creative learning for early years practitioners. We have teamed up with our friends at London Early Years Foundation, who operate the Conservatoire nursery and almost 40 other settings across London, to develop with them a brand new music curriculum. Working initially with 10 pairs of nurseries, some of them in the poorest areas of the capital, we are working to place music and creativity at the heart of the work of the nurseries.

A shot from our training workshop with LEYF workers!

June O’Sullivan MBE spoke passionately about the power of the arts to change lives, demonstrating how closely LEYF’s ethos matches that of the Conservatoire. The keynote speaker was the leading expert in child development and creativity, Ruth Churchill Dower from EarlyArts , who praised the collaboration between the Conservatoire and LEYF, saying: '"Time and again, I see a child's engagement transformed through an arts or creative approach. It enables them to unlock their identities, abilities and potential’

Over the next two years, we will be working with LEYF’s settings to develop good practice, support staff, and involve families in bringing innovative new approaches to creative learning to some of the most challenged parts of London.

The funding we received from the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation has been transformational for us, and through this link with LEYF, our renowned and wonderful early years programme will begin to have an impact on lives across Greater London. This is a superb example of what can happen when a funder and social enterprises come together with a dynamic charity: I am delighted that our message of the transformative power of the arts is now being developed far beyond our local area.