Music Teachers: Recruitment

Lord Sterling of Plaistow Excerpts

Monday 20th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

Tax reliefs are of course the purview of the Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. I am sure the Chancellor—whoever they might be—will be listening very carefully to my noble friend’s argument about how we can encourage as much participation in music as possible.

[Lord Sterling of Plaistow (Con)]

I studied music at the Guildhall School of Music. I suggest there are many ladies here who studied the piano up to level 8, which is a very good level for people to teach in schools. Will the Government look into the possibility that older people could help in that way and bring back that music in state schools, not just private schools?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

This lady only got as far as grade 7, I am afraid—I am grade 6 in cello. The noble Lord makes an important point about the use of volunteers, but the key issue is whether we have the quality of teachers to give our children a strong music education. The fact that we have seen 55% more applications for initial teacher training in music in the past two years is encouraging, but we will, in the spirit of the challenge that has been put through this question, keep that under review to make sure we continue to deliver on the increase in specialist teachers in our state schools that we have so far succeeded in delivering.