CONSULTATION
RESPONSE
Department for Education/Department for Culture Media and
Sport
Henley Review of the Funding and Delivery of Music
Education
15 November 2010
1. The NASUWT welcomes the opportunity to comment on the Review of the
Funding and Delivery of Music Education, commissioned jointly by the
Department for Education (DfE) and the Department for Culture Media and
Sport (DCMS) and chaired by Darren Henley.
2. The NASUWT is the largest union in the UK representing teachers and
headteachers.
3. The NASUWT’s response sets out important general considerations about
the nature of the issues that should to be considered by the Review if it is
to develop coherent and sustainable recommendations in respect of music
education and gives the Union’s views on the key specific issues
highlighted in the remit letter from the Secretary of State for Education.
GENERAL COMMENTS
4. It is essential that the musical education of children and young people is
considered in terms of its role as an important element of the universal
entitlement of all pupils to a high-quality, engaging and personally relevant
learning experience.
NASUWT
The largest teachers’ union in the UK
1
5. Music education, including instrumental tuition, has been a longestablished feature of educational provision within the state education
system. However, consideration of effective approaches to the funding and
delivery of music education requires a full acknowledgement of the
framework within which it is currently delivered and the potential impact of
broader current Government policy proposals for school and services for
children and young people.
6. The NASUWT, while recognising the importance of individual musical
tuition in the range of musical education opportunities made available to
pupils, is concerned that the remit for the Review appears to place
excessive emphasis on this aspect of pupils’ musical development to the
detriment of other critical areas of music-related learning. As a result, the
Review risks adopting an approach to its work that fails to recognise the
importance of effective curricular frameworks for music education, the role,
structure and funding of services and expertise located beyond the school,
the impact of aspects of the current school accountability regime on music
education and the importance of coherent frameworks for the professional
development of teachers of music.
7. The NASUWT therefore draws the attention of the Review to these critical
aspects of the broader environment within which pupils’ musical education
and development takes place and sets out below the importance of these
policy areas for music education and its place as an integral part of an
engaging and relevant learning offer for pupils.
SPECIFIC COMMENTS
The place of music education within an effective curricular framework
8. Within the context of the education system in England, universal access to
high-quality educational provision for pupils in the 3-14 age phase is
established through the statutory provisions of the Early Years Foundation
Stage (EYFS) and Key Stages 1-3 of the National Curriculum which
NASUWT
The largest teachers’ union in the UK
2
include programmes of learning for all pupils to enable them to develop
their musical skills, knowledge and understanding.
9. The EYFS and the National Curriculum Programmes of Study ensure that
all pupils must have the opportunity to play tuned and untuned instruments
and to sing both individually and in group contexts. In the context of the
remit for the Review, the NASUWT is concerned that the fact that all pupils
are entitled to gain experience of playing a musical instrument and to sing
is not recognised explicitly. Instead, playing a musical instrument or to
develop singing skills appears to be conceptualised principally in the remit
as an activity that pupils, or their parents on their behalf, can elect to
undertake if they so wish. While considerations in relation to access to
musical education beyond the context of the current National Curriculum
are considered in more detail below, it is critically important that the
Review proceeds on the basis that gaining experience of musical
instruments and singing is a current entitlement for all pupils.
10. The location of this aspect of pupils’ learning experience within the
framework of the National Curriculum allows for their playing of
instruments and singing to be undertaken as part of learning programme
that allows them to understand the historical development of different
genres of music, to develop a personal, critical appreciation of music and
to reflect on the use of music in wider social and cultural contexts. The
National Curriculum also provides opportunities for pupils to establish
connections between their learning in music and in other curricular areas
and to develop skills that can be applied in a range of wider educational
and personal contexts. Therefore, in relation to the specific reference in
the remit for the Review to the relationship between music and broader
cultural education, it is clear that the current approach to the curriculum
provides clear opportunities to embed pupils’ awareness of and
engagement with music in a context that takes full account of the cultural
dimension of learning across the curriculum and which locates music
within pupils’ development of broader cultural understanding and
knowledge.
