Luton Inclusive Youth Steelpan Trailblazer Fund Proposal
Tell us about your organisation.
UK Centre for Carnival Arts (UKCCA) is an organisation and centre dedicated to promoting excellence within carnival arts. We support and champion the work of carnival groups across the UK and facilitate carnival education in Luton and the surrounding areas. We also host the annual Luton International Carnival.
The UKCCA’s mission is to:
- Champion high quality art that is ambitious, challenging, and innovative.
- Connect, inspire and strengthen the carnival arts sector across the UK.
- Unite, support, develop and sustain the cultural and artistic sector within Luton.
As well as our annual carnival event, we deliver National Children’s Carnival Week where we deliver community outreach activities throughout the year working with children and young people in partnership with schools and youth groups. . The programme engages schools and youth groups in artistic and cultural learning through costume design and making, dance and performance, storytelling, and music with a focus on steelpan and drumming practices from different ethnic groups. We help schools and youth groups to participate in live parade activities both in schools and Luton International Carnival, showcasing their artistic learning and achievements.
We are an Arts Award Centre and support young people in achieving nationally recognised Arts Award at Discover, Explore, Bronze, Silver and Gold Levels.
We support children and families engaging with other cultural parade events in Luton such as Luton St Patrick’s Festival, East Fest, Colours of Eid and St George’s Festival, through costume making workshops in the community and parade support, including parade management.
We provide work experience opportunities for young people through our dedicated work experience programme for schools, colleges, and university. This offer includes placements for neurodiverse and SEND young people from Woodlands School and Barnfield College.
We support neurodiverse and SEND young people in engaging and participating in all our work and since 2022 we have been exploring best practice with the aim of developing this into a dedicated provision. Through our National Children’s Carnival Week programme, we regularly work with Lady Zia Wernher School (primary), Richmond Hill School (primary), Woodlands (secondary) School, all dedicated schools for children and young people with complex needs. We work with Barnfield college and Woodlands schools in providing annual work experience placements for young people with neurodiversity and SEND to develop their practical and soft work skills and provide them with references for their CV’s.
In 2023 we successfully piloted a family story telling area at Luton International Carnival. The dedicated area provided quieter and a ‘softer’ sensory experience for children, young people and adults who are neurodiverse and have SEND conditions. We are further developing this area for 2024 with the aim of making Luton International Carnival more accessible for all.
Through feedback and observations of all our programmes of work, children, parents and teachers inform the development of our work so it can be continuously improved National Children’s Carnival Week (NCCW) was developed in 2021 in response to supporting children and young people returning to face-to-face teaching as families and teachers reported children and young people having online learning fatigue and their delays in social and personal development. In 2022 and 2023 we developed NCCW into an annual programme and increased our outreach work for families in the school holidays in response to the cost-of-living crisis with schools having to reallocate their arts budgets into core running costs and families having to cut their children’s after school and school holiday activities and seeking more free activities in the town.
We continue to shape our programmes based on the needs of children and young people in the town and we aim to set up a youth advisory board enabling young people to have greater input and say on the development of our organisation.
Who will take part in this project?
Young people with neurodiverse and SEND conditions will be the main beneficiaries of the project. We will be targeting young people from secondary school age up to 25 years..
Based on the needs of the young people we work with and the consultation we have carried out with Woodlands School and Barnfield Collage we anticipate a large percentage of the young people will have varying spectrums of autism, as well as a percentage with ADHD and the majority of the young people experiencing emotional developmental delays.
Based on the needs evaluation of our project participants, , we anticipate all the young participants w will come from economically deprived backgrounds. Across both groups of young people, we anticipate a percentage of young people will suffer anxiety and mental health issues.
The programme will be open to appropriate adult volunteers.
Our Partners, Steelpan In Motion, will be leading on the music tutoring and band management. Steelpan In Motion have comprehensive experience of developing and managing youth steel bands and tutoring young people with neurodiversity and SEND. They have been leading on our steelpan offer for schools and youth since 2021 and have been involved in the development of this project.
How did you or will you co-design this project with children and young people facing barriers?
We have developed this project in response to the high numbers of children, young people and parents requesting Steelpan sessions afterschool and, in the holidays, with our ad hoc offers at community events and Black History Month being oversubscribed.
