Crisis talks over threat to music service for youngsters
CRISIS TALKS are being held today to try to stave off a threat to Hull’s acclaimed Schools Music Service.
Councillors have vowed to “protect and defend” the service, which gives free music tuition and loans of instruments to hundreds of students, from a new rival service being set up by a Catholic schools academy trust.
From September, St Cuthbert’s Catholic Academy Trust, which is made up of eight city schools, is withdrawing from HSMS, meaning a shortfall of about £200,000 to Hull Council.
The trust says its ambition is to “transform access to music education” and “to reach out to many more children who are simply not engaged in music”.
However, more than 3,000 people have signed a petition, including professional musicians who cited the “amazing opportunities” HSMS gave them, and decrying the trust’s “petty empirebuilding”.
One signatory said: “The individual instrumental lessons are important but it’s also the orchestras, bands and groups, the concerts and the tours, which make a larger music service irreplaceable.
“Services like this don’t happen by accident. It is through long years of dedicated service by teaching and managerial staff.”
Trust chief executive Ged Fitpatrick, the headteacher of St Mary’s College, is due at the meeting with the city’s three MPs, council leader Steve Brady and the Diocese of Middlesborough’s Director of Schools, Kevin Duffy. It follows a meeting at the Albermarle Centre attended by about 100 people.
Deputy council leader Daren Hale said: “People were apologising saying they felt it was a betrayal of the Catholic ethos, it was a retrograde step.”
Mr Fitzpatrick was not available for comment.