James Garnett's blog

The National Assocation of Music Educators (NAME) and the Federation of Music Services (FMS) are in detailed talks with the aim of creating a single organisation to promote a joined-up approach across all sectors of music education.

OK, so it isn’t new anymore. But the pace of change continues relentlessly. In this blog I will have a quick look at some of the key policy issues that will be shaping our lives over the next 11 months.

The Framework for the National Curriculum, published today (click here to view it), backs up the position of music in schools set out in the National Plan for Music Education.

This is the message that NAME, FMS and ISM are promoting in our joint approach to advocacy for music education. Through it, all three organisations commit to the importance of high-quality provision of music education for all children through the school curriculum. It is a message that I believe NAME can take pride in, and this why...

Well, it has arrived. NAME will be producing a digest of the Plan in the near future, so I won’t attempt that here. There will also, no doubt, be comments on it to be found on NAME’s new Facebook site, so do check these and add your own thoughts. In the spirit of a blog, here are some personal reflections on the implications the Plan might have for NAME members.

A Bold Vision

It is not every day that headteachers take an afternoon out of their busy schedules in order to talk about music education. But that is exactly what happened on Tuesday this week. Three primary and three secondary heads, from as far away as Tiverton in Devon, took up an invitation from NAME to come to a meeting at the Royal Albert Hall. We were joined by Mark Philips from Ofsted with a view to identifying the key messages to communicate to other headteachers about the impact that high-quality music education can have on their schools.

My second week as Chair has thrown me in at the deep end in almost every respect (except the literal one - I haven’t been swimming!) The week started with workshops on Musical Futures with my PGCE and GTP students at Reading, in which they experienced the “In at the deep end” model of informal learning for themselves.  (Want to know more?