FEATURE FOCUS: CULTURAL EDUCATION
The power and importance of musical education I
n our final look at cultural education this month we’re delighted to hear from Pip Claridge, Learning & Participation Manager, Music & Jazz, and Michael Duffy, Head of Programming, Cheltenham Music Festival, from Cheltenham Festivals, who talk about their organisation’s experience in music education and why it should be at the heart of primary education.
Musical education is great. We’d even go as far as to say that is a fact. One that can be backed up with thousands of years of evidence, from Ancient Greek philosophers who understood the importance of music to build character, to recent studies that cumulatively show that music can make you a better learner. The benefits of musical education can’t really be overstated: improved cognition, social skills, critical thinking, empathy, the list goes on.
What if there was a way to enable all teachers to be music teachers? With the trends in education funding, learning an instrument is increasingly becoming the preserve of those with the means to afford private tuition. But we believe the traditional kind of music education, based on instrumental teaching and music theory, is only a slice – albeit a hugely beneficial and important one – of what music education could or should look like. Not only that, but we are certain that any primary teacher can be a music teacher, and the idea that impactful music education can only be delivered by a specialist is a myth. A myth we are busting with schools in
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www.education-today.co.uk Gloucestershire.
Cheltenham Music Festival has been celebrating music for nearly 80 years and is part of the wider Cheltenham Festivals family (along with its sibling Jazz, Literature and Science Festivals). The charity is mission-led to enable everyone to explore and create arts and culture. We create artistic experiences that bring joy, spark curiosity, connect communities and inspire change. While the Festivals are our public-facing shop window, our learning programme is at the heart of what we do – threading through the year with around 200 days of educational activity in schools and community settings.
During the Festival our work includes large- scale Concerts for Schools, combining storytelling and live music, to introduce primary school children to orchestral music. Alongside is the opportunity for pupils to try out instruments in our series of post-concert Music Explorers workshops. These experiences give children the opportunity to engage in communal listening, and to interact with music and the instruments, potentially sparking new pathways for self- expression and confidence through music. In 2022, we took steps to enhance this in-Festival offer, producing a relaxed performance specially tailored for children and young people attending educational settings that support Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Over the past 30+ years our Music for Schools programme has developed and adapted in response to internal and external factors from
December 2022
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