GingerBread is currently working on the launch of TroubleChutes, a new music-led emotional literacy resource to help primary-school children explore feelings and experiences they may struggle to put into words. Created by singer-songwriter and psychologically informed creative practitioner Marsha Swanson, it combines 15 professionally recorded original songs with illustration and guided discussion pointers, covering subjects from jealousy and bullying to divorce and grief.

Rather than teaching children a prescribed emotional response, TroubleChutes uses songs and their characters as a starting point for discussion, with listening, drawing, movement and performance offering different ways to participate. The children can respond to somebody else’s jealousy, sadness or exclusion and reflect on whether that connects to their own experiences. Psychologically informed but designed as a universal resource, it is based on the principle that emotional literacy is relevant to all children, not only those who have reached a threshold for therapeutic or clinical support.

The resource arrives against the backdrop of 2025 research from the National Literacy Trust which found that, while 81.4% of 8 to 18-year-olds surveyed believed they were good at listening to others and understanding their point of view, fewer than half (44.8%) felt they were good at expressing their own feelings.

TroubleChutes grew out of Swanson’s long-standing use of music to open up conversations with children about difficult feelings and experiences, informed by her First-Class Honours degree in Psychology and more than two decades of work across educational, charitable and specialist therapeutic settings. Wanting to make that approach available for others to use, she began developing it into an accessible emotional literacy resource. The pandemic reinforced the need for the work while giving Swanson the opportunity to bring together collaborators, record the songs and develop the material into a cohesive resource that teachers could use independently.

Unlike many educational music resources, TroubleChutes is written and recorded by working musicians, with a contemporary sound intended to stand as music in its own right and sit closer to the music children might encounter outside the classroom. The recordings feature musicians including drummer Martyn Barker, pianist Clifford Slapper, guitarist Tony Qunta and producer and bassist Henry Thomas, known for BBC Rockschool.

The release of Something Real as a standalone single in July drew praise from music publications internationally, including EARMILK, Atwood Magazine, France’s Indie Chronique, Australia’s TAGG and Milwaukee-based Breaking & Entering. Atwood Magazine praised Swanson’s “thoughtful songwriting” and described the track as transforming a profound idea into something “warm and accessible”. Producer Stuart Epps, known for his work with Elton John and Led Zeppelin, contributed additional production and mastering to the single.

The project’s visual world is being developed with award-winning Iranian filmmaker and animator Sam Chegini who created the accompanying Something Real video, released in August, blending live footage with watercolour textures and dreamlike visual effects. Chegini was recently the subject of a BBC Persian documentary about his work as a music video director.

We look forward to working with Marsha to spread the word about TroubleChutes.

Image shows pupils at St Mary’s Hampton CE Primary School taking part in TroubleChutes