June 30, 2026
Before we share our year with you, we wanted to give a big shout out to the funders who enable our work and partners who strengthen it – our early years work would not happen without them! ALL of our early years projects, training delivery, research and staff costs are funded on a project by project, fund by fund basis.
What a joy it has been working with staff and children at two early years settings in Somerset throughout this academic year. Whether it was at nursery visits working directly with the children or at events with early years staff away of the nursery these encounters brought multiple rich and shared learning opportunities - we certainly have taken the ‘deep dive’ we intended!
The learning from Little People Big Ideas supports sustained creative engagement for the nurseries involved, extends creative practitioner’s skills and experience, develops Take Art’s early years work and increases national learning as we share our experiences with wider project partners. It has been an amazing year and we are excited to be working with another two nurseries next year.
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Early Years children in Somerset plus care-experienced children in North Cornwall received recordings of bespoke songs written in partnership between each child, their parents/carers with an experienced songwriter/musician.
It was an honour to be asked by Groundswell Arts to host these sessions in South West England, following their model which has been delivered in urban London for the last 15 years. We have plans to continue this partnership and deliver more Song Our Story sessions soon, subject to securing funding.
This programme concluded in December 2025 and has been a major part of our work for the last 4 years. See the SoundWaves reports here.
We plan to build on our learning and are currently seeking funding to develop this further.
This partnership has enabled us to support early years music and creative practice across both counties via our projects plus through our accessible, bespoke early years music training for staff. This year our work has built the skills and confidence of early education staff and of music/creative practitioners who work directly with young children; empowering them to incorporate thoughtful, appropriate, easy to access activities within provision which, in turn, support wellbeing, learning and development.
Thank you for coming along with us this year, we really value your time, interest and support. Please do get in touch if you would like more information about our Early Years programmes or training.
Jennie and Jane