NASUWT
The largest teachers’ union in the UK
3
11. The implication in the remit for the Review that the current framework for
music education does not allow for progression is misguided. A key
advantage a national curricular framework is that is sets out commonly
understood and applied descriptions of pupils’ stages of musical
development and thereby ensures that effective opportunities to allow
pupils to build on their skills and understanding can be secured in practice
on a consistent basis.
12. However, significant aspects of Government policy represent genuine
threats to this coherent, consistent and equitable framework within which
all pupils, regardless of their background or circumstances, are able to
access an engaging and effective music education.
13. In relation to funding, expenditure plans set out by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer in the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR)
risk undermining the ability of schools and local authorities to ensure that
pupil’s curricular entitlements can be met effectively. While the
Government has asserted that during the course of the CSR period,
expenditure on schools will increase in real terms, it is clear that per pupil
spending overall will decline as a result of increases in pupil numbers
during the period.1 There are also legitimate concerns about the extent to
which the Government’s proposals for its Pupil Premium will lead to real
terms reductions in funding for a significant number of schools. 2 As a
result of these decisions, there are genuine risks that levels of expenditure
on music-related provision in these schools will be compromised in a
context where it is likely that schools will continue to face considerable
demands on the resources available to them, particularly in circumstances
where schools are certain to face pressures to compensate for reductions
in local authority provision of services from their existing budgets.
1
HM Treasury (2010), Spending Review 2010, The Stationery Office, London
Chowdry, H; Greaves, S; and Sibieta, L (2010), The Pupil Premium: assessing the options,
The Institute of Fiscal Studies, London
2
NASUWT
The largest teachers’ union in the UK
4
14. However, it is also the case that decisions about public expenditure will
impact upon the wider support upon which schools depend to deliver high
quality music education. Through services provided by local authorities
and other organisations with expertise in music education, schools are
able to augment the work of teachers and enrich pupils’ music learning
experiences within the context of their National Curricular entitlements.
The reductions in expenditure set out in the CSR to non-schools elements
of the DfE budget, to local authorities and to organisations funded by
DCMS pose a grave threat to the continued availability and quality of these
services.
15. In this context, the NASUWT notes the specific reference in the remit letter
for the Review to the extent to which music education can contribute to
‘aspirations for the Big Society’. While the precise nature of the concept of
the Big Society is by no means clear, the Prime Minister has stated that
‘the success of the Big Society will depend on the daily decisions of
millions of people – on them giving their time, effort, even money, to
causes around them. (Government) must foster and support a new culture
of voluntarism, philanthropy, social action.’
16. The NASUWT recognises fully that volunteers and community groups
continue to make a significant and positive contribution to the musical
experiences and education of pupils and the Union welcomes efforts to
support and encourage social action of this nature. However, in light of the
reductions in overall education funding, funding to local authorities and
other organisations that work with schools and depend upon public money
for support, the NASUWT is concerned that Government policy in relation
to music education will develop in a way that will seek to compensate for
the loss of vital publicly funded music services through attempts to replace
them with services that are provided through the freely-given time of
volunteers.
17. Attempts to recast the provision of music education would be wholly
inappropriate. In particular, given that all pupils are entitled to access
NASUWT
The largest teachers’ union in the UK
5
music education as a result of its inclusion in the National Curriculum,
services that are funded currently by the state ensure that all children,
regardless of the availability in their community of unfunded services
provided free of charge to schools by voluntary organisations, have their
right to high-quality music–related learning secured in practice. Reductions
in services that result from cuts in public funding for music education
would not be compensated for uniformly across the education system by
voluntary provision due to the inevitable variability in the availability of
such provision in different locations and circumstances. It is also clear that
serious issues in respect of the quality of voluntary provision would arise
given that individual volunteers or voluntary organisations cannot be
subject to the quality assurance processes that apply in the case of
publicly funded services. Furthermore, it is likely to be the case that many
volunteers and their organisations would understandably not be well
disposed towards attempts to use their services as a substitute for core,
publicly funded provision. Where it is available, voluntary provision of
musical education should seek to augment rather than replace publicly
funded provision.
