RNCM project shortlisted for Times Higher Education Award

A collaborative project between the RNCM and South Manchester’s Barlow Hall Primary School to help children with autism has been shortlisted for a Times Higher Education Award.

Connect@Barlow Hall was established in 2016 to create a better visual and sonic environment for children within Barlow Hall’s Communication Centre who have autism or language impairments.

The full project comprised several strands, including the design and installation of a new sensory garden where children can explore the senses with different elements of sound, smell and touch, an impressive tessellation artwork connecting hundreds of butterflies designed and decorated by the School’s children and staff, a soundscape to replace the school bell which autistic children often find too painful to hear, and the writing and recording of a brand new school song.

Through a series of workshops with composer Kate Pearson and alum Lucy Armstrong, children from Reception to Year 6 were involved in writing the lyrics and melody to Look Inside, which they recorded in the RNCM Concert Hall accompanied by a band of 22 students.

Connect@Barlow Hall is the second project to be shortlisted for the Widening Participation or Outreach Initiative of the Year after the Children’s Opera Into the Labyrinth, which was nominated in 2015. The results will be announced at an awards ceremony on Thursday 29 November at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London.

6 September 2018