In at the deep end...
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? See the Musical Futures website http://www.musicalfutures.org/.) Later in the week I was in at the deep end myself with my first meeting on the MEC executive on Wednesday, a meeting at the Paul Hamlyn Foundation about advocacy on Thursday and a NAME Directors’ meeting on Friday.
MEC (the Music Education Council) was interesting. As the umbrella body for Music Education it brings together a wide variety of perspectives, including community musicians, the music industry and exam boards as well as the range of settings that NAME itself represents. (For a list of MEC’s Corporate Members, see the website http://www.mec.org.uk/.) The Executive Council directs the activities of MEC just as the Board of Directors does for NAME; and it won’t be any surprise that the National Plan for Music Education is high on the agenda at the moment. Although the launch date for the Plan is still uncertain, 10 November is a date for the diary because MEC has planned a seminar to review the Plan (with a reserve on 1 December in case its publication is delayed). NAME’s London Region has a meeting on 15 November to answer questions about the Plan - you can contact Emily Keeler for details.
The meeting at the Paul Hamlyn Foundation (PHF) brought together a slightly different collection of representatives from music education organisations to discuss ways of influencing school leaders’ understanding of music and the role it can play in their school. This initiative came out of NAME’s Representative Council Development Day last year, and is a response to the growing autonomy of headteachers as well as policy developments such as the EBacc. This second meeting of the group received a report that PHF had commissioned from Ally Daubney on research that can be used to support advocacy, and focused on co-ordinating the approaches being taken by the different groups. NAME is working particularly closely with FMS and ISM in this area and there will be more news of our campaign and of how you can become involved shortly.
Friday saw the first meeting of NAME’s newly-elected (and re-elected) Board of Directors. Much of the day was spent developing strategies that will shape NAME’s response to the financial and policy challenges of the year ahead. Again, more on this in the near future. Two decisions were made, however, on which you can take immediate action. The first was to clarify policy on the use of the NAME logo. In short... use it, please! On your email sign-off, on your websites - any way in which you can spread awareness of NAME and its work on behalf of music education. The second decision was that next year’s book will focus on international perspectives on music education. If you have experience of teaching abroad and are interested in contributing a chapter to the book, please send me an email on chair@name.org.uk.
James Garnett
9 October 2011
