Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many pupils in state-funded schools in England learning to play instruments in lessons for whole classes provided, or supported, by Music Education Hubs progressed to learn a musical instrument once the whole class tuition ended since 2012.
Music is a compulsory part of the national curriculum for 5 to 14 year olds. The department does not collect information on the number of secondary school academies that teach Key Stage 3 music at least once a week.
The table below is school workforce census data. It shows that the proportion of time spent teaching music at state funded secondary schools overall has remained broadly stable since 2010.
Percentage of total teaching hours spent on music in years 7-13 in state-funded secondary schools per year | |||||||
2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
2.4% | 2.4% | 2.4% | 2.4% | 2.4% | 2.4% | 2.3% | 2.3% |
Information on the number of pupils who continued to learn an instrument after receiving whole class ensemble teaching since 2012 is contained in a survey published by Arts Council England, and can be found on pages 43 and 44 of the attached document.