Category Archives: England music education review
How to make your music hub business plan an easier, more convincing, read
Your business plan is the blueprint for your organisation’s future. It communicates and shares your goals and values, and helps potential funders and supporters to understand how you will deliver on their goals and priorities, as well as your own. It is a critically important document and for that reason it needs to be a communication tool in its own right. I hope the following tips are useful to anyone preparing their plan and beginning to think about how they’re going to win hearts and minds.
Think of your business plan as a communication tool
Your vision and your ideas come alive and are shared through your words, so make sure you’re giving them the best start. Neil Taylor of The Writer, tells a story from his work with BP. The company designated one year the ‘year of operational excellence’, and measured and monitored their outcomes to death, but nothing had changed from the previous year. All except for the work of one team. It was the team where the manager had a meeting every week with staff that he called ‘Doing everyday things better’. It worked because the language was more resonant, less corporate and more meaningful. Language can affect the culture of your organisation because it shapes people’s thoughts.
Think of schools, young people, parents, and commissioners/purchasers as your customers
It sounds obvious, but this will immediately change the way you communicate. Changing from an education delivery or supplier-led culture, to one that’s focused on needs and wants of market segments is an integral part of the hub process.
Write about what your customers need rather than what you will provide
It’s more effective and convincing if you write from the perspective of your customers and what they’ll gain. E.g. instead of: ‘standard termly packages of instrumental tuition will be provided for a term in each school’, you might say: ‘every child in each school will be able to learn an instrument for a term, through lessons we’ll provide …’.
Focus on benefits, not just features
As well as describing particular services/activities, make sure to balance that with the benefits this will bring to schools, children and young people. This will reinforce your position as a customer-led service. E.g ‘We will provide whole class tuition for one year. This means young people will gain … and schools will benefit from ….’
Wherever you can, show rather than tell
Back up any claims you make with evidence, examples, cases studies, testimonials and anecdotes. Tell stories to show your value in real situations. Create a story or individual journey to show how your strategy will work in reality for an individual child/children, from first access to leaving school and beyond. Use diagrams to give an overview of different parts of your plan, as well as individual journeys. Focus on specifics, not just aspirations: real people, real situations, and results.
Use simple, direct, language
It sounds obvious, but we all fall into the trap of formal writing, and over-use of jargon – particularly when writing for people in education, like headteachers. Like all of us, they’re time-starved and are drowning in information. Using simple, direct language could mean the difference between someone bothering to read on, or ‘filing’ your communication – and that could mean in the bin/electronic trash. Six ways to do this are to:
1) Use the first person tense – e.g. instead of: ‘the strategy was presented at the meeting of headteachers’, say: ‘we presented the strategy at the meeting of headteachers’. Wherever possible use ‘our’ and ‘we’.
2) Use simple language – e.g. replace ‘commence’ with begin.
3) Replace abstract nouns with verbs – e.g. instead of: ‘the hub will lead to improved provision for young people’, say: ‘the hub will provide better services for young people’.
4) Where possible, replace jargon, abstract nouns, or ‘weasel words’ (those that aren’t really necessary and detract from what you really mean) with specifics, e.g: instead of ‘provision’, use music-making activities; lessons; workshops.
5) Be definite, not hopeful, e.g. take out words like ‘aim to’, ‘strive to’, ‘seek to’, except where they’re really unavoidable.
6) Use active not passive verbs, e.g. instead of headteachers will be visited by our management team; our management team will visit heads.
All of this comes instinctively when we talk: so it helps to read what you’ve written out loud. If you stumble over your words, or don’t feel you’d say things in quite that way when face-to-face – rewrite.
And finally, consider giving your hub an appealing, perhaps even surprising name
As long as it really does tie in with your vision and values, a name that has impact and is ‘unexpected’ will get you noticed. Cheshire East’s hub is to be called ‘Love Music’ (thanks to Jonathan Savage for sharing this information on his blog).
Coming soon: Marketing strategy and planning for hubs
See also: Seven tips for advocating what music means for your school
Worth the wait? The National Plan for Music Education in England
Following is my summary of the NPME, written for Music Education UK. It was published initially on their Facebook page, and will soon be published in the magazine (see www.musiceducationuk.com to subscribe – from £10 a year).
