Building up music education: We are all responsible

The decline of state school music provision is a hot topic, as is the resulting impact on the ‘talent pipeline’ into the music sector. Budget cuts, pressure on literacy and numeracy attainment (particularly post-Covid) and a government bias towards science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects are amongst the reasons cited. To add insult to injury, the cost-of-living crisis ensures that fewer families than ever can afford private tuition should their school’s music offer fall short. While all of these issues indisputably contribute to the issue, I struggle with the common refrain that music is ‘dying’ in our schools, and that ‘schools don’t value music’. In fact, while state schools are overwhelmed and underfunded, many pockets of brilliance, innovation and collaboration exist, and a real appetite for change thrives. With an understanding of the challenges schools face, musicians and music organisations can play their part in ensuring that every child has access to a life with music.

My career so far has seen me leap from classical music artist management to working within the heart of a state primary school, and – for the past eight years – spanning the music and music education sectors with the charity Music Masters (MM). Our Flagship Schools programme sees us work with over 1,000 children a year through long-term partnerships with five state primary schools in underserved London communities. It’s a group-based programme of musicianship and string instrument learning for every child into which creative music-making, regular artist engagement and performance opportunities are interwoven. From this ‘on the ground’ position and I hope to share some helpful insight on what can make – or break – music in state primary schools.

With budgets ever-shrinking, schools need support and guidance to plan effectively. Music education doesn’t have to cost the earth, but I’ve lost count of the times a school has told me they have £1,000 in the budget for music – a challenge for even the most creative of music leads. As a former school-based fundraiser I am acutely aware of how difficult it can be to persuade funding bodies to prioritise or even accept applications from schools, meaning that enhancing the school’s budget with external support is not easy. Ultimately, schools must make a strategic choice to allocate budget towards music education, which inevitably means making difficult decisions elsewhere.

For schools not yet convinced of why they should invest in music, a small budget can provide starting point for a longer-term investment plan. A sustainable vision for music is really the only way to ensure that all children can make progress with and through music, as Kenneth Baffoe, head of MM Flagship School, Jessop Primary in Brixton, said: ‘a long-term approach to music is critical, as the approach to all other aspects of the school’s functions in relation to pupils is long-term. Failure to commit reduces efforts to tokenism at best, or at worst, gives false hope.'

Yet long-term planning is easier said than done. National Curriculum guidance is vague and the effectiveness of Music Education Hubs varies throughout the country. Resources such as the Department for Education’s Model Music Curriculum contains useful guidance, but understanding and implementing it can still feel daunting to class leaders unconfident with teaching music. Cordelia Cooper, Headteacher at MM Flagship School, Ashmole Primary in Oval told me: ‘It can be hard for teachers to feel confident teaching music (especially) at Key Stage 2 and this can lead to discrepancies in provision across the country, not to mention between rural and urban areas – due to a lack of, for example, professional development, support and other valuable opportunities such as music trips and visits.’ Baffoe added that in his experience ‘the most confident teachers tend to be those that are musically inclined. There is no lack of willingness on the part of others but teacher training provision at primary stage currently lacks a clear strategy that is able to upskill non-musical teachers to confidently deliver elements of the music curriculum with genuine expertise.’

Many primary PGCE courses include fewer hours of music education teacher training than I have fingers on one hand. Whilst the government would ideally address this within its Initial Teacher Training strategy, I’m not holding my breath. To work as effectively as possible, class teachers should remain connected with their children’s musical learning and ideally develop their own skills in delivering music as part of their pupils’ everyday activity. This can be difficult when time and resource-pressed schools need to schedule teachers’ PPA time (guaranteed planning, preparation and assessment time away from their children). Bringing in specialist music teachers presents a useful window in which to do this.

Musicians don’t technically need any teacher training to work as a peripatetic teacher, and – let’s be honest – good musicians don’t necessarily make good educators! Being left alone in a room with 30 children, 30 violins and 45 minutes a week in which to do something with them is a daunting task for anyone. Our year-long postgraduate level teacher training programme, Musicians of Change (PGCEi), was created to support musicians developing their group teaching skills whilst building their confidence and sense of value as educators, elevating their understanding of and experience within the state education system, and building their ability (and credibility!) to support their school communities in a deeper way.

For schools, the input of artists and music organisations - both amateur and professional - can be incredibly valuable and inspiring. Schools often have good volunteer mechanisms if you can afford to go down that route, although they may well be happy to ringfence budget for high quality, bespoke activity that meets a need. Activity could be offered on a ‘pay what you can’ basis, a fixed per-pupil contribution or even funded by a local business or grant-maker; local authorities and supermarkets often have community funding schemes. Whatever is possible, I’d urge you to embrace the idea of ‘in-reach’ rather than ‘outreach’, the latter being a term I feel suggests a ‘top-down’ transfer of knowledge, as opposed to the mutual learning opportunity that is always possible when working with children in a way that is open minded and child-centred.

And what of the ‘talent pipeline’? Primary to secondary school transition is a time of significant change for children and a well-known drop-off point in musical learning, not helped by a recent decline in the number of schools offering music education at secondary level. Many of the children who benefit from Music Masters programmes continue to learn music post-primary, including from Pathways, our accelerated learning route for children from backgrounds underrepresented in classical music. Yet in my experience there are surprisingly few truly accessible out-of-school progression opportunities for keen young musicians, particularly in the critical 11-13 age range. Of the few that are genuinely financially and geographically feasible, programme entry criteria can close doors to those whose musical background or experience doesn’t align with traditional examination frameworks. The Music Masters I’M IN (Inclusive Music Index) tool is a good, free starting point to help organisations understand their areas of inequity and act on them, because until we all recognise that we can be biased at best, discriminatory at worse, access to opportunity won’t improve. If we truly fear a two-tier system in the arts, then meaningful effort is required to work together to dismantle it.

I strongly believe that every musician and music sector organisation has an important role to play in building up music education. Lamenting the lack of music in schools is not enough. We must organise – and together influence – the change we want to see.

Roz De Vile has worked at the heart of school communities as well as with artists and composers. She is CEO at Music Masters, a not-for-profit specialising in music education and systemic inequality.