In Harmony • Sistema England will be rolled out across the country
As part of Government’s aim to ensure that all pupils have rich cultural opportunities alongside their academic and vocational studies, the In Harmony • Sistema England social programme –based on the inspirational El Sistema music education scheme from Venezuela– will be rolled out across England, under plans announced on Friday 25 November 2011.
“Funding for In Harmony, Sistema England will increase, with government funding augmented by equivalent funding from Arts Council England. The programme will be expanded to enable children from across the country to benefit from the programme’s success, to support existing projects to become self-sustaining, and to ensure alignment with the work of hubs,” it was reported in the National Plan for Music Education. In Harmony • Sistema England will also be able to draw on charitable/business support or on Lottery funds “to reduce exclusive dependence on central government support and as a base for further expansion.”
Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, chairman of In Harmony • Sistema England, celebrated the support of the government. “In Harmony has proved that music really does have the power to transform the lives of children and their communities and its success has been a triumph for all the children, parents and teachers involved. It is wonderful that the government has backed this visionary programme which I am certain will become an asset for England to treasure,” he said.
The national plan for music education states that In Harmony “offers children from deprived areas the opportunity to achieve their full potential through an intensive music experience based on the symphony orchestra which also has positive impact on their communities.” The document says that “in two and a half years the projects have started to show the benefits of intensive music tuition as a method of narrowing the gap between children from deprived backgrounds and their peers, in terms of attitude, aspiration, attainment and behaviour.”
The plan quotes a 2010 Ofsted inspection of Faith School in Liverpool that found that “the school’s involvement in [In Harmony] is reaping exceptional rewards, especially in how it engages pupils in their learning and motivates them… By its success in musical performances the school is raising the self-esteem and pride of pupils and their parents and carers.”
In Harmony • Sistema England is a community development programme that uses music to bring positive change to the lives of children and youths in some of the most deprived areas of England, delivering benefits across the wider community. The programme encourages participation in music –in the form of the symphony orchestra– which can have huge personal benefits for the children involved, providing opportunities to grow and develop, both socially and musically. It currently has three pilot projects in Lambeth, Liverpool and Norwich that benefit around 1,000 children in three of the 25% most deprived wards in the country.
