TTR0058
Written evidence submitted by the Independent Society of Musicians
The Independent Society of Musicians (ISM) is the UK's largest non-union representative body for musicians. Founded in 1882, the ISM supports over 11,000 members across the UK and Ireland, including many music teachers. As a subject association for music, we supply a range of music education materials and have published several reports into the state of music education in the UK.[i] We also provide the secretariat for the APPG for Music Education. We are a financially independent, not-for-profit organisation with no political affiliation.
What are the main factors leading to difficulties recruiting and retaining qualified teachers?
The problem of recruiting and retaining specialist music teachers is a major contributing factor to the current crisis in music education. The government recruitment targets for music have been missed for nine out of the last ten years and the problem is worsening, with many schools reporting that they are struggling to fill music teacher vacancies. This is due to failures in the ITE system, lack of teaching bursaries, a devaluing of arts subjects in schools and a severe lack of funding.
Primary
There are virtually no post-graduate routes into specialist primary music teaching. When searching the government’s PGCE course page[ii], no arts subjects are shown as an option. There are no Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) courses for music[iii] and the primary music ITT modules promised in the original National Plan for Music Education[iv] in 2011 were short lived. As a result, music is increasingly being taught by non-specialists in primaries.
Secondary
The removal of training bursaries for secondary arts subjects in 2021[v] has contributed to the problem of recruitment. In a cost-of-living crisis, giving up employment to train as a teacher with no financial support is just not possible.
Arts subjects have been devalued in secondary schools by the introduction of the English Baccalaureate (2010) and Progress 8 (2016) accountability measures, which have forced schools to prioritise EBacc subjects in terms of both funding and curriculum time. This has resulted in a dramatic decline in the uptake of GCSE (27% fall) and A-Level music (40% fall) since 2010.[vi]
The ISM’s 2022 report Music: A subject in peril?[vii] found that a focus on core subjects and less teaching time as a result of carousel systems for teaching music at Key Stage 3 all led to a reduction in the number of classroom music teachers. Often, retiring teachers are not replaced. One teacher told us: ‘Music is seen as unimportant in school at KS3 due to the EBacc.’ Another said: ‘…the EBacc agenda was promoted by SLT and government through schools: demoted arts to second class choice.’ It is far harder to retain arts teachers when their subjects are treated as less important than STEM subjects in schools.
The 50% cuts to funding for Higher Education Arts courses announced in 2021[viii] will also impact recruitment of arts teachers, with fewer specialist graduates available.
Funding
Data from the Institute of Fiscal Studies shows that real-term education spending per-pupil fell 9% between 2009 and 2019, representing the largest cut in over 40 years.[ix] Despite an additional £7.1 billion allocated to schools through to the end of the current academic year, the per-pupil spending for this year is still 1-2% lower in real terms than in 2009/10.
The ISM’s research for Music: A subject in peril? found that 61% of respondents’ music department budgets were considered insufficient. Music teachers reported low per-pupil spending and significant budget cuts which they felt was limiting the learning of pupils. Many teachers told us they raised additional funds through concerts or paid for items themselves. Most music teachers do not receive additional pay for extra-curricular activities, or for the time required to plan and deliver concerts meaning that they are essentially working for free to raise additional money for their departments.
Which subjects are most affected?
The government’s ITE census for 2022/23 shows that only 64% of the target for music trainees was met for the current academic year.[x] The National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) believes that nine of out 17 secondary subjects, including music, drama and art, are expected to be 20% or more below the DfE’s targets for the 2023/24 academic year. Analysis by the TES magazine shows that music is among the subjects hit hardest by the teacher trainee shortage and is the only subject with no bursary.[xi]
How does the situation differ across the country and across different types of schools and colleges?
