Banging the drum for an affordable group music intervention
Written by: Thomas Haggerty
6 min read
THOMAS HAGGERTY, SECONDARY MUSIC TEACHER; MSC STUDENT, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, UK
Despite being a few years on from the last COVID-19 lockdown in the UK, many educational settings are still battling with the impact that this has had on aspects of everyday school life. Social distancing, especially bans on group singing, caused a significant problem for teachers hoping to deliver extra-curricular music (Hume et al., 2023). While some schools have been able to rapidly bring participation in music back to a pre-COVID level, others have found this particularly challenging. This unfortunately comes at a time when GCSE music entries are catastrophically low: according to Music Teacher Magazine, entries fell by 37.7 per cent between 2008 and 2022 (Richards, 2022). The value of music in school should not be underestimated, with a huge body of research indicating the benefits of making music. Sadly, with cuts to funding and budget constraints, instrumental lessons have been severely impacted in
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