Bridget’s Blog: A New Year In December

Is the year almost over, or just getting started?  I do wonder . . .  for Music Mark this December actually feels like New Year!

I always marvel at our ability in the education sector to view the year in three ways. There is of course the calendar year – we’re almost done with this year’s Christmas concerts. Then there is the financial year, which by now is becoming clearer in terms of actuals against budgets. And finally there is the academic year which of course feels as if it has really only just started with plenty of time left before July to catch up on lessons that have been missed for school trips, events and of course ‘freshers flu’.

At Music Mark we celebrate and support our membership in different ways across each type of ‘year’, but oddly November seems to be a closing point for us in relation to all three!

The calendar year starts with gearing up for our Annual Conference. We confirm the venue, pay the first deposit, agree on a theme and put a call out for content in the first couple of months. The spring and summer are a whir of activity as we pull things together – keynotes, an exhibition, plans for our awards and of course a new design for our conference website linked to our theme. The 2025 conference has just been completed and we are ‘washing things up’ as we head to the end of the year. If you joined us, we’d love to hear your thoughts through the evaluation form we sent you as you left Nottingham. If you didn’t it’s worth taking a look at the resources, slides and other content we loaded up onto the website.

The financial year also seems to feel complete for us with our AGM in November where we present our annual accounts. The process of pulling them together, getting them reviewed and writing the relevant reports keeps us in a retrospective mood well into the new financial year. But by the end of November we’re also getting a sense of our current year budget and preparing to report our ‘quarter three’ data to Arts Council England for the proportion of our funding which they give us as an Investment Principles Support Organisation. And of course, as the government presented it’s Autumn Budget, we remind them of the need for increased funding for our members to maintain and grow the work they do.

Whilst both ‘calendar’ and ‘financial’ year ends are important markers for us, I guess the academic year is probably our key one. Every September we welcome our membership back to their desks after well-earned breaks (or time to catch up whilst it is quiet). We go up a gear as we head towards the Annual Conference and we introduce new training, peer groups and resources to get people excited by another year in the classroom or practice room.

We have plenty more for everyone to engage with coming up and hope that members and the wider sector will want to join us as we aim to support their work. However, November also sees us celebrate the previous academic year with an annual review. Again, this reflection reminds us of what we have done, and gives us an opportunity to pause and think about how we will continue to do more between now and August 2026!

With all these elements of our work – conference, finance and a review – completed in November, perhaps our New Year starts in December! So Happy New Year and let’s see what the next 12 months brings!