- Major shake-up of the Jersey Music Service
- Every primary school pupil to be given the chance to play an instrument
- Did you learn an instrument at school? Take part in our poll
- What instrument would you most like to learn to play? Comment below
EVERY primary school pupil in the Island is to be given the chance to play an instrument as part of a major shake-up of the Jersey Music Service.
The initiative is one of a series of changes that will be made to the service from September, which will include giving more music training to classroom teachers, ensuring that every school has a choir and ensemble and increasing the focus on teaching popular instruments.
In addition to the change of policy, there will be 600 new instruments available to students at the start of the new school year following a £250,000 investment by the States.
The overhaul, which has been worked on for months, comes after Education director Justin Donovan last week told the Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny panel that the programme was ‘unfit for purpose’ when he arrived in the Island last October.
Speaking to the JEP this morning he explained that the previous service had a great team that was doing good work.
However, he explained that the operation was not reaching enough children and was not reaching the most vulnerable young Islanders, and was instead dominated by the highest achievers.
He added that the links between the service and the schools were not as strong as they should have been.
‘We have some great people doing great things, but overall it wasn’t fit for purpose because its wasn’t having the impact it should have been having,’ Mr Donovan said.
Graham Cox, the head of the Jersey Music Service, said that he wanted to significantly increase the reach of the service by raising the number of pupils who were using it from the current 11 per cent to 95 per cent, within two years.
‘One of our primary focuses is to increase the numbers who have educational experiences from the service,’ he said.
‘We want to make sure that children are getting their statutory right to have music education in the curriculum by giving primary school teachers the training and the confidence to teach in the classroom.
‘We want every child to experience a music-making opportunity at school.
‘By having that experience it will allow them the added value of making an informed choice of whether to take it further into secondary school or not.
‘It has been shown that children who learn a musical instrument are likely to do better academically, but more than anything it is about giving children the opportunity to enjoy music from a young age.’
According to Mr Cox, the new programme will be specifically targeted at key stage two pupils aged between eight and 11 and more emphasis will be placed on teaching a variety of music genres.
‘Historically, we have taught individuals and small groups how to play orchestral instruments. We want to broaden that so that we are teaching popular instruments such as keyboard, guitar and drums. Unlike before, when children have come to us, with the new investment in instruments, we will be aiming to go into schools to deliver projects to whole classes.’
As part of the re-structuring, all of the staff working in the service had to re-apply for their jobs, with several new positions and roles being created.
And despite losing two members of staff, Mr Cox says that the changes were necessary to drive the service forward.
He added: ‘Soon after Justin arrived he came to speak with me and asked where I wanted to go with the service and he agreed with what I was saying.
‘Since that time the changes have happened very quickly and from September we will be offering a very different service.’
