Dear local Councils, DfE, ACE, Parents, teachers
A plea to you for the soul of our country: I beg you to please follow your heart and invest responsibly!
Sometimes those that govern us equates the word ‘culture’ with that of ‘entertainment’ and thus assume that in times of economic stress this is a field where funds can easily be withdrawn (what if we can’t go to the opera so often?). The converse is true. Good engineering depends upon the quality of the creativity in design and it is the arts that stimulate new products, can imagine the new utopias towards we strive.
Students taking music scored an average of 20 to 40% higher on both verbal and mathematical portions of SATs compared to students who took no arts courses. Those who participate in school band or orchestra are 52% more likely to go to college or graduate. Music students have the highest rate of attendance to medical schools. There is a significant relationship between music instruction and education performance in reading, spelling, mathematics, listening and verbal abilities and motor skills.1
This article is focussed on instrumental and vocal music education for children and reflects on the responsibilities in providing a music education service.. In this all true stakeholders play a part, whether parent, school, teacher, Council, ACE, government et al. But support also means responsibility, but it is this responsibility that is the basis on which a music education should be provided should reflect the child’s needs.
Recent research has made clear the values that this facet adds to the lives of children – see the report commissioned by the Music Education Council (MEC) and published by the International Music Education Research Centre titled “The Power of Music - a research synthesis of the impact of actively making music on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people “.1
Professor Susan Hallam, MBE said: "The research shows there is compelling evidence for the benefits of music education on wide range of skills including: listening skills which support the development of language skills, awareness of phonics and enhanced literacy; spatial reasoning which supports the development of some mathematical skills; and where musical activities involve working in groups a wide range of personal and social skills which also serve to enhance overall academic attainment even when measures of intelligence are taken into account.”
We seem to be in a downward spiral. Economic crisis, lowering investment in services and especially culture, is now impacting on school performance. We are told ‘there is no alternative’ to the policies now endemic in most western economies that lead to reducing wealth to the majority of their populations whilst the fickle spending power of the wealthy is growing.
This article is not aimed at economics (though quite obviously there are always alternatives that are not being promulgated by the super-rich) but is focussed on the well-being of our lives. That said, the reduction in investment in music education will undoubtedly impact our economic well-being in the not too distant future.
It is Cultural activity that governs our lives – science and engineering support our challenges in the world and our competitive animal instincts are served by sport, though perhaps it is wrong that so much money is invested in a few ‘elite’ practitioners whilst the activity of the many is restricted. In sports such as swimming it seems the public purse has increasingly supported the elite (though Olympians they may be) whilst local swimming pools are threatened. In football we see gargantuan incomes to clubs and footballers in the premier league whilst local clubs are continuously under threat.
A similar story is replicated in theatre where most (limited) resources are attracted to elite theatres and productions. The best funded theatres have increased the number of full professional productions. Overall cuts have been 2.1% (19% in real terms) between 2009 and 2014.2
In the musical field there has always been a huge difference between the support given to local culture and that given to the elite of Covent Garden. The economic model seems wrong – a modern new recording can be issued on a budget CD that can be played time after time for less than the cost of actually attending an actual concert, including amateur orchestras and the like. Premiership footballers have stratospheric salaries when compared to those in lower divisions. Yes, performance should be rewarded but the gulf between the elite and other colleagues is now a hindrance and no encouragement for progress.
Our focus is on music learning in schools. Everywhere has seen reductions in funding and provision over the last ten years. Some local authorities/councils have recognised and striven to maintain what is valuable to their communities but others have not seen the wider picture and the impact on their communities. This is not acceptable since it is stinting child development.
It seems bizarre that in some areas adult learning using musical instruments is subsidised but children in schools are not!
Let us be absolutely clear, this is about life-long learning and achievement for our children.
We are on the cusp of a disaster that will impact on pupil progress and school results for decades to come. The ill thought out interpretation of the National Plan for Music Education (NPME)3 by Arts Council England (ACE) has resulted in huge reductions, and sometimes even closure of previously well managed and good performing music services to schools, sometimes without even putting in place support for schools in the aftermath.
