Sandy Holland - Music Playtime author

I’m a professional music educator and pianist with a varied, 'portfolio' career. I'm specifically qualified to teach schoolchildren aged 3-8 and I've worked as a classroom music teacher in primary, middle and secondary schools, giving me a wide overview of music education. I teach piano from beginner to performance diploma level and I'm an experienced music examiner, having worked for OCR, Trinity College London and ABRSM.

I lectured in primary music education to trainee teachers at Edge Hill University and the University of Cumbria for a good number of years so I understand the needs of trainee and practising teachers, particularly those who don't regard themselves as 'musicians'. I have a great interest in how children learn music - my masters’ degree was in music education and cognitive psychology, and I've had articles published in the British Journal of Music Education, Music Teacher, Primary Music Today and Piano Professional.

In Music Playtime, I'm sharing all the best ideas I've seen, invented and tried out for Early Years and Key Stage 1!

Sandy Holland

The Music Playtime Team

Thank you everyone who has contributed over the years to my store of music games, songs and ideas - colleagues, friends, family and especially Avril Tisdall, former senior lecturer music colleague at Edge Hill University.

I've worked with a wonderful team on the Music Playtime project and I'd like to thank them individually:

Forton Primary School

Forton Primary is our friendly village school so I was delighted when they agreed to take part in the project:

The children love having Sandy over here at Forton Primary School. The children enjoy playing the instruments, developing their knowledge of rhythm, and learning the difference of sounds!

– Forton Primary School

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Head teacher, Lorna Boase, class teacher Mel Braithwaite and teaching assistants, Dawn Bainbridge and Courtney MacPherson kindly let me loose with their Early Years, Reception and Key Stage 1 children! My sincere thanks also go to the generous parents who gave me permission to film their lovely children in connection with this project. Here's one of my favourite Early Years/Reception pictures from the start of the project:

Children from the Key Stage 1 group - 'Smile for the camera'!

Amelie Adamson

At aged six, Amelie helped to design the fantastic logo and drew the beautiful pictures specially for the homepage and topics.

Kev Adamson

The brilliant Freelance Web Designer who put all the magic together (under Amelie's supervision, of course).

Luchia Law

My amazing piano pupil, Luchia, is the young Lancashire lass who sings on virtually all the sound files and in some of the videos. Luchia has worked so hard, learning and recording new songs specially for this project.

Lindsay Reilly

Lindsay is a nursery teaching assistant who did some helpful research for me, communicated with the owners of Youtube videos regarding permissions, and came up with great ideas, pictures and advice for cross-curricular activities. Lindsay now deals with Music Playtime admin and customer relations.

Peter Noke

Peter edited the videos for me, 'enjoyed' my temporary obsession with silly songs, and put up with my glazed expression after I'd been working at the computer for hours on the Music Playtime project.

Ben Noke

Recorded Wishi Ta Tuja specially for this project (see the Families unit for KS1). Ben is a London-based, Professional Musician.