It’s not always easy to find good news stories about education and believe me, I try. Headlines are too often dominated by the latest chuntering of one or other of the teaching unions. The default position being the glass is half empty. The sabre of strike action is increasingly rattled over pay, workload and pupil behaviour.
More generally, there’s little good news about closing the attainment gap or an emerging consensus on the curriculum and assessment. That’s why it was refreshing to come across a couple of recent stories that suggest it isn’t all gloom and doom. Both feature the arts, and music in particular.
It's hard to believe 14 years have passed since the Big Noise came to the Raploch, a housing estate on the edge of Stirling that was a byword for poverty and deprivation. The Big Noise was inspired by El Sistema, an initiative from Venezuela that harnessed the power of music to improve the learning and lives of youngsters from that country’s poorest communities.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the memorable concert in the Raploch performed by local youngsters, sharing the stage with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra from Venezuela. The conductor on the night was the renowned Gustavo Dudamel, an enthusiastic believer in El Sistema and the transformative power of music making.
Dudamel recently gave a BBC interview during which he talked movingly of that night and its wider impact. He talked of how poverty is often equated with the lack of material things but, in his opinion, the worst thing about poverty is considering oneself “a nobody” in society. That creates a sense of exclusion, not only in young people, but also in their families and wider communities.
Dudamel believes in the “power and beauty of the art” to reverse that process and foster feelings of positivism and inclusion. As with any initiative, it can be difficult to maintain momentum and assess lasting impact. Nevertheless, the statistics are encouraging.
Fourteen years ago, it’s believed there wasn’t a single youngster from the Raploch learning a musical instrument. Today there are 400 and it has its own symphony orchestra. A number of youngsters from the estate have progressed to higher education to study music. The initiative has spread elsewhere, including Torry in Aberdeen. Only last week, the Torry Big Noise orchestra impressed as part of a celebration of the Doric in the North East.
The second good news story came from unlikely sources, the Department of Education and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in England. Together they have produced a National Plan for Music Education with a budget of £25 million. The ambition of the plan is underlined by its full title: The Power of Music to Change Lives. It’s part of the levelling up agenda that recognises the potential of music to improve educational outcomes for all learners, in particular those who may have been left behind.
Regrettably, the Scottish Government has been slow to harness that potential to address its top priority: closing the attainment gap. It’s fair to say the government has difficulty understanding the question, let alone the answer. It fails to grasp that most of our lowest achievers have been turned off by education. Their experience is characterised by a sense of failure and lack of enjoyment. Unsurprisingly, they switch off or seek kudos from their peers through disruptive behaviour.
The arts and music in particular, offer a way to reverse that downward, self-fulfilling spiral. Many years ago, I worked in a school serving a severely deprived catchment. Its strength was a cohort of visionary art and music teachers who provided pupils with a sense of achievement and enjoyment. That rubbed off on other areas of the curriculum.
Almost overnight, success become something to be celebrated, not hidden away. Crucially, we had the freedom to tweak the curriculum and timetable to use the arts to better meet the needs of our youngsters and their community. That proved far more effective than the dead hand of yet more centrally driven “reforms and improvements”. Over the years, hundreds of youngsters learned to play musical instruments and work cooperatively in bands and orchestras that travelled to Europe to play. The positivity and sense of pride spread to parents and the wider community. They no longer believed they were “nobodies”.
The Scottish Government needs to learn from the Raploch and reflect on the English National Plan for Music. Closing the attainment gap is a complex issue and there is no silver bullet. Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different outcome is an exercise in futility. Instead, how about empowering schools and teachers to develop the arts in ways that meet local needs? In so doing they can foster the success and enjoyment without which there can be no learning. The Raploch, Torry and England have shown us the way. The arts can change lives, let’s now enlist them to close the attainment gap.
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