The full piece includes comments from practitioners and authorities on music education, including school teacher Jackie Schneider, education consultant David Price, music/culture/education campaigner Marc Jaffrey and representatives from Youth Music, Sound Sense, and many other organisations working in music with young people.
You can also download the pdf here: Music Education UK guide to the NPME.
What is it?
It’s a ‘flexible template’ for how music education for children and young people aged five to eighteen will operate in England, in and out of schools (although it doesn’t alter the national curriculum for music*). It could potentially affect everyone working with young people in music: primary school classroom teachers, secondary school music teachers, community musicians, independent music organisations and others in the voluntary sector, orchestras and other music groups, and youth/community workers.
It’s the government’s formal response to the ‘Henley Review’ into music education, published earlier this year and commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE) and Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
We’ve been here before: isn’t it just another music education report that won’t make any difference?
Well for once this plan heralds some big changes for music education: a shake up of the way the various parts of the sector work and, most importantly, work together. You can run, but you can’t hide.
Big changes? Like what?
The biggest change is to the Music Standards Fund. This was the money that was ring-fenced for music education and distributed to local authorities for activities run by their Music Services (instrumental/singing teachers, county music groups/ensembles, music centres). It’s gone.
The Standards Fund, gone … really?
It’s gone, but it’s replaced by ring-fenced money to encourage more joined-up music education. Henley’s report said that ‘the best music education comes from partnership; no one teacher, performer, school, organisation, group or body has all of the requisite skills to deliver every part of a rounded Music Education to every child’. So the money won’t go to local authorities or music services. Instead, it’ll go to partnerships of providers – ‘hubs’ – in each local authority area or across areas. They could be made up of anyone working with young people in music, from schools to community musicians to peripatetic teachers, and it’s expected that most will involve local authorities and those who are funded nationally for music education – eg orchestras.
Doesn’t sound that different from what’s already happening.
Henley found – as we knew – that music education across the country was patchy: excellent in some areas, poor in others, and lots of variables in between. This plan attempts to address that by laying down clear requirements, focused on outcomes for young people.
Hubs will be driven by what’s needed, rather than by what individual organisations want to provide. They’ll need to find out what young people want and need, and deliver it. Then they’ll need to audit this regularly with the help of Arts Council-funded ‘Bridge’ organisations. Also, Oftsed, in their inspections, will be asking what difference hubs have made to music in schools.
Hubs will need to ‘consider how to engage and inspire [pupils] … and then stretch their boundaries so they experience a range of musical genres and activities’. They’ll also need to break down barriers for certain groups – eg those defined as SEN, LAC, NEET, and others – ‘through innovative approaches to teaching and making music’, and free/subsidised activities where needed.
Sounds good on paper, but what will hubs actually DO?
There are four ‘core’ roles, which are compulsory and which the DfE funding is to be spent on, and three ‘extension’ roles which most hubs are expected also to deliver, with DfE and other funding:
Core roles are to provide:
- weekly learning of instruments through whole-class ensembles for a minimum of a term (but ideally a year) for every child aged 5-18
- opportunities to play in ensembles and perform
- clear progression routes which are available and affordable to all young people
- regular singing opportunities including choirs and vocal ensembles for every pupil as a result of a singing strategy (possibly drawing on support from Sing Up! or the Voices Foundation)
Extension roles are to provide:
- CPD for school staff, particularly to help deliver curriculum music, as well as leadership
- an instrument loan service (discounted/free for those on low incomes)
- access to large scale/high quality music experiences for pupils via professional musicians/venues - may include publicizing opportunities available to schools, parents/carers, pupils.
Hubs can provide services directly, or link schools to other providers (eg a local freelance musician).
So some hubs can get away with the bare minimum – still sounds a bit patchy to me.
Well the idea is that hubs won’t want to or be able to ‘get away with’ the bare minimum because partnership and accountability will be in-built. But it will take a massive shift: new ways of thinking and in some cases a shedding of territorial attitudes and competition for funding. And yes, there will inevitably still be differences across the country.
And how much money is available?
