Music Education: State Schools

Lord Kirkham Excerpts

Tuesday 24th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kirkham (Con)]

I declare an interest as deputy patron of Outward Bound and former chair of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Those charities both focus on engaging children in challenging outdoor activities, but music has exactly the same potential to build resilience, self-confidence, perseverance and teamworking skills, boost mental health and deliver life-enhancing satisfaction, in real time, away from mobiles, tablets and screens.

In a world where artificial intelligence will eat up jobs, it is surely vital that children leave school with a wide range of interests and hobbies. Yet here we are going backwards from times when everyone started the school day singing together in assembly, as a relentless focus on STEM subjects squeezes out music and culture—as if possessing soft skills in the arts does not make better scientists and technologists. There are music hubs, but in reality, to access those, a child needs middle-class parents who know what is available and can push to get it.

What of future professional musicians? The Government support these through the Music and Dance Scheme, funding means-tested, subsidised places at specialist independent schools. At the Purcell School, one of the leaders in the field, 70% of pupils are receiving state support, delivering effectively a government programme to enable gifted but disadvantaged children the opportunities for social mobility through the arts.

Music is under pressure of both time and money at every level of our education system, and it richly deserves and needs more of both. Government should focus not on cost but on value, and the importance of music to education and society—to life—is invaluable.