This term sees an accelerando of activity for FMS music services, following an particularly busy start to the term. In all the hustle and bustle I very much hope that you enjoy the music making – it’s rather important that you do. Here are a few announcements about some of our key activities.
Quality Assurance

I am delighted to tell you that Margaret Griffiths has agreed to undertake more regular work for the FMS over the next couple of terms in order to ensure that the self evaluation moderation programme is delivered on time and with the highest quality. She will become our Quality Assurance Director and will oversee all the forthcoming moderations. Our determined aim is to complete the first round on time, but we still have some way to go. We all recognize Margaret as a true champion of music services, but she is also a critical friend, which of course we really appreciate. Her sharp eye and wealth of experience will help us enormously as we head towards the completion of the first round of moderations.

Champions

Talking of champions I am also pleased to report that Marc Jaffrey and the Think Again team are now well underway with our messaging campaign at local and national levels. This is hugely important as we approach a general election, but you can be assured that with Marc helping us, not only in applying his media expertise, but also in bringing together champions of music education, we are definitely doing our best to argue the case for strong music service provision beyond 2011. One tangible contribution is a passionate article about why music services are important by Howard Goodall, which will appear in the next edition of Aspirations. If you know of any others who wish to write in support let me know, or contact Douglas Adamson e-mail Douglas@watershed-consulting.com. If you are not part of the campaign yet don’t worry, since we wish to roll it out to as many services as possible.

Good News

One thing I wish to do much more of is to be more effective in disseminating the good stories we have about the work of music services. So, if you have a planned activity that you think could be disseminated more widely please let me know about it and, if possible, I would welcome the opportunity to visit you and experience it first-hand.

Leadership training

You may already be aware that Richard Crozier and the CPD group have arranged three ‘taster’ days for those considering signing up for the leadership programme. The dates are 10th November in Bristol, 11th in Hammersmith and 12th in Leeds. The FMS office has further details, but we are anticipating heavy demand for these, so colleagues are advised to make early applications. The target audience is anyone seeking to gain the necessary knowledge and skills for music service leadership. The training will be ideal for existing middle managers, or teachers and musicians who may be interested in taking more responsibilities. There may also be some existing heads of service who feel that they never had such an opportunity.

Impact assessment

I wish to thank all those who have helped the Engine Room in gathering evidence for the impact assessment of the Wider Opportunities programme. There have been a few problems in some areas with the school questionnaire, but invariably heads of services have done their best to help us iron them out. This findings of this evaluation will provide the first national picture of the programme, enabling each participating school to identify the strengths and weaknesses. Once all the data is collated and interpreted we plan to disseminate it at a Burning Issues conference early in 2010. I will let you know the date of this as soon as possible.

With very best wishes to all

John Witchell