9 minute read
In Focus: Music in Secondary Schools Trust
Rachel Landon, Chief Executive of Music in Secondary Schools Trust, explains how the trust developed into a music education charity that is changing the lives of young people across England
Highbury Grove School in North London was struggling to achieve good outcomes for its students when Truda White was appointed as Headteacher in 2001. During a study visit to The Bronx, New York, she witnessed a whole class string programme that, for the young people, was having a transformational effect and was inspired to develop a similar programme in her school.
A chance meeting and a passionate pitch attracted the Charles Wolfson involved by providing regular and classical music programme. By 2007 Highbury Grove was judged by Ofsted to be a good school and by 2010 ‘an outstandingly effective school’. In particular Ofsted noted the outstanding extra provision offered in music.
In 2012 Lord Lloyd Webber mentioned Highbury Grove in the House of Lords in relation to the impact, on music and arts provision more widely, of the EBacc. He was invited to visit the school, which led to a successful funding application to the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, matched by the CWCT, to extend the project beyond Highbury Grove. There was enough money for four schools to have a full classical music programme. launched in April 2013 with the belief that children and young people’s lives could be transformed through high quality music education.
Our third partnership was formed with the Dame Alice Owen
Foundation, which was keen to work with MiSST to provide every Islington secondary school with the opportunity to run our music programme. They too have supported us for close to 10 years.
MiSST has now reached nearly 19,000 young people and provides opportunities to over 10,000 students weekly, every one of them receiving an instrument for at least three years and studying a diverse, progressive curriculum that enables young people to achieve up to Grade 3 level in theory and playing by the end of Year 9.
Our data shows that educational and social outcomes are improved through the provision of orchestral instruments and expert tuition. We believe that every young person is entitled to a broad, balanced education that helps them both a contributor to and consumer within our society. Our moral purpose is to close the gap in outcomes to improve the life chances of every individual, whatever their background or starting point. We believe this and we expect the schools we work with to believe it too.
The chance to play a musical instrument, to be a part of ensembles and to play within an orchestra should not depend upon the area in which you live, the school that you attend or the wherewithal to pay for individual instrumental lessons. Of course, not every child will continue with music for life or become a classical musician. Some will drop away. But MiSST believes that every child should be given the opportunity and we are proud of all of our young people, whether they are now studying music at Oxbridge, are doctors, teachers or
I took up the role of CEO of MiSST in June 2018. Having worked at a MiSST school as a senior leader and having successfully transformed the school, I felt privileged to be at the helm, equipping more schools with this tool. At the time MiSST worked in eight schools and had a reach of more than 5,000. I was tasked with scaling up and expanding the reach. As a Lancashire-born leader, it was personally important to me to take the programme beyond the boundaries of the M25. During my education, I had only ever been given the chance to play a recorder for six weeks at primary school and my parents certainly could not afford music lessons, so I was aware, from an early age, how opportunity is not the same for every child. My resolute aim was to take MiSST from a Londoncentric charity to one with national reach, national
Chamberlaine in Bedworth, Warwickshire. The school joined in 2019 and now, after three years of the Andrew Lloyd Webber Programme, is reporting a much longedfor reintroduction of GCSE music, with a healthy 22 students about to embark upon the course, bucking the trend of decline seen in so many schools. This success is also reliant on the dedicated school staff and effective Music Service.
2020-21 was a challenging year for all due to the pandemic but MiSST continued to grow in the North of England, with The Radclyffe School and Hathershaw College, both in Oldham, joining the MiSST family. We also welcomed the Sydney Russell School in Dagenham, Essex, and extended our support to children with mental health needs at the Chelsea Community Hospital School. MiSST was able to adapt and change to meet the pandemic challenges and MiSST at Home was launched to enable our students to continue with the Andrew Lloyd Webber Programme.
We delivered the curriculum lessons to years 7, 8 and 9 via video lessons uploaded to YouTube. Our team recorded over 350 video lessons that included theory, instrumental, singing and ensemble tutorials that covered everything, that would have been taught in celebration of music through lockdown’ in March 2021. The video told the story of all the fantastic music our students had played throughout the pandemic. It was testament to the continued power of music to enrich and transform lives. It was more important than ever for so many of our students because it provided community when so many young people found themselves isolated and separated.
