How musical instrument lessons hit a high note

Project
Every Child a Musician

Purpose
To give all children the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument

Funding
About £2m a year from Newham Council

Background
The chance to learn a musical instrument is often restricted to a select few. Yet in the London Borough of Newham, all children are offered a free instrument and music lessons, as part of the unique Every Child a Musician scheme launched by the council’s mayor Sir Robin Wales. “The mayor wanted the same opportunities for our children to learn an orchestral musical instrument as children in more affluent boroughs or the home counties,” explains the scheme’s manager Norma Spark.

Action
The initiative was tested in 10 primary schools in 2010/11 before being made available to more than 6,500 primary pupils in years 5 and 6 in 2011/12.

Schools pick three out of a choice of eight musical instruments – the violin, viola, trumpet, trombone, flute, clarinet, keyboard or guitar. Pupils are offered the chance to learn one of those three instruments having seen them in action at a special school assembly. They then embark on weekly half-hour music lessons in small groups, with tuition based on the Federation of Music Services’ “common approach”.

“This is a significant commitment from a borough experiencing financial challenges,” says Spark. “So we had to make sure that what we were offering was robust, and provide evidence that it was.” The council thus teamed up with the Institute of Education to do a formal evaluation. In addition, Newham has developed a partnership with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which has endorsed the quality of the scheme and given children the chance to play and compose music with some of the best classical musicians in the country.

The authority has tried to keep costs down, saving tens of thousands of pounds on musical instruments after running a procurement exercise.

Every Child a Musician was extended in 2012 into year 7 – the first year of secondary school – with eight secondaries taking part and all 15 in the borough expected to join by the end of this school year. This will take music teaching to around 10,000 children and young people by the end of the summer term. The approach is different in secondary schools, with schools offered a choice of group tuition, after-school clubs, or integrating instruments into regular music lessons.

The scheme, which employs 130 music tutors, also runs free music skills courses for unemployed people to train them as tutors. Some have gone on to teach on the scheme, while for others it has been a route back into other work and training.

Outcome
A 2011/12 project evaluation, by the International Music Education Research Centre at the Institute of Education, looked at children’s outcomes and the views of music tutors, headteachers and parents.

Among parents, 89 per cent said they were happy their child was learning a musical instrument, 78 per cent said playing an instrument was helping improve their children’s concentration skills, while 77 per cent said it helped with listening skills. According to music tutors, around 90 per cent of children made statistically significant progress in all 12 assessed areas of their musical development. Progress was not dependent on ethnicity or parental income. Children were also making clear progress in terms of learning to play their instruments, such as mastering basic techniques. Progress was not dependent on gender, ethnicity, deprivation or school attendance. Eighty-six per cent of children were positively engaged in learning their instrument, according to tutors. The Institute of Education assessed virtually all lessons as “good” or “excellent” across all instrument groups.

Children were positive about their experiences, with 85 per cent stating that “playing a musical instrument is fun”, while 70 per cent said they felt confident playing as part of a group or ensemble. There was evidence that the programme contributed to wider outcomes including social inclusion and children’s sense of wellbeing.