There doesn’t seem to have been much progress since William Rees-Mogg’s Arts Council Report ‘The Glory of the Garden’4 from the early 1980’s.
Support has reduced over a great many years, but we are now at the point where the very infrastructure that supports cultural life is being irreparably damaged.
Darren Henley’s Report into music education5 and the NPME as it stands are valuable documents and do represent a framework for provision. But, in conjunction with large-scale reductions in funding and the absence of clear guidance from the DfE, some Councils have latched on to the idea that community capacity will fill the gap left when funding is withdrawn. This is laughable – community capacity may grow after disbandment but the sum total will be less… and it is the children’s education that suffers rather than the local amateur music group and other ‘partners’.
Indeed, the implementation of the NPME by ACE on behalf of the DfE has resulted in increased bureaucracy and reduction in capacity. At one end, it is quite obvious that replacing one senior overseeing officer at the DfE with dozens of relatively inexperienced ACE relationship managers represents loss of expertise and greater expense to the public purse.
It is appreciated that some provision has thrived, but chiefly in larger Hub regions that include significant professional partners and in places where provision was previously relatively piecemeal. Praise must be accorded, and no doubt there will have been reporting of success by the new incumbents. But this has been at the expense of loss of expertise and capacity across the country as a whole.
There should be three main focusses:
My work laid in a Paper “Developing an Excellent Music Education”7 sets out an intertwining framework in which all stakeholders have an interest… and have responsibility in sharing delivery.
We are all partners in our striving towards our individual Utopias but we need to truly work together and respect each other as partners for all to succeed.
Yours
Phil
References
References
A plea to you for the soul of our country: I beg you to please follow your heart and invest responsibly!
Sometimes those that govern us equates the word ‘culture’ with that of ‘entertainment’ and thus assume that in times of economic stress this is a field where funds can easily be withdrawn (what if we can’t go to the opera so often?). The converse is true. Good engineering depends upon the quality of the creativity in design and it is the arts that stimulate new products, can imagine the new utopias towards we strive.
Students taking music scored an average of 20 to 40% higher on both verbal and mathematical portions of SATs compared to students who took no arts courses. Those who participate in school band or orchestra are 52% more likely to go to college or graduate. Music students have the highest rate of attendance to medical schools. There is a significant relationship between music instruction and education performance in reading, spelling, mathematics, listening and verbal abilities and motor skills.1
This article is focussed on instrumental and vocal music education for children and reflects on the responsibilities in providing a music education service.. In this all true stakeholders play a part, whether parent, school, teacher, Council, ACE, government et al. But support also means responsibility, but it is this responsibility that is the basis on which a music education should be provided should reflect the child’s needs.
Recent research has made clear the values that this facet adds to the lives of children – see the report commissioned by the Music Education Council (MEC) and published by the International Music Education Research Centre titled “The Power of Music - a research synthesis of the impact of actively making music on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people “.1
Professor Susan Hallam, MBE said: "The research shows there is compelling evidence for the benefits of music education on wide range of skills including: listening skills which support the development of language skills, awareness of phonics and enhanced literacy; spatial reasoning which supports the development of some mathematical skills; and where musical activities involve working in groups a wide range of personal and social skills which also serve to enhance overall academic attainment even when measures of intelligence are taken into account.”
We seem to be in a downward spiral. Economic crisis, lowering investment in services and especially culture, is now impacting on school performance. We are told ‘there is no alternative’ to the policies now endemic in most western economies that lead to reducing wealth to the majority of their populations whilst the fickle spending power of the wealthy is growing.
This article is not aimed at economics (though quite obviously there are always alternatives that are not being promulgated by the super-rich) but is focussed on the well-being of our lives. That said, the reduction in investment in music education will undoubtedly impact our economic well-being in the not too distant future.