Feedback from the SEND schools we support highlights the lack of music offers in the town available to them while being available to mainstream schools. Practitioners often perceive neurodiverse and SEND students as difficult to develop to a high standard. This a perception we aim to challenge and develop best practice in breaking down these barriers.
In 2023 our work with Lady Zia Wernher School and Woodlands School highlighted the impact of steelpan on neurodiverse and SEND young people. In Lady Zia Wernher through the sensory performances, sing-a-longs and have-a-go sessions we delivered in all classes, we observed and had feedback from teachers that the sensory aspect of the live instruments had great impact on the engagement of the students. Particularly those who are mute or have physical impairments which makes participation extremely difficult. Although the school provides a wealth of sensory activities the live music element with the pitch of the steelpans was new and unique to the students.
As part of our storytelling project with Woodlands School in 2023 we provided steelpan as props for their carnival-themed storytelling performance at a special assembly to the whole school. The students on the project showed great interest in the pans with many of the rehearsal sessions including informal ‘have a go’ sessions with the pans. Many of the students asked if we could come back to teach them more and were greatly disappointed that this was nott something we could facilitate immediately.
In our 2023 review of our work experience programme with Barnfield College we carried out consultation with the Pathways Course tutors who provide a programme for young people with neurodiversity and SEND in developing their life skills with the aim of entering employment. We identified carnival education opportunities we could offer on this course which would enrich their learning experience and would like to pilot this offer as part of this project.
What will you do with a Trailblazer Fund grant?
We aim to develop two offers for steelpan band development:
1. In-school and college
We will engage young people in steelpan with a series of taster sessions in Woodland School and Barnfield College enabling young people to find out about the project and if they would like to join the school/college band. Also, the music leaders and tutors will assess and make learning plans that would best support the individual young people.
Leading on from the taster sessions regular steelpan sessions will be held on timetable in term time, enabling the young people to learn and develop steelpan skills with the aim of preparing them to play a live set(s) at Luton International Carnival 2025.
2. Out-of-school and college
We will engage young people with neurodiversity and SEND from across Luton as well as young people without neurodiversity and SEND to take part in a series of taster sessions which will be held in the community. Enabling young people and parents to find out about the project and sign up to the Inclusive Youth Band.
Leading on from the taster sessions, twice weekly after school and college steelpan sessions will be held that are open to all young people but with a number of spaces reserved for neurodiverse and SEND young people. We will encourage the students from Woodlands and Barnfield college to sign up to the Inclusive Youth Band to further their learning and to give them opportunity to participate with other young people. The aim of twice weekly session is to prepare the young people to play a live set(s) at Luton International Carnival 2025.
We will offer extra support for neurodiversity and SEND young people in the band via an appropriately trained music assistant who will attend sessions and 1:1 sessions when needed.
Live performances
As part of preparing the young people for live performances at Luton International Carnival 2025 and to share their achievements with family and friends, we will support them to participate in a small live performance.
Woodlands school will host a special assembly for all students to attend. We will identify an opportunity for a live showcase opportunity for Barnfield college.
We will host a showcase for the Inclusive Youth Band in the easter holidays for family and friends to attend.
Luton International Carnival 2025
We will have two live performance opportunities at Luton Carnival for both The Inclusive Youth Band and school/college bands:
Steelpan Zone – a dedicated area at Luton Carnival which will showcase Steelbands from Luton and across the UK.
The Storytelling Area – quieter or softer live sets for families and people with neurodiversity and SEND.
Young people who do not have the confidence or are impacted by their sensory needs will be encouraged to still attend Luton Carnival, if they can, to be part of the experience as a band, strengthen friendships and still enabling them to experience the excitement and sense of achievement.
All young people will revive a Certificate of Achievement and earn an Arts Award.
CPD sessions
We will hold two CPD sessions for the music leader, music assistant and any volunteers. The sessions will explore best practices of working with young people with neurodiversity and SEND and safeguarding.
Preservation of Resources
We will be getting our existing steelpans reconditioned and tuned for the use of the bands we are developing. We will purchase beater sticks and print band t-shirts which the young people with co-design. All resources will be used for youth steel-an in luton after the life of the project.
Long-term Aims
Our aim is that this pilot project will inform the development of a more comprehensive project that we can upscale to reach more young people and make connections with other youth steel bands in the UK and share best practice.