The future of music education
Music Hubs
Although the National Plan for Music Education is for everyone, and schools in particular (rightly) have a significant part to play, Music Hubs are the lynch pins that hold it all together. The two major obstacles currently in their way are funding and success measures.
For too long now Music Hubs have been living hand to mouth waiting for annual handouts, rather than being given long term funding with which they can actually plan for the future. If the NPME runs to 2030, and the main purpose of hubs is to deliver the NMPE, why not give them a funding deal which runs until 2030? Or at least meet in the middle with a three-year funding deal that can be renewed or revised for the remainder of the NPME’s lifetime. A medium or long-term funding deal is the only way to ensure that the NPME gets delivered coherently and effectively across the country.
But it’s not just the longevity of the funding that needs considering, it’s the amount of funding on offer. The new hub geographies, with a smaller number of lead organisations, were supposed to make provision and opportunities better for children and young people. This idea has been widely contested by the sector, and it seems with good reason. In my planning meetings for next academic year with hubs from across the country, the defining theme has been ‘we used to provide that for free but we’ll have to charge from September.’ This is because, as we know, funding has not kept pace with rising costs, and now in addition some hubs are facing significant financial burdens in regard to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme. If the NPME is to be delivered effectively, it needs to be paid for in full from the public purse, and that means an immediate and generous uplift in funding.
The second major obstacle which will hinder the work of hubs on the NPME is the way in which their success is currently being measured. I realise that the DfE and ACE need to measure return on investment, however the metrics they have chosen are not a fair assessment of the work of hubs. The whole of the NPME is non-statutory, and there is no requirement for schools to engage with it or their music hub. Therefore to measure the success of music hubs largely on school engagement numbers is unfair and in many cases unrepresentative. I think it is right that the NPME remains non-statutory, and I wouldn’t want to see schools forced into working with their hub, therefore the answer is to change the success metrics rather than the system. (While they’re at it, they might want to consider whether collecting information on which schools use the Model Music Curriculum and have a Music Development Plan is really telling them anything about the success of the NPME as a whole…)
Ideology & Purpose
Music Education, of course, is not all about the work of music hubs. Similarly it is not all about learning to play an instrument, learning to read music, or learning to appreciate classical music. These facts seem to have passed the previous administration completely by…
The NPME took a good step in the right direction by placing emphasis on the music that happens in schools as children and young people’s main entitlement, however it still places far too much emphasis on the icing that is extra-curricular activity. The much-touted list of ‘key features of excellent music provision’ from the NPME is almost all about instrumental and ensemble provision, and the one reference to curriculum music focuses on how long it should be taught for, not how, why or what should be taught. It remains a fact that the only statutory entitlement children and young people have to music is the music curriculum; much more effort should be made into ensuring that the cake is edible than how nicely it is decorated!
I hope that our new government will understand both that the curriculum is the heart of the music education offer, and that it should be inclusive and diverse to meet the needs of all our young people across the country. I would like the message to come across loud and clear that music education isn’t just about learning to play the violin, becoming literate in one particular notation system, or having heard and learnt facts about a narrow range of music from a particular canon that someone else has decided is worthy of study. It also isn’t exclusively about pathways into industry; music is for everyone, not just those who want to make a career out of it, and engaging with music is an important part of becoming a rounded human being. (One might also at this point surmise that musical study is an important part of the trajectory to becoming Prime Minister… but we’d probably need some more evidence to be sure!)
Curriculum Review
This brings me to the promised Curriculum Review, on which, you’ll be unsurprised to learn, I have thoughts. Having said that they might not necessarily be the thoughts that you’re expecting…!
Firstly, I think it’s vital that this curriculum review involves significant contributions from ordinary teachers in ordinary schools. We’ve seen so many ‘expert panels’ of late made up of ‘celebrity’ musicians and educators whose experience is limited either to the sphere of instrumental music (see above!) or to one particular (usually non-maintained) school. The National Curriculum is now to be taught by every school in England, and therefore it needs to be designed for and by ‘ordinary’ teachers. Yes there needs to be representation from experts such as researchers as well as teachers, but let’s avoid putting people on panels just because their names are well-known, or they happen to be someone’s mate.
