Hello and welcome to the bumper back-to-school issue of Music Teacher. I hope you managed to find time to enjoy the summer months and that you feel ready to face the challenges of the new academic year.
In the spirit of new beginnings, we've made a few changes and we hope you like them. If you're a regular, then you'll notice that the design has been altered slightly to look a bit more contemporary, giving the magazine a cleaner and clearer look. Beyond the superficial changes, we've also shifted the focus of the magazine. As I said in my previous editorial, I made the decision to bring back our old strapline, ‘Your Voice in Music Education’, to serve as a reminder of this magazine's focus. You'll also notice that the magazine now has a mission statement, which serves as the foundation for any editorial decisions that are made. Going forward, this magazine will become more practical, offering up ideas and inspiration that you can carry into your next lesson, as well as more reviews of relevant content. I've been hard at work over the past few months building up a pool of new writers, bringing in more teaching talent to the magazine and providing teachers with a much-needed platform to share and expand the great work that they are doing throughout the country.
As ever, the magazine will be underscored by a commitment to ensuring that great music-making opportunities are available to everyone. To that end, this magazine and its sister title Drama & Theatre – a rebranded Teaching Drama magazine – have officially joined the ISM's ‘Bacc for the Future’ campaign to help fight for music, and the arts more generally, to be placed at the heart of our curriculum. You can read more about this on page 79.
Unfortunately, this is also the last issue that I will take to press. It has been an honour to edit Music Teacher magazine for you and I look forward to seeing the next chapter unfold.