Ah, there’s the rub. There’s less (no surprises there then). It’s still ring-fenced and it still comes from the DfE. But it’s a dramatic cut: 27% over three years. The idea is that partnership working will mean a leaner, more cost effective service: with ‘back office savings’ as well as more chance of drawing in funding from ‘local authorities, cultural organisations, businesses, trusts, foundations and philanthropists’ (not forgetting that there’s already the significant amount of money that comes from parents via music tuition fees). So the figures look like this (although the plan extends to 2020):
2011/12 £82.5 million (current funding through Standards Fund)
2012/13 £77m
2013/14 £65m
2014/15 £60m
But that doesn’t mean anything if we don’t know how much our area will get.
There’s still uncertainty about exactly how much money will be available, because it’s expected (hoped) that there will be fewer hubs than local authority areas – ie through a hub working across more than one area (there may be casualties).
The amount will be based on how many pupils there are in an area, with extra money for pupils who have free school meals. For some areas this will mean a marked reduction in funding (but there will be a temporary financial buffer). As a result, ‘ the historical imbalance in funding between areas will have been completely turned around’ by 2014-15.
Not all of the quoted amounts will go to music hubs. Some of the money will be used for In Harmony Sistema England (which will be extended), the National Youth Music Organisations (which government say represent the ‘pinnacle of achievement’), the Music and Dance Scheme, and to pay the Arts Council to manage the fund.
Who can get hold of the money and where from?
For the first time, Department for Education money will be held and distributed by the Arts Council of England (ACE) who will also hold hubs to account if they fail to achieve their objectives (and apparently so will pupils, parents and schools). There will be an ‘open application process’ which will focus on outcomes for pupils, partnership working, and economies of scale.
So, it’s all about cutting funding, moving around money, and making music services more accountable. What about teachers and other music educators at the coalface?
You’ll have a much stronger voice. Rather than being passive recipients of music services activities, schools/groups of schools will have strong representation on the hubs. You’ll also get greater access to the skills, talents and resources available in an area. Ultimately the hubs are there to make sure that your pupils/participants get better results from the funding that’s available for music education. School-to-school support (particularly secondary schools and feeder primaries) is also part of this.
But it’ll be all down to how effectively and willingly the people and organisations in your area work together. Also, how well the hubs can advocate their work to your head/senior management team (they’ need to help teachers to ‘better embed music teaching within a school’s overall strategy’ and advocate ‘the importance of music education to school leaders’).
The other good news is around training and professional development for teachers. For primary school teachers just starting out – and any others wanting to develop their skills – there’ll be new Initial Teacher Training modules. Included will be help to ‘better enable them to network and get support from developing music education hubs’. For teachers as well as the wider workforce the hubs will offer professional development opportunities and access to local expertise and networks – and there’s an emphasis on helping with music technology. For the wider workforce there will also be a music educator qualification developed by the Arts Council and Creative and Cultural Skills.
And for young people?
Hopefully more inspiring, relevant, music opportunities: a continuation or development of existing opportunities in schools, based around their needs, which will be well communicated to them and their parents; better, clearer pathways and progression routes taking account of the types of music they choose to pursue, the ways they want to learn, the methods of accreditation for their achievements, and what they want out of it. There’s a table in the plan (pages 13-15) that sets out exactly what pupils should expect.
Do say …
The government really believes in the transformative power of music, and it’s great that we’ve got ring-fenced money and what could be a revolutionary way forward.
Don’t say …
It’ll all fall apart when music comes out of the curriculum*. (The National Curriculum Review reports in early 2012.) UPDATE: See Music Education UK for encouraging news on this.
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Timescales
2012
17 February Deadline for hub applications to Arts Council
Late April Announcement of successful hubs
1 April Arts Council ‘Bridge’ organisations fully operational – will work with Arts Council to align their
work in cultural education and help hubs with signposting, networks, needs audit.