What I would really like to see is an extensive consultation phase for this project, and not the type we’ve become used to from the DfE where they put out a survey, and sit on it for months before publishing the findings which they then go on to completely ignore. If the curriculum is significantly revised, please let’s have a period of testing in hundreds of schools across the country to gather meaningful feedback which is then acted upon before the final version of the curriculum is published.
In terms of the content of the curriculum, this is the bit you might find most surprising. I actually think the current National Curriculum for music is ok. Its strength is in its flexibility, so I wouldn’t want to see a new iteration that tells you what type of music you should study when. What I do think would be useful is some explanation around the content of the curriculum to make it clearer what is expected. For example in KS1 what does ‘play tuned and untuned instruments musically’ actually mean, and in KS2 how do we interpret the phrase ‘great composers and musicians?’ Some guidance around how to develop the skills of performing, composing, and listening is also long overdue, to avoid the curriculum becoming ‘learn a song, make a song up, learn some facts about a song.’ We need to move away from dictating content and towards understanding of appropriate pedagogical approaches. Which is one of the many reasons I think the Model Music Curriculum ought to be dropped (from a great height, into a bin that is on fire) as part of this review.
It would also be extremely useful if this curriculum review included a reframing which once and for all removed the divide between ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ subjects. If a subject is in our National Curriculum, it’s core. End of!
Accountability measures
If all subjects are of equal importance then accountability measures for schools should acknowledge this. That means getting rid of the EBacc, reforming Progress 8, and ensuring that Ofsted actually hold schools accountable when they’re not teaching the full range of subjects right the way through all the Key Stages.
Recruitment and Retention
There’s always been a certain level of ‘those who can do, those who can’t teach’ snottiness in certain quarters about people who choose a career in teaching. However, the previous administration presided over and encouraged a sea-change in the public perception of teachers, resulting in a huge lack of respect for the profession as a whole. Couple that with rising workloads, shrinking budgets, and the introduction of less than rigorous training routes, and no wonder we can’t interest enough people in applying to be teachers, nor encourage the ones we’ve got to stay!
Already the narrative seems to have shifted with this new government to be more respectful and appreciative of teachers. This is a step in the right direction, but the serious issues around budgets, workload, and pay need addressing to make the profession attractive again.
In reference to music teachers specifically, we need to take a serious look at the way instrumental and curriculum teachers working for hubs are contracted and remunerated. Again, pre-election indications were that the new government would value the work of visiting music teachers, and therefore we might expect to see some indication of this in terms of changes to working conditions, status and pay? There is such huge variation across the country with instrumental teachers receiving everything from full time contracts on teachers’ pay and conditions, down to zero hours contracts on minimum wage, to entirely self-employed working arrangements. We wouldn’t accept or expect this level of variation for school-based teachers, so why is it ok for visiting teachers? We mustn’t forget that many vising teachers are making significant contribution to schools’ statutory requirements by teaching curriculum or whole class lessons in primary, or the performance component of the GCSE and A Level curriculum in secondary.
There also needs to be investment into CPD and training for teachers, particularly at primary where a lack of ‘specialist’ knowledge in one or more subjects can be a contributing factor to a feeling of overwhelm that ultimately results in early career teachers walking out of the door. Pre-election there was a suggestion that this new government would prioritise CPD for teachers, so I’m hopeful this is an area where we might see some improvement.
In short, there is work to be done, and plenty to keep our new government busy when it comes to music education. I hope they will take the time to really listen to the sector to work out what’s required, and deliver improvements that we can all get behind.
Dr Elizabeth Stafford, July 2024. Copyright © 2024 Music Education Solutions Limited. All Rights Reserved.
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