Keith Ayling MMus
Keith Ayling is the editor of award-nominated Ensemble Magazine and media manager for the Music Teachers’ Association. He is also an award winning songwriter and Senior Lecturer in Songwriting at Leeds College of Music.
@keithayling
This editorial appeared in the Spring 2019 issue of Ensemble – Music Teachers’ Association Magazine
These are days of great opportunity.
We are called to shape the kind of music education system that guarantees our young people an incredible future.
From the greatest hardships come the most creative, entrepreneurial solutions. It’s a common story. When our backs are against the wall, our passion rises, the lines are drawn and we come out fighting for what we believe in.
It could not be a better time for the Music Teachers’ Association to rebrand.
Since 1900, music teachers have been gathering together because they believe that the sharing of ideas will further music education in the UK. So it is with great excitement that I can unveil our new name, our new brand and our new magazine. These developments bring with them great opportunities for music teachers to come together to strengthen the voice for music in our schools. Please share this with your colleagues.
It was only a few weeks ago when the All Party Parliamentary Group launched its report (p.14) at Westminster and we were there to witness it first hand. With the room filled with people in positions of great influence, we were grateful for a detailed report of this kind – and there was a sense that it would fuel the movement to turn the tide at a high level.
Just a few days earlier, Youth Music also released an excellent report (p.16) on trends in youth culture relating to music and how young people engage and create. Both of these timely reports give us a platform to begin talking where we are. As music teachers, we don’t speak to MPs and lobbyists every day, but we do work within school communities that need to hear the facts. Now—with these two reports—alongside Sue Hallam’s research in to the power of music and UK Music’s annual statistics in to the music industry, we can be armed with a wealth of ammunition to prove that:
- Music is powerful;
- Music develops key learning skills across all ages;
- Music improves students’ academic learning processes across all subjects;
- Music creates community cohesion and develops key leadership skills;
- Music enhances wellbeing, heals mental health and creates motivation;
- Music is essential to the creative industry and the UK economy.
Our SLTs, councillors, MPs and the DfE need to hear these facts, read these reports and, most importantly, remember back to when they discovered the power of music for themselves.
These are days of great opportunity. We are called to shape the kind of music education system that guarantees our young people an incredible future. Please stand with us as we strengthen our voice.
Keith Ayling
@keithayling
