You have probably heard about the new National Plan for Music Education (NPME) – The Power of Music to Change Lives (DfE, 2022). It's been over 10 years since its predecessor first appeared – The Importance of Music (DfE, 2011), so the new NPME looks set to be an important document in music education for some time to come. Since its publication in June 2022, the new NPME has been vigorously debated and discussed in a wide variety of spaces, including at music conferences, in social media threads, and within staffrooms up and down the country. But did you know that it has also been debated in the House of Lords?
The debate, tabled by Baroness Fleet (who also chaired the expert panel that advised the government on the plan), took place on 9 November 2022. This was an important day for music education as its significance was discussed and championed in the second parliamentary chamber. Contributions covered a wide range of perspectives, all characterised by full-throated support for the young people who make music together and a prevailing view that while there is excellent music education work going on, this is far from universal, nor is it available to all. Many of the Lords, who have backgrounds in the cultural sector themselves, have registered interests as trustees or advisors to major cultural institutions, or have personal (and parental) experience of engaging with a range of music making activities. Its discussion in the Lords was the first detailed examination of the plan in Parliament, and so this was a significant moment for all of us who work in music education in some capacity.
The debate
Baroness Fleet's opening statement to the debate charted the vision, aims and ambitions, and funding of the plan, before going on to contributions, responses and questions from others in the chamber. It was repeatedly noted that music enriches lives, can be transformative in its nature and is of value for all children. At the same time, though, cautionary notes were sounded about musical access and barriers to music provision, alongside research and commentary that reveal worrying declines in GCSE and A Level music take-up and teacher workforce. It is clearly a good thing that the refreshed NPME is being discussed in Parliament in such detail, both in terms of its ambitions and the practicalities of realising these aims. It is also obviously a subject about which many members of the Lords care; the belief in the entitlement of all children to a meaningful, exciting, and fulfilling musical education was ever-present. Within these contributions, however, there were clear and justifiable anxieties about the extent to which the plan becomes a living strategy grounded in action, with tangible musical outcomes and impact across the land, rather than simply a plan.
Having watched the debate, there are three key areas which struck a particular chord with some of our recent research at Birmingham City University. The themes are:
- Composing
- Access to opportunity and qualifications
- Partnership and workforce development.
These need unpicking further to enable the full potential of provision to be realised in a range of musical contexts. We hope the explorations and questions below can help music teachers, senior school leaders, and those working with music education hubs to think through the realisation of these three central areas and the plan itself.
Composing
Composing should be an important part of musical experiences for young people. It can be harder to include than playing, but without composing there wouldn't be much to play in the first place. Even improvising is a bit like composing on the fly. Teaching composing and integrating it into the curriculum can be even more of a challenge, especially as its nature is hard to get hold of. At Birmingham City University, the Birmingham Music Education Research Group has been thinking about composing and how it is experienced by young people for some time. Our research report for the Sound and Music's Go Compose project in 2021 looked at some of these issues.
We found that investing in training for teaching composing was needed and that experience of musicianship alone was not enough for music leaders to facilitate young people in their composing. This is an important area where music hubs can make a unique and valuable contribution. We also think that as composing is already a part of the National Curriculum for Music and forms a significant proportion of music courses which young people take later, such as GCSE, composing needs more emphasis in music provision. The National Plan provides a real opportunity to address this and to think about composing in a joined-up way. While progression routes for young performers are clearly mapped out on a local, regional and national basis, the same is not true for young composers. This would benefit from more joined-up thinking and provision.
A question to think about: What specific provisions are in place where you are to support the development of young people's composing?
Access to opportunities and qualifications
We know that a major challenge for many young musicians is the fact that they can't access appropriate musical qualifications in schools or colleges close to where they live. How can a child choose something that isn't even offered? The overall decline in A Level music uptake in recent years has been widely noted, and we have been following this closely; you can read more on this in our article in MT's issue from August 2021. What is most concerning about this decline is the precarity of the subject within many schools. Pressures to close courses in schools with small class sizes are even further accentuated by tight budgets and limited resources. Compounding these issues are geographic disparities across England; there are proportionally nearly twice as many A Level music students in the East of England compared with the West Midlands, for instance. Reduced numbers lead to lower levels of investment maintaining or refurbishing musical spaces in schools which may further entrench decline.
A question to think about: The NPME notes ‘space for rehearsals and individual practice’ (p. 19) as a key feature of high-quality school music provision. Can you use this to help you petition for these facilities, if they are not already in place? Or can this help you secure investment to refresh or update these spaces?
Partnership and workforce development
Partnerships are very much the word of the moment in the new NPME. It takes the idea that partnerships can broaden the offer available to children and young people as a given. While there are clearly potential benefits to partnership working, our work has shown that partnerships don't always offer such a panacea. Some partnerships can have only limited effect and impact, with some of the notions of joining up practice in the original National Plan being susceptible to flawed models underpinned by ‘victory narratives’. In-depth understandings of each other's starting points, positionalities, and goals are essential when developing mutually beneficial partnerships.
Related to this is the ongoing development of the workforce, working across partnerships. Our own work on this was noted by Lord Black, who stated that ‘the next generation of music educators need to have access to high quality training and development opportunities.’ Recent work at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire has shown the value in engaging recent conservatoire graduates as pedagogical role models for current students. Involving recent graduates in sharing their early-career experiences with current students and staff connects teachers and practitioners with a ‘wider music education ecology’ and has significant potential to ensure music educators are ‘best equipped to support children and young people’, two aspirations of the refreshed National Plan (Shaw, 2020).
A question to think about:What could Continuing Professional Development in music education look like and how do we ensure there is something on offer for everyone, no matter what your job role, employment status or career stage is?
The new NPME and the debates it has sparked offer huge potential. The place of research in working out the delivery is, in our view, a critical one. We hope that the themes and questions we've identified here will provide food for thought and, most of all, that all of those involved in music education will continue to feel empowered to make a positive difference to the lives of young people across the country.
Links and references
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House of Lords debate: bit.ly/3YIwh15
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Birmingham Music Education Research Group: bcu.ac.uk/education-and-social-work/research/birmingham-music-education-bmerg/research-projects
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Kinsella, V., Fautley, M. and Whittaker, A., 2022. Re-thinking music education partnerships through intra-actions. Music Education Research, 24(3), pp.299-311
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Shaw, L., 2020. From student to professional: recent conservatoire graduates’ experiences of instrumental teaching. British Journal of Music Education, 38(1), pp.13-30
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Music Teacher article on A Level music decline and attainment gaps.
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musicmark.org.uk/resources/national-plan-for-music-education-2022-the-power-of-music-to-change-lives
