The National Plan for Music Education

The government has just announced a consultation for teachers, parents and young people, and others involved in music education on the ‘new’ national plan for music education. But what should this new plan really contain? Dr Elizabeth Stafford shares her thoughts.

When the National Plan for Music Education was first released, 2020 seemed like a long way away. Well here we are with the end of the plan just around the corner, and the government has just opened a consultation to decide what the new plan should contain.

I believe that the government should instruct all schools that they must deliver music as part of a broad and balanced curriculum, even if they are academies which currently do not have to abide by the national curriculum. This recommendation would be the single most useful element of a new National Plan for Music Education. Most of the issues with music education boil down to the fact that schools if they wish are allowed to ignore it, and in many cases have felt encouraged to ignore it due to the Ofsted inspection framework (and associated myths about it –both of which are thankfully now changing!), and the introduction of measures such as the EBacc and Progress 8. There is very little point introducing a new NPME if music is not statutory in all schools.

I believe that the next most significant element that could be included in a new NPME would be a commitment to proper training of primary teachers in music BEFORE they enter the classroom. This was part of the original NPME that was dropped almost immediately, which in my view was a catastrophic error. If teachers are not trained to deliver music properly, then unless they happen to be a musician themselves, they will be playing catch-up for the rest of their careers. The extension role for hubs to provide CPD for school-based staff is not an adequate substitute for proper music training intervention in ITE. We need to ensure that all our trainee teachers receive a proper grounding in music, and not rely on that being addressed once they enter the classroom. Once these teachers are out in the world, they have to jump over the barriers of finding suitable CPD, in a suitable location, on a convenient date, at a price that they can afford, and then request cover so that they can attend. This means that we cannot guarantee the quality of music teaching across all our schools. CPD should be a continuation of, not an introduction to, the music education that our teachers receive when they are training.

It cannot be overstated how important the above issues are to the success of music education in England. If we do not ensure that schools are teaching music, and that teachers are properly trained to do so, we cannot build a stable future for our sector. This makes the remaining content of a national plan almost irrelevant, and certainly not deliverable with parity across the country!

There are also some other issues to consider, such as why the plan does not currently encompass the whole of young people’s education from Early Years up to Higher Education. I would be delighted to see this as a feature of the new plan as this would help us as a sector to make more connections and provide more joined-up services for children & young people. In the consultation, questions are asked about music technology, which suggests that this might form a significant part of a new plan. If so, I hope that consideration is given to the cost of resourcing any music technology strand, alongside the time and budget cost of appropriate training for music teachers not familiar with these technologies.

The consultation asks many questions about the role of Music Education Hubs. While it is logical to use this opportunity to check how hubs are working, it is important to remember that they are not the only form of music education, and that the NPME is a document relevant to all music educators. The government will need to find a more effective way to ensure that schools in particular take ownership of this new plan, as the original plan largely passed schools by. I still meet schools now who have no idea that we have had a national plan for the last 8 years!

Our Music Hub system as set out in the NPME should be the icing on the cake, not the cake itself. We cannot expect Hubs to solve all music education’s problems. They should be free to focus on enhancing and extending our children’s musical experiences beyond the classroom, not picking up the pieces and replacing classroom provision. The only way to achieve this is for the government to ensure that children are having music lessons, delivered by competent and confident teachers, in the classroom in the first place.

Visit this link to respond to the NPME consultation and have your say on the future of music education in England: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/music-education-call-for-evidence