Breakthrough: UK schools are ordered to teach one weekly hour of music

A new National Plan for Music Education will provide £25 million to buy instruments for schools in England and £79 million a year for a Music Hubs programme to improve teaching.

The UK Department of Education has issued a grudging and ungrammatical acknowledgement: ‘Music has been shown to not only support children to develop their creativity, but also their cognitive development’. (Maybe they should spend a bit more on teaching English.)

Crucially: ‘Every school will be expected to have a designated music lead or head of department. The plan also sets out the ambition for every pupil to have at least one hour a week of high-quality music education in key stages 1-3. It will also provide teachers and young people guidance on how to progress a career in music.’

And this: ‘We have estimated that £25 million will enable children to have access to approximately 200,000 new instruments.’

This amounts to an outstanding backroom achievement by the Tory peer Baroness Fleet, who has been pushing for targeted improvements in music teaching for almost a decade.

More here.