18. Notwithstanding issues related to the funding of music education, the
NASUWT is also concerned that the policy direction established by the
Government in respect of the future nature, scope and applicability of the
National Curriculum will serve to undermine the ability of the education
system to ensure that all pupils receive a wide-ranging and engaging
music education. In particular, regardless of reforms to the curricular
framework for music education, the determination of the Government to
introduce free schools and to expand the number of academies, within
which the provisions of the National Curriculum will not apply, risks
denying a significant number of pupils an entitlement to access meaningful
programmes of musical study. The limited requirement within the funding
agreements for such schools to provide a ‘broad and balanced’ curriculum,
fall far short of the curricular guarantees that the current curriculum
provides in relation to music education.
NASUWT
The largest teachers’ union in the UK
6
19. In schools where the national curricular framework will apply, the intention
of the Government to reshape the current curriculum on the basis that it
‘has been bent out of shape by the weight of material dumped there for
political purposes (with) over-prescriptive notions of how to teach and how
to timetable’ is based on a serious misunderstanding of the purpose of the
curriculum and the way in which it can be used to support pupils’ progress,
including music.3 The NASUWT is concerned that the approach to the
curriculum that the Government will seek to adopt will result in a
reductionist model of music education that will fail to secure for all pupils
the coherent and broad approach to music education, located within a
context that recognises the contribution it has the potential to make to key
aspects of their wider development and progress described above.
Children and young people’s experience of music beyond the
curriculum
20. The potential for pupils’ experience of music within the framework of the
National Curriculum to be undermined by the impact of reductions in public
expenditure and curricular reform should be analysed in the context of
arrangements for pupils to experience music at school-level beyond the
requirements of the statutory programmes of study, particularly where
access is dependant on the payment of fees.
21. In response to the previous Government’s review of charging for musical
tuition, undertaken in June 2007, the NASUWT reaffirmed its view that it
would not be appropriate for any element of the programmes of study in
the music National Curriculum to be subject to charging. However, there
are circumstances where charging for activities that fall outside the scope
of the National Curriculum is appropriate if this would result in a significant
diversion of resources away from activities that form part of pupils’
common entitlement.
However, such practices can lead to significant
3
Department for Education (2010) Michael Gove to the National College Annual Conference,
Birmingham,16 June 2010 (speech),
(http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/speeches/a0061371/michael-gove-to-the-nationalcollege-annual-conference-birmingham), retrieved on 20/10/10.
NASUWT
The largest teachers’ union in the UK
7
inequities if pupils do not have the opportunity to participate in such
activities as a result of socioeconomic disadvantage.
22. It is therefore important that, where charging is considered for activities
that fall beyond the scope of the National Curriculum, appropriate
arrangements are put in place to ensure that children are not denied an
opportunity to participate in such activities as a result of their personal
financial circumstances.
23. However, in circumstances where fewer resources are available to schools
to provide music education and where a narrower range of activities are
provided for within the programmes of study, it is likely that pressures to
introduce charging for access to music-related activities, including
instrumental tuition, will increase. Rather than increasing opportunities for
all children and young people to benefit from a rich and diverse range of
musical experiences, there is a clear danger that they will be restricted,
particularly for pupils from economically deprived households. Provision
introduced by the previous Government, including the Instrumental and
Vocal Tuition Programmes and the Wider Opportunities initiative, served to
ensure that potential financial barriers to access to extra-curricular musical
education were addressed to a significant extent. However, the NASUWT
notes that the Secretary of State’s remit for the review sets out no
guarantee that this provision will continue and therefore, given the real
terms reductions in the DfE’s Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL)
confirmed in the CSR, it is reasonable to conclude that the future of these
programmes is at significant risk. The NASUWT is therefore concerned
that effects of Government policy in this area will result in reduced
opportunities for pupils from deprived households to benefit from the full
range of musical experiences available to them currently.
