Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference the speech by the Minister of State for School Standards on the importance of knowledge-based education, delivered on 19 October 2017, what steps he is taking to ensure that classroom music teachers teach within their area of specialism; and if he will make a statement.

The Department is committed to ensuring that a high-quality music education is available to every child. Singing is an important part of every child’s musical education. One of the aims of the national curriculum for music is that all pupils learn to sing, and the programmes of study make clear what is expected at key stages 1-3. It is up to individual schools to decide how to deliver the music curriculum. To support them in this, the Department is currently developing a model music curriculum, which will be published later this year.

Since 2012 we have had a national network of music education hubs and the Government is spending £300 million on these hubs between 2016 and 2020. One of their core roles is to develop a singing strategy to ensure that every pupil sings regularly, and that choirs and other vocal ensembles are available in their area. In 2016/17, music education hubs reported over 15,000 choirs. These either were run independently by schools or were supported or delivered by the music education hubs.

Teachers’ subject knowledge is vital to the successful delivery of the curriculum. The Government believes that in secondary schools all subjects should be taught by specialists where possible. The percentage of music teachers with relevant qualifications for the subjects they teach is higher than for most other subjects, with 97% of music hours being taught by a specialist teacher in 2017.