A survey from the BPI in 2019 found that 29% of state schools saw a reduction in the number of qualified music teachers compared with 5% for independent schools. The same survey found that only 44% of music lessons in primary school were delivered by specialists.[xii]
The ISM’s report Music: A subject in peril? revealed a wide gap between budgets for music departments in different schools. Respondents from independent schools received over four times the departmental funding of academies and free schools, and over five times the amount of maintained schools.
What impact does this have on pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND?
Disadvantaged pupils are most likely to be wholly reliant on their school to provide music and other arts subjects, unlike pupils whose parents can afford private tuition. Lack of specialist music teachers means helping those with SEND is even more difficult.
What action should the Department take to address the challenges in teacher recruitment and retention?
What has been the impact of the new bursaries and scholarships announced in October?
Not applicable – music is not included in these.
How well does the current teacher training framework work to prepare new teachers and how could it be improved?
The ISM is concerned that the increasing move towards school-based ITE is negatively impacting the quality of music teaching, as trainees lack the opportunity to experience a range of teaching role models and different pedagogical approaches.
The ISM has also raised concerns about the government’s 2021 review of ITE provision. The substance of the proposals were largely generic, rather than subject specific. They also focused too much on the mechanics of ITE, rather than on the substance of the learning that should take place.
We are concerned that this could undermine the level of subject specialism trainees will develop. Instead, we believe a focus on providing detailed understanding of the subject and the wider benefits of education should be at the forefront of teacher training; with the mechanics of how this is achieved then considered at a subject-specific level.
Specifically for music, trainees will not get sufficient time to focus on teaching music, and other arts subjects. Using intensive practice placements ignores the fact that arts subjects such as music generally have less time within the curriculum. This could mean some trainee teachers do not experience any music teaching during their placements (eg if music is taught on a carousel system). This will likely exacerbate an existing problem, where for general postgraduate primary courses, music is generally only covered for between two and eight hours. This is insufficient to prepare trainees to plan, teach and assess music.
The ITE reaccreditation system has also seen some highly regarded providers of teacher training courses fail to qualify, including the University of Durham, and the North East Partnership SCITT, one of only six providers given an ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rating. There are concerns this will result in a loss of ITE places overall and a reduction in the quality of ITE courses.[xiii]
The ISM believes that the government should undertake a thorough, evidence-based review of the entire education system. Such a review must enhance and improve the current ITE system.
What has been the impact of the Early Career Framework implemented in September 2021?
Early reports suggest the ECF has had little impact on retention of teachers. A survey by Teacher Tapp found just 13% and 6% of secondary and primary mentors respectively believed it would increase retention.[xiv] A major concern is the increase of workload for teaching mentors, with 72% of ECTs feeling that the framework added to their workload.[xv]
Anecdotally, the ISM has also heard concerns around a lack of subject-specific content for subjects such as music.
Are there ways in which teacher training could be improved to address the challenges in recruitment and retention?
The ISM is calling for more subject-specific content for primary music courses. In the recent DfE report Working lives of teachers and leaders a third of primary teachers reported that they did not feel confident in teaching music.[xvi] There is a worrying downward cycle in play whereby there are fewer music specialist teachers in schools for trainees to observe and learn from and so when they in turn become qualified teachers they are unable to provide high-quality experiences for the next generation of trainees.
How does teacher training in England compare internationally, and what are the benefits and disadvantages of the English system?
The English system of ITE shows a worrying trend towards removing autonomy from teachers. Those who experience ITE primarily in schools lack the opportunity to compare different approaches, and the content of the curriculum and how it is taught are increasingly becoming decided outside the classroom.
Some schools, including multi-academy trusts, are imposing a particular approach to lessons, and we hear of increasing use of scripts and power-point lessons. On a national scale, Ofsted’s curriculum reviews and the Oak National Academy increase the impression that the government wishes to impose a common approach to teaching.
In 2020 the NFER found that teacher autonomy, ‘is associated with higher job satisfaction and intention to stay in teaching’.[xvii] Yet on average teachers report a lower level of autonomy to other professions, and this seems likely to worsen if current trends continue.
