The FMS annual conference for 2010 will be held at the The Hilton hotel, Belfast. See the conferences page for more details or go straight to the online booking area.

The Autumn edition of our newsletter is now available. Your printed copy should be arriving soon, but you can also download it and read it here.

To coincide with Shine Week, Ed Balls - Secretary of State for Children Schools and Families - has written a letter to all Headteachers announcing details of exciting plans for academic year 2009-2010.

A national year of celebrating music will commence in September 2009, encompassing unprecedented opportunities for children and young people across the country to participate in a range of music-related activities.

In the letter, the Secretary of State explains his plans and asks for your support in encouraging the children and young people at your school to participate in music-related activities during the forthcoming academic year.

The The Music Industries Association have published the print and download versions of their 24 page Quality Instruments for Education booklet with a number of specific aims:

1. The guide is designed to help the musical student understand the importance of playing music, learning an instrument and to be able to have the appropriate knowledge to purchase a quality instrument.
2. The booklet does not mention any brands and is, therefore, free of any “hard sell”.
3. The guide deliberately covers a wide range of instrument types to hopefully cater for the majority of students.

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Revised materials for self-evaluation are now available for download.

MSEPS and services may well wish to continue using the old documents during the Spring term, and switch to the revised materials in the Summer term.

The first edition of our brand new newsletter is now available. Your printed copy should be arriving soon, but you can also download it and read it here.

The Ofsted Report (Making More of Music) has just been published. It is the latest “state of the nation” from HMI and is essential reading, drawing its evidence and conclusions from recent music Ofsted inspections. The report (PDF, Word) is 77 pages long so you may find it better to read on line!

The press report issued on the 4th February 2009 is a useful summary.

HMI Tony Knight will be speaking at the forthcoming FMS Burning Issues conference in London.

FMS is pleased to see some very positive statements about music services and well done to everyone.

Key Findings include the following

Music services in local authorities contributed significantly to broadening provision, especially through providing instrumental tuition and providing opportunities for pupils to perform in regional ensembles and at national and international musical events. No other partnerships had a similar impact across all the schools visited. The best instrumental/vocal programmes were making a real difference to pupils’ musical education, but not all the programmes were of sufficient duration or quality.

And Part A Inspection findings for music page 9 states

1. Overall, the schools selected for the survey because they were involved in instrumental/vocal programmes were more often judged to be good or outstanding than the schools that were not involved in such programmes. Around two thirds of the schools in the sample involved in instrumental programmes were judged to be good or better compared to about half of the schools in the whole sample.

The South West Music School at Dartington is hosting the Foundations for Excellence conference on behalf of the Department of Children, Schools and Families, Music & Dance Scheme.

Foundations for Excellence will give you an unique opportunity to explore and share best practice in preventative strategies and hear the results and findings of current research.

View the conference flier, see the day’s programme or download the booking form.

Musical Futures / Roland Champion Schools network are offering more than fifty free training courses, available nationally.

See the Musical Futures news item for booking details or download the the full list of dates and booking form.

The KS2 Music CPD programme offers teachers and music leaders individualised professional support through a combination of online learning, workshops and mentoring. Continued funding from the DCSF has allowed further development of the programme, with improved access and more support.

The FMS works in partnership with Trinity Guildhall and the Open University in ensuring that as many teachers as possible benefit from this programme. For further details contact www.ks2music.org.uk