Music education is full of benefits the government can’t see

This blog was originally published as part of the #SaveOurSubjects campaign run by the ISM and Edge Foundation.

To read this blog on their website, click here.

At Voices Foundation, we’ve been delivering singing and music-based CPD for primary and secondary teachers for 30 years. During that time, we’ve seen many changes to the education system and teaching trends. Yet, the one universal constant has been that school staff really do want to give children opportunities to experience singing and express themselves. The issue, increasingly, is finding the time and resources to do this, given the other pressures of the curriculum.

The English Baccalaureate (EBacc) and Progress 8 heavily prioritise English, maths and science subjects, which then impact their league table rankings and OFSTED reports. This system has directly led to a steady degradation and side-lining of singing and music in schools.

The positive impact on children when they sing in school is clear to see. We’ve had teachers tell us that singing has helped their pupils perform better in English, maths and science – but that’s not the whole story. In almost all feedback we receive on our singing programmes, teachers report an increase in pupils’ wellbeing, confidence, self-esteem and social and communication skills.

These skills set children up for life. When the government actively disincentivises teachers and pupils from investing time in these areas, the natural consequence is a society where those skills aren’t prioritised either.

However, The Department for Education promotes the EBacc by saying: ‘While your child may not have decided on their future career path yet, choosing the EBacc at GCSE gives them access to a full range of employment options when they leave secondary school and a broad knowledge that employers are looking for.’

This gets to the very heart of our issue, and why we’re proudly supporting the ISM and Edge Foundation’s #SaveOurSubjects campaign: what does the government view as the ‘full range’ of career prospects? The EBacc has no arts subjects on its list, and Progress 8 gives English and maths double weighting. This actively encourages pupils to forget any dreams of a potential future in the music industry.

In his 2006 Ted Talk (currently the most watched of all time), Sir Ken Robinson perfectly sums up the problem: ‘Many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they’re not, because the thing they were good at at school wasn’t valued or was highly stigmatised.’

14 years later, in 2020 the British government continued to stigmatise those creative subjects via a controversial campaign encouraging people to retrain in cyber-skills. The most infamous poster showed a ballet dancer lacing up her shoes, with the caption: ‘Fatima’s next job could be in cyber (she just doesn’t know it yet).’ The message was clear – Fatima, and others like her in the arts sector, need to start doing something actually useful.

An irony to all of this is that the British people clearly love music and singing. In 2019, the music industry contributed £5.8 billion to the UK economy (UK Music, 2020); at the recent coronation, the country was transfixed by the choral singing inside Westminster Abbey and one week later, millions watched as acts from across Europe performed on Liverpool’s Eurovision stage; and regular viewing figures for TV shows like The Voice and Britain’s Got Talent show the nation’s love of aspiration in singing. However, until the education system starts viewing it as a legitimate career, rather than an extracurricular hobby, getting involved will remain out of reach for so many.

The positive impact of singing in school makes it so disappointing that the curriculum in its current form doesn’t leave teachers any room to focus on it. Teachers want to give children those opportunities, and children should be encouraged to pursue a genuinely ‘full range’ of careers and skills. This is why we're calling on the government to change the pressures on schools and create genuine space for singing, music and arts at all levels of education.