How do challenges in teacher recruitment, training and retention compare to those being faced in other professions/ sectors of the economy, and is there anything that can be learned from other professions/ sectors of the economy?
The challenges in teaching are similar to other public sectors – low pay, low morale, long hours, lack of funding and lack of understanding and support from the government. These all impact retention of teachers.
A recent survey by Teacher Tapp found that only 23% of teachers said they would ‘certainly’ retrain as a teacher if they were given the option to go back and choose their career path again. This is a dramatic drop from a similar survey in 2018, when 42% said they would certainly retrain as a teacher, suggesting that the recent rise in the cost of living has had a major impact on teachers.[xviii]
What particular challenges exist in teacher recruitment, training and retention for teachers from different demographic backgrounds?
Research from the Institute of Education (IOE) in 2020 shows that minority ethnic pupils do not see themselves represented in their teachers and that retention is lower for BAME teachers than White British teachers.[xix] The Hamilton Commission found that 46% of schools in England had no racially diverse teachers at all.[xx]
Funding cuts to Higher Education arts course also limit access and participation to under- represented groups – students who may have gone on to train as teachers. The Office for Students equality and diversity data show that ‘students studying design, and creative and performing arts have the highest proportion of any broad subject group to have a reported disability, with particularly high proportions in relation to cognitive or learning difficulties and mental health conditions’. They also have a higher than average proportion of young people coming from the two lowest participation groups.[xxi]
Removal of the London weighting also disproportionately affected students from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds due to a significantly higher proportion of them studying in London institutions.
How well does the demographic makeup of the teaching workforce reflect that of the pupils they teach?
It doesn’t, as noted above.
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[i] https://www.ism.org/news/reports
[ii]https://www.gov.uk/find-postgraduate-teacher-training-courses
[iii] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/subject-knowledge-enhancement-course-directory
[iv]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/180973/DFE-00086-2011.pdf
[v] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-itt-bursary-funding-manual/initial-teacher-training-bursaries-funding-manual-2021-to-2022-academic-year#annex-a-list-of-subjects-eligible-for-a-bursary
[vi] https://www.culturallearningalliance.org.uk/arts-gcse-and-a-level-entries-2022/
[vii] https://www.ism.org/images/images/ISM_Music-a-subject-of-peril_A4_March-2022_Online2.pdf
[viii] https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jul/20/funding-cuts-to-go-ahead-for-university-arts-courses-in-england-despite-opposition
[ix] https://ifs.org.uk/publications/2021-annual-report-education-spending-england
[x] https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/initial-teacher-training-census/2022-23
[xi] https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/teacher-recruitment-crisis-dfe-set-flunk-2023-24-targets
[xii] https://teachertapp.co.uk/articles/who-gets-a-music-education/
[xiii] https://schoolsweek.co.uk/itt-review-5k-places-at-risk-as-third-of-scitts-left-out/
[xiv] https://teachertapp.co.uk/app/uploads/2022/10/2022-10-Early-Career-Framework-TT-Gatsby-Final.pdf
[xv] https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/early-career-framework-has-no-impact-retention
[xvi]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1148571/Working_lives_of_teachers_and_leaders_-_wave_1_-_core_report.pdf
[xvii] https://www.nfer.ac.uk/teacher-autonomy-how-does-it-relate-to-job-satisfaction-and-retention/
[xviii] https://teachertapp.co.uk/articles/attendance-time-travel-and-gcse-content/#time-travel
[xix] https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10117331/1/IOE_Report_BAME_Teachers.pdf
[xx] https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/rethinking-how-we-can-improve-the-diversity-of-the-teaching-workforce-in-england#:~:text=The%20Hamilton%20Commission%20(Morgan%20%26%20Scarlett,(see%20Kershaw%2C%202021).
[xxi] https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/8610a7a4-0ae3-47d3-9129-f234e086c43c/consultation-on-funding-for-ay2021-22-finalforweb.pdf
April 2023