Jen’s Journal: Did someone say half-term?

I can hardly believe that we’ve reached half-term already. It’s certainly been a busy start to the new academic year, and I hope you manage to get, or have managed to get (Scotland), some well-deserved downtime.

Over recent weeks, I’ve travelled across the country from Birmingham, Bristol, London and Newcastle to meet with many of you and learn about your brilliant work (and challenges). I’m always struck by the sheer dedication across the music education sector, striving every single day to improve the musical outcomes for children and young people.

Last week we had our ‘Big Meet ‘, which was a great opportunity to bring Music Mark Members together to hear from Etio, the Lead Delivery Partner for the new National Centre for Arts Education (England). It was exciting to see such strong engagement from organisations and individuals across the music education sector (so much so we had to close bookings!), all keen to better understand the NCAE’s ambitions, priorities and future plans. Music Mark Members can access the session recording and key themes from the session.

The discussions highlighted what feels like a pivotal moment for music education with a renewed commitment to revitalise arts in schools supported by wide-ranging measures. Overall, members welcomed the ambitions of the NCAE and the prominence being given to arts education however, the mood, was one of cautious optimism with concerns, as expected at this stage, about clarity, implementation, sector understanding. Key themes included:

1. Greater clarity (and detail) is required.
2. Music Hubs, services, freelancers and wider music education providers must not be overlooked.
3. Concerns about the CPD focus and potential duplication of existing provision.
4. Local knowledge and relationships must be retained within any national approach.
5. Long-term funding and sector stability remain major concerns however some assurances were given from the DfE.
6. Young people & progression

It was also encouraging to hear from you all, that Music Mark should act as an independent advocate, translator and critical friend to NCAE. This is an opportunity to help shape positively the ambition of NCAE and we will feedback to Etio the key themes and messages from the Big Meet. In addition to a joint follow-up blog with Etio in the coming weeks, we also look forward to welcoming them to the Music Mark Conference next month in Liverpool (Monday 16th November now sold out) to hear about their further developments.

Keep up your brilliant work but hoping you also get a few days to rest and recuperate!