Listen Imagine Compose Primary: Researching the teaching and learning of composition

Listen Imagine Compose Primary (LICP) was a partnership action research project between Birmingham Contemporary Music group (BCMG), Sound and Music (SaM), Birmingham City University (BCU), Birmingham Music Education Hub, Bristol Beacon and 8 schools across Birmingham and Bristol.

Over two years, 9 professional composers worked with 16 classes with a total of 480 Year 4 and Year 5 children and their class teachers. The project drew on knowledge and practice developed through a number of past projects undertaken by the partners, both jointly and individually. LICP is part of a long-term partnership between BCMG, SaM, and BCU which has collaboratively been researching the teaching and learning of composing music in schools in England for many years.

The aims of the project were to work with teachers and composers to develop meaningful and relevant composing activity for children, and to better understand children’s composing and how they progress as composers. A wider and more long-term aim is to improve the quality and frequency of composing in primary schools. Running alongside the activity in schools were reflective symposiums and continuing professional development for both teachers and composers. LICP is an award-winning project. In 2024 it won the Music and Drama Education Awards for Excellence in Primary and Early Years.

What impact did the project have?

Composing has been part of the UK National Curriculum since 1992, however, the understanding of children as composers and how they progress is still poorly understood and under-researched. Listen Imagine Compose Primary sought to provide opportunities for all children to compose in 8 project schools and to overcome barriers to access musical experiences in composing. This is groundbreaking work as this research project developed research understanding of composing with young children and how teachers and composers can work together to enable children’s musical development.

The project led to the development of a composing toolkit in primary schools, an extensive resource which is now freely available to all primary schools and to a training programme available to music hubs.

Project Team

• Professor Martin Fautley 
• Dr Anthony Anderson 
• Dr Victoria Kinsella-Hadjinestoros
• Dr Emma Nenadic
• Nancy Evans 

Outputs

To find out more, please read our executive summary report.

Read our publication: Beowulf Opera Scenes: Classroom music pedagogy and knowledge when composing an opera with primary-school children 

Please email Anthony.Anderson@bcu.ac.uk for further details on the project.