When the Guardian labelled cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason “the last state school success story” in 2018, it sent a feeling of dread through the music community. Relentless attacks on funding and a crippling lack of resources had plagued the music teacher for years but they’d always hoped that statement would never come true.
This summer the number of students taking music A-level is predicted to be down 6.8% to just 4,945, while GCSE music faces a larger drop of 11.8%. Flimsy attempts by the government to improve access to music teaching through its National Plan for Music Education continuously fail to encourage schools to save their departments in the face of unrealistic budget cuts. Currently, all maintained schools are only required to offer “at least” one arts GCSE, of which music “could” be one. The decision by the same government to exclude arts subjects from the English Baccalaureate sees little promising infrastructure for the qualifications top music institutions require for entry.
I have students who cannot afford longer lessons
George Phillips
With these restraints, classical music education risks becoming a luxury few can afford. For Sophie Lewis, Chief Executive of the National Children’s Orchestra (NCO), the only way to get “pure, genuine equality” in music education is clear. “It has to be a primary school [where] you receive really confident music lessons in the classroom,” she says. “You’re given the opportunity to sing and if you enjoy singing you’re offered the opportunity to learn an instrument.” From there students need to be provided with instruments that “actually work”, with enough time to learn from teachers who are paid properly.
In 2022, the government pledged £25 million for the purchase of 200,000 musical instruments and equipment, with a further £79 million made available every year until 2025 for the Music Hubs programme. But for music teachers in the most deprived areas, evidence of this pledge is non-existent. George Phillips, a guitar teacher with a north London music service, says some of his students lack the basic essentials. “At one school, there were five school guitars. Things broke, strings snapped and now I’m down to two,” he explains. “I’m now in a situation where I have four in a class and they’re having to share two guitars because they don’t have their own. I tell the school the guitars are broken. That was back in September. It’s now May.”
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For those parents who can afford to buy instruments, repairs and lesson costs can soon mount up. Kewin Lopes, whose daughter Megan learns the violin at her secondary school, always hopes additional costs come on a good month. “Initially it was [a substantial cost]. But now I can invest a little bit,” Lopes says. “There are times when it gets tight though, it depends on the month.” The option to be flexible with tuition payments is hugely helpful to Lopes, a retailer at John Lewis, but he is not always convinced of its value for money. Megan currently receives a 20-minute lesson once a week, but having a Monday lesson in a term with multiple bank holidays means it can be difficult to find the time to catch up. Funding restraints keep Megan’s grade four lessons short, but she sees how far her teacher cuts into her own time to get the job done. “Sometimes, she will extend my lesson to 40 minutes,” says Megan. The concept of teachers sacrificing their own time to ensure their students get the most out of their lessons, especially those who show promise and enthusiasm, is not a new notion. However, it is unsustainable, especially for those with a large number of students.
Phillips, who teaches over 100 children a week, agrees that funding restrictions for those who need individual longer lessons result in tuition that is no longer value for money. “I have students that cannot afford longer lessons so they end up grouped in with other kids that aren’t at the same level,” he says. One grade three student Phillips teaches can only afford a group lesson and has been placed by the school with two beginners. “I have to basically swivel my chair between beginners and someone actually good,” he explains. “It doesn’t really win for anybody. It’s hard to teach and it’s annoying.” In an attempt to get more out of the lessons, Phillips has considered arranging duets for both abilities but with time and curriculum restraints, it’s proving an impossible situation for the teacher. “I’m not going to sit there sacrificing my own time out of the lesson to compensate for the timetabling issues of a school. That’s a problem.”
You really have to play out and pretend as if you’re confident, even if it goes badly
Megan Lopes
The NCO, which focuses specifically on cultivating the country’s top musicians between the age of eight and 14, sees working with music education hubs and organisations as the most sustainable way to promote equal opportunities for those with creative potential. Driven by the organisation’s mantra “diversity drives excellence”, Lewis and her team are embarking on new initiatives to break down inaccessibility and elitism. “We’re asking local music education hubs ‘how can we help’, rather than saying ‘We’re the NCO, you’re really lucky to be part of this’. Let’s listen to what’s going on, let’s listen to what these children and partners need.” Already partnering with organisations like Future Music and the Nucleo, NCO plans to deliver new partnership activities to complement its existing programme and add value to the local orchestral offer of partners, including school visits and first orchestral experiences.
It’s these musical opportunities that have proved transformative for 14-year-old Megan who’s found her own confidence growing with the encouragement of her teachers. “Playing the violin, if you’re hesitant it doesn’t really sound good,” she explains. “You really have to play out and pretend as if you’re confident, even if it goes badly.” Megan has been playing with her school orchestra for two years and recently started at the music service’s intermediate orchestra, led by her teacher. “I feel more comfortable with her. I feel able to speak up. [Intermediate orchestra] is a bit hard because I’m not good at sight reading still, but I’m getting better.”
The next few years will prove critical for music education as those children whose music education was badly disrupted by the pandemic make the transition from primary to secondary school. “We’re all quite nervous about the impact of the pandemic on the age group that will be coming into NCO now, those kids who just gave up because there were no ensemble opportunities or lessons were difficult online,” explains Lewis. It’s here she feels that a partnership between NCO and music education hubs is vital: “My perception is that they’re very open to working with us because they can see children ready for the experience we offer and we can help them achieve that.”
“We actually believe that diversity drives excellence,” says Lewis. “You can’t be excellent as an orchestra, or an organisation unless you have people from all backgrounds influencing what you’re doing.”
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