Funding from Middlesbrough Council enabled MiSST to start working at at Kings Academy, where all of the 270 Music Service and MiSST is that this is an entitlement. We are very excited that a further Middlesborough school will join in September, alongside schools in Bournemouth, Yorkshire, Cumbria and Dorset. Since 2018 we have moved from eight schools to 26 and a waiting list of over 70 schools across the UK, all of which we would like to support if we could. The most powerful thing is that behind all of these numbers are individual students, many of whom are engaging with a evident in the feedback we receive through social media, headteachers, parents, teachers and of course the children themselves.
We have many wonderful stories from all our schools. Our current Ambassador, Deronne White, had never a year 7 student through the MiSST programme. Years later he has played with National Youth Orchestra, gained a 2.1 at The Royal College of Music, is playing in the Chineke! Orchestra and generally thriving in life. At another school, students are awarded their instruments through a ceremony that resembles the Hogwarts Sorting Hat ritual.
In July of this year 250 disadvantaged students from all corners of England came together at Radley College for a fully-funded music residential, many of them travelling out of their towns and certainly out of their comfort
Our approach is a commitment to excellence at all levels. This includes a well-planned, progressive Foundation Curriculum – the Andrew Lloyd Webber Programme – and Programmes of Excellence including a MiSST Music Academy in London with several Orchestras and Choirs, a Radley Residential, an Annual Concert, Conducting Programmes, Composition Programmes, Wellbeing and GCSE classes plus Student Leadership Programmes which run through our work. It is important to note that everything we do is free and that is non-negotiable.
The delivery and success of any such programme relies upon the highest quality of teaching staff who share our values and beliefs, who are very well trained and engage our students. Our own growing staff team demonstrates this commitment, dedication and expertise. The work of our team includes creating CPD programmes and in-school support as we seek to empower schools to be the best that they can be.
Our model has always hinged on working directly with headteachers and chairs of governing bodies. As we recruit schools it is critical that there is an alignment of vision and values and a commitment to the transformational power of music in the lives of young people – not to mention the adults who work with them, and that includes both parents and teachers. Practically, this means that there is a requirement to sign a Memorandum of Understanding, that sets out our collective mission and keeps us focused.
While all the schools we partner with meet certain deprivation markers, they are very different. MiSST always recognises this and can adjust its support accordingly. Some of our schools have very little music within their curriculum model and need help to build back their department. Some schools have a rich and varied music offer but want even more for their students. Some of our schools are judged to be Outstanding, some Require Improvement and some are in the Inadequate categories. We believe that we can support all schools and certainly do not shy away from helping those in challenging circumstances –in fact that is where we see ourselves needed the most. Our support is a critical part of our offer but we believe schools need to drive their own programmes if they are to be progressive and embedded and therefore have impact in the long term. As a teacher myself I’ve never met a music teacher, headteacher or governor who would refuse the opportunity to do this in their own school.
Good funders are key to sustainable impact, they need to be in it for the long haul as it allows us to be strategic and give much needed security to our schools. We don’t just remove support from a school. In an ideal world, schools would be self-sustaining but in reality, that is impossible for some schools. Some can sustain themselves with just day-to-day support and access to the programme, some cannot and that’s OK. MiSST does what is necessary to keep funding the students who walk into each school and see the opportunity that their peers have. Naturally, they want the same.
We must support schools to make high-quality music education a reality rather than an unrealistic target that they wish they could achieve. Music should be seen as just as important as English and Maths and music teachers and music instructors should be ensure children have an impactful music education and access to music courses at KS4 and 5 but they need support and leverage from the school leadership to do this. With Ofsted’s recent change of heart towards the arts and the DfE NPME there is no longer a doubt about the positive value of having music embedded within the school curriculum.
‘[My son] has used music to cope with painful loss and grief in the past two years,’ says one parent. ‘Having an organisation like MiSST supporting, boosting and encouraging him alongside the music department at school has been a gift to us all. Witnessing himself through music and hearing him talk about what role performing may play in his future is exciting.’
MiSST’s mission continues and we look forward to taking on even more schools and working with even more highquality partners along the way!
misst.org.uk