It is Cultural activity that governs our lives – science and engineering support our challenges in the world and our competitive animal instincts are served by sport, though perhaps it is wrong that so much money is invested in a few ‘elite’ practitioners whilst the activity of the many is restricted. In sports such as swimming it seems the public purse has increasingly supported the elite (though Olympians they may be) whilst local swimming pools are threatened. In football we see gargantuan incomes to clubs and footballers in the premier league whilst local clubs are continuously under threat.
A similar story is replicated in theatre where most (limited) resources are attracted to elite theatres and productions. The best funded theatres have increased the number of full professional productions. Overall cuts have been 2.1% (19% in real terms) between 2009 and 2014.2
In the musical field there has always been a huge difference between the support given to local culture and that given to the elite of Covent Garden. The economic model seems wrong – a modern new recording can be issued on a budget CD that can be played time after time for less than the cost of actually attending an actual concert, including amateur orchestras and the like. Premiership footballers have stratospheric salaries when compared to those in lower divisions. Yes, performance should be rewarded but the gulf between the elite and other colleagues is now a hindrance and no encouragement for progress.
Our focus is on music learning in schools. Everywhere has seen reductions in funding and provision over the last ten years. Some local authorities/councils have recognised and striven to maintain what is valuable to their communities but others have not seen the wider picture and the impact on their communities. This is not acceptable since it is stinting child development.
It seems bizarre that in some areas adult learning using musical instruments is subsidised but children in schools are not!
Let us be absolutely clear, this is about life-long learning and achievement for our children.
We are on the cusp of a disaster that will impact on pupil progress and school results for decades to come. The ill thought out interpretation of the National Plan for Music Education (NPME)3 by Arts Council England (ACE) has resulted in huge reductions, and sometimes even closure of previously well managed and good performing music services to schools, sometimes without even putting in place support for schools in the aftermath.
There doesn’t seem to have been much progress since William Rees-Mogg’s Arts Council Report ‘The Glory of the Garden’4 from the early 1980’s.
Support has reduced over a great many years, but we are now at the point where the very infrastructure that supports cultural life is being irreparably damaged.
Darren Henley’s Report into music education5 and the NPME as it stands are valuable documents and do represent a framework for provision. But, in conjunction with large-scale reductions in funding and the absence of clear guidance from the DfE, some Councils have latched on to the idea that community capacity will fill the gap left when funding is withdrawn. This is laughable – community capacity may grow after disbandment but the sum total will be less… and it is the children’s education that suffers rather than the local amateur music group and other ‘partners’.
Indeed, the implementation of the NPME by ACE on behalf of the DfE has resulted in increased bureaucracy and reduction in capacity. At one end, it is quite obvious that replacing one senior overseeing officer at the DfE with dozens of relatively inexperienced ACE relationship managers represents loss of expertise and greater expense to the public purse.
It is appreciated that some provision has thrived, but chiefly in larger Hub regions that include significant professional partners and in places where provision was previously relatively piecemeal. Praise must be accorded, and no doubt there will have been reporting of success by the new incumbents. But this has been at the expense of loss of expertise and capacity across the country as a whole.
There should be three main focusses:
- Serving an excellent musical education –
delivery of comprehensive quality music teaching
- Supporting the quality experience – delivering quality
musical experiences
- Ensuring quality delivery – reporting and
licensing high quality of delivery
My work laid in a Paper “Developing an Excellent Music Education”7 sets out an intertwining framework in which all stakeholders have an interest… and have responsibility in sharing delivery.
We are all partners in our striving towards our individual Utopias but we need to truly work together and respect each other as partners for all to succeed.
Yours
Phil
References
References
- Your Child’s Future with Music (United Musical
Instruments)
- Power in
music (Prof. Susan Hallam)
- Changing stage: Productions in subsidised
theatres 2009-2014 (BBC, February 2015)
- The Importance of Music, National Plan for Music
Education (DfE, November 2011)
- The Glory of the Garden (William Rees-Mogg, Arts
Council of GB, 1984)
- Music
Education in England: a review by Darren Henley for the Department for
Education and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DfE, February 2011)
- Delivering an Excellent Music Education (Phil
Chapman, IWMEH, 2014)