Council retains its music service for children despite funding cuts
NORTH YORKSHIRE’S children’s chief says the county’s authority has retained its vital music service despite facing swingeing Government cuts as part of a continuing drive to “create aspiration and develop concentration and confidence in children”.
Coun Janet Sanderson, North Yorkshire’s executive member for children’s services, also attributed the scheme to helping students achieve success in other walks of life.
It comes as the county gears up for its summer programme, which will see rehearsals and concerts take place in schools and music centres across the region.
As one of a minority of local authorities that has retained a fully staffed music service, the county’s 70 instrumental and music curriculum teachers will deliver one-to-one, group and wholeclass lessons during the summer term, taking music into the curriculum and leading choirs and orchestras from school to county level in preparation for end-ofterm performances.
In total, more than 7,500 North Yorkshire children and young people are involved in music playing and learning every week.
The county council has six music centres, in Harrogate, Northallerton, Scarborough, Selby, Skipton and Whitby, where children and young people join a range of ensembles on Saturday mornings.
The music service also runs county level groups – youth choir, saxophone and brass ensembles, and county orchestra for the most talented musicians – which tour extensively in Britain and overseas. Many students have gone on to pursue professional musical careers.
Coun Sanderson said: “It’s not just about creating professional musicians. The council values and has maintained our music service even in these austere times, because it’s about creating aspiration in children, about developing concentration, confidence and creating team players.
“Our students who go on to become successful in other walks of life often put their success down to the experiences they gained through our music service, even if they go on to become doctors or engineers, scientists or lawyers.”
North Yorkshire’s music service is recognised nationally for good practice in the delivery of its whole-class teaching through the Government’s Wider Opportunities programme. The county’s scheme has been developed extensively and enables all children in Key Stage Two to have an instrument for free for a year in order to learn to play and to access the music curriculum through practical learning. As many as 76 programmes are running across the county. This includes wholeschool “immersion”, in which whole days for all children are given over to music projects.
Emma Calvert, music service assistant head, said: “We find that where we offer music curriculum projects and whole-class playing, music becomes a real driver for boosting the confidence of children and offering the breadth in provision that Ofsted inspectors are now looking for.”