24. The relationship between opportunities that children and young people
have to gain musical experiences beyond those set out in the National
Curriculum and their progress in terms of their formal music education is
significant.
Expectations about pupils’ progress in schools are based
NASUWT
The largest teachers’ union in the UK
8
commonly on estimates generated by a range of commercial, ‘value
added’ assessment packages, such as those developed by the Fischer
Family Trust, the Centre for Educational Management at the University of
Durham, which to a significant extent are based on prior attainment in core
National Curriculum subjects. However, in relation to music education,
these systems take no account of the extent to which pupils’ progress in
terms of the statutory programmes of study in music may have been
influenced by their experience and learning outside of the context of the
National Curriculum. As a result, while different pupils may have broadly
comparable rates of progress and attainment in core National Curriculum
subjects, their progress and attainment in music may diverge as a result of
the varying extent to which they have been able to benefit from additional
musical instruction and tuition.
25. The use of these packages not only raises significant concerns about the
appropriateness of the ways in expectations about achievement in music
are established within the education system, but can also create significant
issues for teachers of music who can have their professional capability
called into question as a result of the inability of most value added
assessment packages to take into account the effect of additional musical
tuition and instruction pupil progress and attainment.
26. In light of the support for pupils’ achievement that additional experience of
music tuition and instruction can provide, it is therefore a matter of serious
concern that opportunities to access such provision are at risk of becoming
more limited for pupils in economically deprived circumstances given the
likelihood that cuts in Government expenditure will increase pressures to
extend the use of charging for a wider range of activities. The widening of
the attainment gap that increased charging would risk represents a
particularly damaging aspect of Government policy in relation to children
and young people’s access to music.
NASUWT
The largest teachers’ union in the UK
9
Impact of the school accountability regime on music education
27. The NASUWT notes that the terms of reference for the Review make no
specific reference to impact of the current system of school accountability
on music education. However, coherent assessment of issues in relation
to approaches to music education adopted in schools is not possible
without consideration of the impact of the current system of school
accountability, particularly performance league tables and inspection, on
the provision of learning in this area within schools.
28. The high-stakes associated with performance league tables, with
potentially serious consequences for schools of outcomes regarded as
unsatisfactory, place pressure on schools to deliver quantitative pupil
outcomes at fixed points in pupils’ school careers. This system works to
distort and narrow decisions about curriculum content and pedagogy to the
detriment of teaching and learning strategies that are focused primarily on
addressing the personal learning needs of all pupils, including those
associated with creative learning, which cannot be reflected in
performance tables. In this respect, the achievements of teachers,
headteachers and other members of the school workforce in securing
effective creative music learning experiences for pupils have been
delivered in spite of, not because of, the impact of performance league
tables, which have served to overemphasise learning in core areas of the
curriculum at the expense of subjects including music. However, rather
than developing proposals to tackle these negative features of the current
school accountability regime in terms of their impact on music, the
Government has sent clear signals that it intends to increase still further its
expectation that schools should concentrate on core subjects and to
enforce this through an intensified focus on these subjects in the ways in
which schools are held to account through the publication of performance
data.
29. In relation to the impact of school inspection on pupils’ experience of
music at schools, there is considerable evidence to confirm that current
NASUWT
The largest teachers’ union in the UK
10
inspection arrangements are focused almost exclusively on the nature and
operation of school processes rather than on a holistic and appropriately
contextualised assessment of pupils’ progress and achievements. The
NASUWT’s engagement with its members with responsibilities for music
education, suggests strongly that way in which inspection operates in
practice has generated a lack of confidence about in schools about
developing alternative approaches to teaching and learning, in which
teachers have appropriate degrees of professional discretion about the
most effective ways in which the learning needs and interest of pupils can
best be met, for fear of receiving a negative inspection judgement or
because there is no discernible recognition from inspectors for doing so.
