Thursday, and it is assembly day at The Harbour School. The sound of loud drumming can be heard resonating from the main hall. Inside Dave Larcombe is helping a group of six Year 7 students through a rehearsal of 'Blue Suede Shoes'. As well as running through the song itself, Dave is checking the balance - asking the students their opinions on the levels and position of the band members and slowly building up the number of pupils who make up the band. The question of a name for the band is raised - 'Toxic Sausage', 'Elvis on Holiday' are proposed. Obviously the decision was still to be made. Finally 'The Psychedelic Six' was agreed and the performance could start.

This may sound unremarkable but all the pupils in the band and at The Harbour School have Statements of Special Needs - a legal document that lays out the details of a child's special needs and outlines the specific help which should be made available to them - some have very difficult home lives and others severe learning and behavioural problems. Yet somehow music seems to have become a uniting endeavour, with Mr Larcombe well and truly at the helm.

Dave is in a perfect position for the job. As well as being an accomplished musician himself, he also understands and can empathise with the pupils. "In my early teens I was quite small and was subsequently the target of bullying at the private school I attended," he explains. "Then, at the age of 14, I discovered punk, started to learn to play the drums and built up not only my body mass but also my stamina which stopped me being such a target." From this point Dave started gigging and his ability and stamina became noticed by numerous bands that asked him to play for them. Yet even from the relatively young age of 19, teaching the skills he himself had mastered became part of his life as he started teaching drums at The Lady Adrian Special School in Cambridge.

Before pursuing teaching full-time, Dave's performing career included playing drums for groups such as The Bible, Steve Earle and Ash. Now, with the demands of teaching and family life, Dave uses any creative spare time to concentrate on session work, which is generally better paid and less demanding time-wise.

Back to today's busy teaching schedule and Dave's first group of pupils appear at the door to the music room. The lesson starts with a couple of warm-up games - 'Mr Larcombe Wins' and 'Bongo Billy' (an exercise in which Dave drums out a rhythm, the boys then try to repeat without looking at him, and then follow up by making up their own). These games are more than just a physical warm-up: as Dave explains, "I use these exercises to gauge the mood of the pupils as it's the first time I may have seen them that day and I don't know how they may be feeling. If I get the sense that one of them may be a bit volatile then I will find out through how they approach these tasks and then be able to judge how to proceed with the rest of the session."

The games finished and the pupils all now smiling, the lesson moves on to a cross-curricular project about the Caribbean. With the use of South American and Caribbean rhythms to influence their decisions, Dave asks the pupils to choose what they feel is an appropriate instrument to play. He demonstrates the difference between the standard 'English' 4/4 rock beat they are more familiar with and the syncopated rhythms of reggae and ska. Once they start to play their chosen instrument a change comes over the group. From being easily distracted and physically awkward, they become filled with concentration and physical control - a transformation Dave never gets tired of witnessing.

Later in the day, Dave's time is spent on one-to-one sessions with some of the pupils. Time, it is clearly obvious, that they relish. The structure of these sessions is more relaxed, giving each pupil time to practise whatever they want, pick up any instrument that interests them and most importantly to talk to Dave on a one-to-one basis. Although drums are Dave's main instrument, he helps them to learn others such as guitar, keyboards and other percussion instruments. However, this particular day has seen the arrival in the music room of a new drum kit and every single pupil that Dave has seen is desperate to get their turn playing it. The transformation starts again and Dave smiles as the next boy takes up his sticks.