Music and Wellbeing free resources and support
This Friday (10th October) is World Mental Health Day 2025 and, with this in mind, it’s a good time to explore the free support we provide enabling you to include music as part of your school’s wellbeing support offer.
Everyone is a musician. You may not be a concert pianist or an award-winning singer, but everyone has the capacity to experience music and create their own music. You don’t have to be a professional musician to do music, and anyone can relate to it regardless of age, ability, culture or experiences.
We often find that a particular song can remind us of a particular memory or feeling. Music clearly affects our emotional responses and by tapping into this rich resource, we can help young people to use music as a tool to support their emotional wellbeing.
We’ve designed our music and wellbeing support so that you don’t need to be a musician or have previous training in music to get the most out of it.
Online Music and Wellbeing Resource Package
A key part of this support offer is our easy-to-use online music and wellbeing resource package that we’ve created and is hosted on the Octagon Music Hub website:
Music and Wellbeing Resource Package – Octagon Music Hub
This comprehensive online resource was previously only available as part of a Music Hub Membership subscription, but we’ve now made it available for FREE for all schools!
Each section of this package includes a range of ready-to-use activities for you and your staff to try with pupils:
- music to promote positive thoughts
- breathing and singing to relax
- calming music activities using just hands and feet
- self-expression and creativity – using music to project feelings
- moving and dancing to calm and refocus
We’d love to hear from you if you’re using this resource! Do you find it useful? Is there anything you’d like us to include more of? Is there anything different you’d like us to add? Is there anything you’d like us to change or improve to make it easier to use, or to make it more relevant for your pupils? Drop us a quick email via dorsetmusicservice@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk to let us know!
Free Online Music and Wellbeing CPD session
We’re offering a free online music and wellbeing CPD session which is relevant to all staff – including SLT, TAs and lunchtime supervisors. The session will be led by Pili Lopez (DMS Inclusion Project Manager) and will be run three times across the academic year – hopefully giving many of your staff the opportunity to attend:
Wednesday 26th November 2025 – 14:00 to 15:00
- Join the meeting here (Meeting ID: 318 747 046 403 5 / Passcode: ti9be9rr)
Tuesday 10th February 2026 – 16:00 to 17:00
- Join the meeting here (Meeting ID: 314 987 041 059 3 / Passcode: 8gi7XB6i)
Monday 22nd June 2026 – 12:00 to 13:00
- Join the meeting here (Meeting ID: 346 275 587 190 8 / Passcode: zs9Pg7WN)
Book places on this CPD here: https://forms.office.com/e/wubtvpbPBz
If you have any questions about any of the above, please don’t hesitate to contact us at dorsetmusicservice@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk
News item added: 10 October, 2025