April-Sept Soliciting of hub proposals for any areas not covered by successful hubs
May-Aug Hub funding negotiations/agreements/business plans
1 Aug Hub funding begins
Summer Teaching Agency will develop the new ITT module in music
September Music education hubs start operating, take forward music services’ work
2013
By 2013 Suite of new qualifications including ‘music educator’ developed by Arts Council and
Creative and Cultural Skills
Seven tips for advocating what music means to your school
Students at Simon Balle school, Hertfordshire, taking part in Musical Futures work
If you’re a music teacher, trying to keep up with all the changes in education is one thing. Making sure what’s going on in your music lessons and activities is noticed and valued is probably one of those ‘to dos’ at the bottom of an ever-increasing list. There are lots of rumblings about the need to advocate music education more widely. Whether it’s to address the threats facing music education or to ensure that you exploit the opportunities (whichever way you look at it) getting better at advocacy and communications will help.
Who will take the lead on this nationally, and when it will happen, no-one seems to know. But that doesn’t really matter, because good communications campaigns start from the grassroots. They start with people having conversations and telling their stories, and taking every opportunity to make that connection.
In a previous editorial on the Teaching Music website, secondary music teacher Toby Fox pleaded for bite-sized ‘Big Mac music pedagogy’: simple, clear information, focused on solutions, for the over-pressed teacher. So I’m not going to continue with lengthy prose but will just throw out a few suggestions for some of the ways people can start the advocacy ball rolling:
1. Identify advocates/champions who are in positions of power: find out which people on your board and senior management team are most likely to be supportive – and start building a relationship. Invite them to visit, take them for a beer, talk to them, start by making that connection, and then keep it going.
2. Get students involved in promoting what you do (and eventually parents): They’re the champions that can really win hearts and minds. Talk to them about why it’s important they’re vocal about what they’re doing: why they think music is important and how it’s affected them. Get their ideas on how to raise the profile of what they’re doing. If you’re in a secondary, team up with English or Media departments to make a project out of your music ed campaign. Use photos, videos and quotes that you can put on YouTube, Flickr and Facebook (Facebook ‘official’ pages are free and don’t mean that visitors can access your personal pages. Find out more here).
4. Work out your own simple, concise messages: these should be about what you’re achieving, and what the benefits are to pupils, and to the school as a whole. Be crystal clear about these and reinforce them at every opportunity using stories, anecdotes and statistics. If there are ways in which people can support you (donate money, time, have a conversation with someone in a position of power, or sign up to an email list) then make sure to include those calls to action.
4. Give your champions the material they need to advocate music education: They need short, memorable, facts and stories/anecdotes (see next point) about why music education is important, why it may be under threat, and what might happen if it isn’t supported. Find a way of communicating this information that works for them (eg termly one-page summary, occasional lunch meeting, pre-performance presentation, information on the back of every letter home).
5. Reinforce your own stories with evidence from other places: there’s a stack of evidence about the value of music to young people’s personal development and academic achievements. It’s not always easy to find, but a starting point is Susan Hallam’s The Power of Music report. It’s tricky to find, so I’ve uploaded full and summary versions on this blog here. Also see the links at the bottom of this page.
6. List the benefits of music education and any messages/anecdotes from your own experience wherever you can: on your website, on concert programmes, and other publicity materials. See this simple list of benefits developed for one music service’s website.
7. Write a press release and email it, along with photos, to your local paper. It just takes one phone call to make that contact, and they could give you massive support – better still, get your students to do it. This could be about pupil successes, a story about a particular pupil, the school concert. Do it again and again, any time you have any news. Papers love good news stories – and particularly photos – about young people. It’s important to keep this going, to reinforce your messages in people’s minds.
More help and resources
Music education in the United States has been under threat for years and various organisations have developed some great resources for advocating music education. Below are links to just some of them (if you know of any UK-based sites I’ve missed, please let me know: anita@writing-services.co.uk):
http://www.menc.org/resources/view/booster-advocates
http://childrensmusicworkshop.com/advocacy/index.html
www.musicempowersfoundation.org/why-music.html
www.menc.org/supportmusic_cases
www.musiccountusin.org.au/musicbenefits (an example from Australia)
For parents specifically: www.amparents.org
And finally, an example of what one inspirational music group has done to promote their school group in the US: www.stepandclose.com/
This blog was first published as a lead editorial on the Teaching Music website on 5 December 2011.