This has significant implications for schools seeking to broaden and
deepen pupils’ experience of music-related education. In this context, the
NASUWT is therefore highly concerned about indications from the
Government that rather than putting forward proposals for reform to the
inspection system that will address these issues and establish a more
supportive and development-focused approach, it intends to intensify still
further the punitive nature of the current inspection regime and to focus its
activities disproportionately on the identification of perceived failure in the
system.
The initial teacher training and continuing professional development of
teachers of music
30. The NASUWT notes the specific focus in the remit for the Review on the
role of
initial teacher training (ITT) and continuing professional
development in improving the skills and confidence of classroom teachers
to teach music.
31. At the outset, it is important to ensure that the relationship between ITT
and CPD is understood and recognised in any work undertaken to support
teachers and headteachers to make the best possible use of their
professional skills, talents and expertise, to ensure all pupils are able to
access their entitlement to the range of learning experiences that will
NASUWT
The largest teachers’ union in the UK
11
enable them to develop their educational potential to the fullest possible
extent.
32. ITT and CPD are distinctive in the sense that ITT is focused on
preparation for entry into the teaching profession while CPD supports
teachers from entry and progression towards meeting the professional
standards at specific career stages. Both, however, should seek secure
and maintain high quality and support teachers in working effectively.
33. Good quality teaching is that which enables pupils to achieve their full
educational potential. Ensuring that teachers are able to commence their
professional work with pupils with the skills, knowledge and understanding
required to secure good quality learning opportunities is a central objective
of ITT. However, the distinctive features of ‘good quality teaching’ across
the curriculum, including in music, have been, and continue to be,
contested in discourses on the nature of effective pedagogy and practice.
This is not unsurprising as distinctive views on the nature of effective
professional practice are characteristic of highly skilled professional
occupations, where ongoing reflection on the form and impact of practice,
among both practitioners themselves and among associated academic
communities, is well established.
34. In the context of music education, this ongoing process of reflection,
debate and reformation of ideas and contexts in relation to pedagogy
means that it is unlikely that any credible, definitive and durable depiction
of the detailed features of ‘quality teaching’ could ever be established
which would apply in every context within which teachers work. These
contexts can vary to such a significant extent as a result of, for example,
the stage of development of the pupils being taught, their personal,
emotional or social circumstances, the particular area of learning in
question or priorities in relation to teaching and learning established within
each setting. It is, therefore, highly unlikely that application of uniform
notions of good practice in every possible set of learning contexts for
music would be either possible or desirable.
NASUWT
The largest teachers’ union in the UK
12
35. This highlights a critical aspect of the concept of professionalism as it
relates to the classroom practice of teachers.
In seeking to meet the
diverse needs of the pupils for which they are responsible, teachers draw
from their repertoire of skills, knowledge and expertise to construct
approaches to teaching and learning that suit the distinctive characteristics
of each particular learning episode.
36. This continual process of synthesis by teachers of reflection on their own
and others’ practice, educational theory and the nature of the
circumstances within which learning takes place has implications for the
view in terms of its consideration of the effectiveness and function of ITT
for teachers of music. In particular, the Review should resist any attempt to
codify ‘good practice’ mechanistically and establish expectations that such
practice should be followed in all circumstances as this would not only
work to undermine teachers’ professionalism but also their ability to apply
appropriate pedagogic strategies to secure effective and engaging
learning experiences for all pupils. The Review must recognise that
teaching music is not simply a technical exercise involving the discharge of
a prescribed range of tasks but is a complex intellectual activity requiring
the application of higher-level skills and understandings.
37. Similar considerations also apply in terms of the context within which
qualified teachers of music refine, develop and update their professional
skills and expertise. The NASUWT believes that CPD for teachers and
headteachers has historically been inadequate.
