- How It All Began
- Our Mission
- Our Team
- Boogie Mites ABCD Music Methodology™
- Our Vision, Purpose and Guiding Principles
- Our Products and Services
- Boogie Mites Benefits
How It All Began
From South London Community Centre family music sessions to globally recommended digital music programmes, it has been quite a journey.
Boogie Mites founder and singer-song writer Harriet Thomas started Boogie Mites as a mum to two young girls, having recognised that there was a gap in the market for inspiring music for under 5’s, Harriet wrote songs that adults would love as much as the children. Harriet started up creative music sessions exploring themes that inspire children using dance, role play, junk percussion instruments, responding to the things that children enjoyed. Her classes for parents and toddlers in South London were very popular. Sue met Harriet at one of these sessions when she took her eldest son along, and he loved it!
After taking a career break and moving to Portsmouth several years later, Sue was looking for music classes for her daughter, but there was nothing that was a patch on Boogie Mites. Sue asked Harriet if she could set up some voluntary Boogie Mites music sessions in local community centres, the answer was yes, and Boogie Mites Portsmouth started up in 2003.
As Sue and Harriet learned more about the neuroscience evidence and links to early years learning, as they observed children’s responses and progress made through regular practice, as they received teacher and parent feedback, and evaluated impact of projects, they became aware that they had created something very valuable for early years development. They also realised that most teachers and parents were unaware of the incredible brain boosting power of music. They made it their mission to share this.
Boogie Mites Mission
To offer early years educators and parents the knowledge, confidence and resources to harness the brain boosting power of music every day. You Can Do It!
Teacher and Parent Training
In 2007 Harriet and Sue formed Boogie Mites UK Ltd, following a request from Portsmouth Early Years Advisors, who had recognised the value of Boogie Mites activities for early years development, to compile a teacher training programme to support the roll out of a new DFE National Strategy for phonics teaching, Letters and Sounds Phase 1. An early version of Boogie Mites School Ready Music Programme was created.
Since then we have delivered onsite parent education courses via local authority funding for thousands of families across the South East of England and teacher training for thousands of early years educators across the UK. We have evaluated the impact of our programmes over this time, including a recently completed evaluation of Boogie Mites School Ready Music Programme training at four Primary Schools in disadvantaged areas of South London as an intervention to boost school ready skills.
Going Global
During the pandemic we delivered online music sessions for families at home and made video training for our songs. We started on a journey to make Boogie Mite music programmes available worldwide, recognising that the neuroscience evidence shows us that music practice in early years boosts brain development wherever you live in the world, is key to supporting embedding good learning behaviours and building strong cognitive foundations for school.
We are delighted to partner with Neuromusical researcher Dr Anita Collins who is based in Australia and with Nutspace Edtech based in India. We have customers who have found us online in Asia, Europe, India and Africa, they all love Boogie Mites!
The Child Development Centre has been using Boogie Mites for over two years now. We have found this to be an excellent resource to support children’s early literacy development. Our issue in the past has been meeting the wide range of learners needs in a multilingual classroom. Boogie Mites has helped us to resolve this through fun and engaging music activities that directly match the learning objectives. The teachers notes are clear and easy to use and help with planning, especially with cross curriculum activities, in particular language, phonics and physical development. We genuinely feel that Boogie Mites has had a positive impact on children’s learning”
Boogie Mites Team
Over the years we have been lucky to work with a wonderful team of Boogie Mites teachers and trainers, early years educators passionate about the benefits of music in early years.
We have piloted a Licensee business package and support 5 amazing Licensees who run Boogie Mites businesses via Boogie Mites Community Projects CIC in Havant/Hayling, Winchester, Oxford, Digby and Stoke On Trent for the benefit of their local communities.
We have been lucky that Lucy and Tasha brought their children to Boogie Mites in Portsmouth and were so impressed they joined the HO team! Lucy with an IT background manages our fast developing IT systems and procedures. Tasha, a primary school teacher, delivered Boogie Mites onsite classes and training for 3 years before moving overseas with her family. She now heads up our marketing and online training.
The Boogie Mites team have spent 15+ years developing our music programmes, training and delivery techniques. We would like to thank all of the children, parents, teachers and advisors who have contributed their feedback over the years and to the researchers publishing the fast evolving neuromusical evidence.
Boogie Mites ABCD Music Methodology
In 2023 we reassessed our vision, purpose and guiding principles, we wrote up our methodology and repackaged our products and services to provide a rich and varied music provision with training options for parents and educators, anywhere in the world.
We are delighted to present the Boogie Mites ABCD Music Methodology ™
Boogie Mites ABCD Music Methodology™ has 4 pillars that work together to harness the power of music to strengthen foundations for learning. These 4 pillars provide the framework for achieving Boogie Mites mission, vision and purpose.
A = Active Attention.
Lengthen children’s attention span through engaging, active music and movement activities
B= Brain Boost
Build strong cognitive foundations for learning based on neuromusical evidence
C = Community Cohesion
Generate a bonding buzz between children, teachers, families and wider community.
D = Daily Dose
Deliver daily musical experiences to maximise impact. You don’t need to be a musician to facilitate effective music making in early years. You can do it!
You can read more and download the detailed report with testimonials, research evidence links, user case studies that demonstrate each point: http://www.boogiemites.co.uk/abcd-music-methodology/
Boogie Mites Products and Services
We are excited to embark on the next stage of the Boogie Mites journey as we roll out our music programmes globally with opportunities for:
- Licensee business package for freelance educators
- Core music programmes with online training package for childcare settings
- Parent education programme packs
- Music videos via Boogie Mites App
Boogie Mites Music Training Benefits
- Upskill and retain early years and SEN educators at your setting
- Upskill and support families at your community centre
- Embed key learning behaviours and strong cognitive foundations for children’s learning from birth*
- Uplift everyone involved through the joy of music
- Run a business to provide all these benefits for your local community
*Boogie Mites Music Programmes Strengthen Key Skills Ready for School
- Attention and listening skills
- Language and vocabulary
- Cognitive foundations – for maths, literacy and learning
- Group skills – pre-social behaviour and turn taking
- Self-regulation – mindfulness and impulse control
- Gross and fine motor skills
- A love of learning
While you’re here…
Take a look around our website, and let us know what you think!