NAME (the National Association of Music Educators), the FMS (Federation of Music Services) and ISM (Incorporated Society of Musicians) are collaborating on a campaign to raise the profile of music in schools. Full details are yet to be released, for more information, see the NAME Chair’s blog
How to find out what young people really want from music education
With thanks to Dynamix for the image.
With the national music education plan out hopefully early next week, local authority music services and others hoping to become part of the new music education ‘hubs’ will have to find ways to demonstrate what young people in their area want and need.
It’s a tricky one, particularly for music services who have been used to thinking in terms of ‘what we can deliver’ rather than ‘what people need’.
As Mark Jaffrey (Director of Think Again agency and previously Music Manifesto Champion and DCMS advisor) mentioned on Twitter recently (@MarkJaffrey): “Before you consider provider ‘services’, think about pupils needs and differentiate – SEN, Gifted, etc. How will you meet their needs?”
And of course it goes wider than that, particularly to all of those many young people who you haven’t yet found a way to reach. And if you haven’t yet found a way to reach them, how will you find out what they want?
Participatory consultation
I’d say that music services could do well to use some of the methods used by those working in youth and community development services. They’re not marketing or market research specialists, but they know how to find out what young people want.
That’s largely because they’re talking to them daily about what they want and need and the challenges they face. Critically, young people are usually involved in some way in decision-making – another aspect that music education hubs will need to address.
But in terms of research, they’re far more likely to take a more active and creative approach to consulting young people (often referred to as ‘participatory consultation’) rather than conducting a survey or running focus groups.
And this could prove a really useful method for music education services/hubs.
Participatry consultation will usually involve:
• creating an appealing event that they’ll want to come to, where they are able to actively participate, have fun, get some benefit from and feel listened to
• using techniques that are ‘activities’ that are participatory (more like games than a meeting)
• asking questions that you may be afraid to ask and leave plenty of opportunities for creative thinking – don’t just focus your questions on what you already think you can do/provide
• marketing it by going to where young people are rather than using traditional marketing channels
• making a genuine commitment to listen and act on what they say and feedback to them
• following up afterwards to feedback on progress and let them know how their views have been acted upon.
I learned most about this from an organisation called Dynamix, and I’ve used their methods in one way or another in work for Sound Sense, Gloucestershire Music, and Creative Partnerships. I would recommend getting hold of a copy of their book: Participation: Spice it up! for more detailed guidance about this, but for now here are a few thought-starters:
Creating an appealing event
Create something that young people are going to want to be a part of, that sparks their curiosity, engages them, and shows them that what they say is important, and will have an impact. Perhaps a gig with local bands and break out sessions in between, or tie your research in with something that’s already taking place and that’s popular with a wide range of young people.
Using techniques that are participatory
You’ve probably taken part in these type of activities before, anything from ‘Human Bingo’ (an ice-breaker where you walk around the room asking each other questions to tick off those who fit into a particular category, from ‘had their photo in a newspaper’ to ‘scuba dived’ to ‘speak more than one language’) to ‘Dot Voting’ (where you create a list of possible answers in response to a statement – eg instruments you want to learn; ways you want to make music – on a flip chart, give each person three sticky dots, and ask them to place them next to the three options that are most important to them).
Ask questions beyond what you’re already doing, leave space for creative thinking
If you genuinely want to hear what young people want, you have to be prepared to change what you do and therefore to leave the space in your research and consultation for all sorts of ideas. We’ve all seen those see-through surveys where you just know the questions rigged to tell people what they want to hear. Don’t do that with young people! They will see through it quicker than adults (in fact, if you use the methods in Dynamix’s book it would be really hard to do this).
Marketing
Try different routes for reaching young people – go to where they are – at gigs, at youth clubs, but more importantly, at home in front of their computer talking to their friends on Facebook. Facebook is free, incredibly powerful, and you’ll reach huge number of young people if you do it right. I’ll write a separate blog about Facebook soon, but if contact me if you don’t know where to start and I will do my best to answer any questions. In the meantime some quick tips:
• set up an ‘official page’ rather than a group or community page (it gets ranked in search engines so is easier to find)
• add your consultation event as an ‘event’ and promote it on the page and invite people
• promote your page to the pupils you already work with (put the address on any written communications with them/their parents), and encourage them to ‘like’ the page
• offer an incentive (give away something of value that young people will want)
Gwent Music Support Service have a great Facebook page that I’ve had a lot of fun following, with interesting YouTube clips that are inspiring and enjoyable to watch.