38. There are a number of reasons for this which include:

failure to provide Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) with their
statutory induction entitlements;

failure at national, local and school level to prioritise CPD and to
recognise its importance;
NASUWT
The largest teachers’ union in the UK
13

the view held by some schools that providing CPD is ‘disruptive’
or too expensive;

the absence from the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions
Document of a contractual entitlement to CPD for teachers and
headteachers;

failure to build appropriate time and resources for training into
‘new initiatives’ emanating from national or local government or
individual schools; and

the absence of rigorous evaluation of high quality training
provision.
39. It is particularly the case that newly qualified teachers of music must have
access to a quality professional development experience, within the
framework of their statutory entitlement to induction, in order to support
their ability to apply the expertise they have developed during their training
to sustained professional practice. However, the NASUWT has gathered
extensive evidence of NQTs being denied their statutory entitlements,
including the reduced contact time necessary for planning, professional
reflection and development opportunities and reflect on practice. The
provision and quality of mentoring support is also variable. Too many
NQTs
are
pressurised
inappropriately
into
taking
on
additional
responsibilities and continue to express concerns about excessive
workload. The practice in some schools of placing NQTs on temporary
contracts, even when the vacancy is permanent, is highly disempowering
and demotivating.4 In such circumstances, teachers of music cannot be
expected to consolidate and develop their professional skills to the best
possible effect.
40. Beyond induction, historic concerns about the nature, value and purpose
of much of the CPD available to schools were central to the significant
changes in relation to CPD and its place in performance management
structures at school level that were introduced in September 2007. In the
4
Owen, K; Broadhurst. K; and Keats, G (2009) Sink or Swim? Learning Lessons from Newly
Qualified and Recently Qualified Teachers; NASUWT, Birmingham
NASUWT
The largest teachers’ union in the UK
14
context of the teaching of music, the statutory arrangements for
performance management are based on the clear understanding that for
teachers to achieve professional objectives identified through the
performance management process, they must have meaningful and
sustained access to effective CPD opportunities. The performance
management process provides a context within which a professional
dialogue can take place between teachers and those responsible for
reviewing their performance about the ways in which CPD can support the
achievement of individual and whole school objectives, including those
that relate to the teaching of music.
41. The Review should note that the Ofsted report to which the remit letter
refers, which was critical about arrangements for CPD in respect of music,
was
undertaken
before
revised
arrangements
for
performance
management had begun to become more established within the system.
For this reason, the Review should place Ofsted’s findings in an
appropriate context and consider the extent to which current statutory
provision for performance management has the potential to support
teachers of music.
42. This consideration invites reflection on important aspects of Government
policy in respect of the pay and conditions framework for teachers and the
implications this could have for music education. The decision by the
Government to abolish the School Support Staff Negotiating Body
(SSSNB), important in itself as a means by which effective workforce
strategies for the wide school workforce could have been developed, also
heralds the dismantling of the national pay and conditions framework for
teachers and headteachers of which the performance management
arrangements are an integral part. The demise of this framework,
compounded by a commitment from the Government to increase the
number of academies and free schools, to which almost all of this
framework does not apply, risks a return to the fractured an incoherent
approach to CPD in which Ofsted’s criticisms in relation to music
education originated. The Review therefore has a clear opportunity to
NASUWT
The largest teachers’ union in the UK
15
make a strong case for the retention of this framework as an effective
means by which music education can be supported through a consistent
and learner-focused approach to CPD.
Chris Keates
General Secretary
For further information on the Union’s response contact:
Darren Northcott
National Official (Education)
NASUWT
Hillscourt Education Centre
Rose Hill
Rednal
Birmingham
B45 8RS
0121 453 6150
www.nasuwt.org.uk
nasuwt@mail.nasuwt.org.uk
NASUWT
The largest teachers’ union in the UK
16