Genuine commitment and follow up
‘Consultation involves a thought-through process of aims, methodology, how views will be taken on board, and how they will be fed back to the group. Anything less is tokenism.’ (Participation – Spice it up! Dynamix.)
You’ll know best how you can feed back to young people: and you can ask participants at the time how they’d like to hear about what’s happened as a result of their participation. But consultation is just the starting point. You may (hopefully) want to take things further by involving young people in decision-making, and there may be various degrees of involvement that you might explore, from tokenism (you can sit on a youth committee but we will only take the ideas we like) to involving young people every step of the way in planning, decision-making and implementation.
Campaigning for music education?
I read about this a while ago but it’s in the news again – U2 have made a massive investment in supporting music education in Ireland. They’re funding instruments and tuition for young people, through Music Generation, a five year programme that happens locally within a national framework. Their strapline is ‘making music education happen’.
Whether you think this is a good thing, or bad thing (ie letting the state off the hook), at least something’s happening, and something that’s reaching the wider public through the media coverage it’s receiving.
I really hope that something’s happening behind the scenes – and soon on centre stage – to begin to raise awareness in Wales, England and Scotland of the threats to music education (see Jonathan Savage’s blog and also Mark Jaffrey’s article in Music Education UK (see page 6 onwards of the download which is an exerpt from the full mag).
I’m stating the obvious, but there’s such great potential in the music education community, the music industry and beyond that in all the people who have benefited from it, and are passionate about music.
What an amazing campaign these people could create to raise awareness, lobby and get the public involved.
A musical protest outside parliament … a series of nationwide music flash mobs … a massive gig to raise funds for the campaign … high profile advocates … and some serious strategic lobbying backed by all the quality evidence we have of music’s power …
If you know of something that’s going on locally or nationally to raise awareness, I’d love to hear from you.
England’s music education review – cause for celebration?
The Henley Review of Music Education in England and the government’s response were published last week.
The headline news was that the government has promised one more year of ring-fenced funding for music, including local authority music services (who provide instrumental tutors to school, and run orchestras and other ensembles for students).
But it also suggests that a number of reforms may be ahead for music services, so that music education money from a range of sources can be used more effectively. A National Plan for Music Education Plan, being published later this year, will map the way forward for these and other organisations.
I’ll be interested to see if the Plan addresses the way that music services reach and serve their customers. At the moment – particularly in Wales, where there’s no ‘wider opportunities’ scheme where pupils can experience instruments first-hand – it’s very hard for them to reach more and different children and young people – which is what everyone agrees needs to happen. The way they’re set up and operate just doesn’t allow for effective marketing and communications.
What other organisation has to find and connect with its customers through two layers of decision makers: schools first, then parents? What other organisation offers it customers (parents/pupils) choices based on what its staff can provide rather than what customers want? And what organisation markets its services without communicating the benefits and experience of what it’s offering, and the ‘why us’ aspect?
This isn’t a criticism of music services because they are amazing organisations full of incredibly passionate, committed people – but many of them have simply not responded to the changing world.
The only related recommendation in the review is for schools use their websites to publicise *all* music education providers in an area (eg the music service, private tutors, community musicians, orchestras, other arts organisations) – so that parents and pupils can find suitable providers. Its an interesting proposal – essentially setting the cat among the pigeons in encouraging schools to show parents what choices they have. But it doesn’t deal with the real problem (reaching a broader range of pupils and parents) – and how likely is it to happen anyway?
It’s hard enough to encourage schools to update their own websites, let alone embark on the massive task of researching local music providers, and developing more than just a listing. What parents really need – a searchable database, with detailed information about providers, costs, the instrument, and perhaps testimonials or information about qualifications – is even more unlikely.
Schools themselves are unlikely to be interested in adding another task to their communications efforts, so I wonder where that leaves music services’ marketing and communications? In order to really reach a wider range of pupils they need to communicate directly to parents and pupils: tell their students’ stories (or even better, enable them to advocate their music service) and get people excited about learning music.
