On Friday October 14th the first Kent Music Hub meeting was held in East Malling to look into the future of music education in Kent.
The establishment of music education hubs was one of the recommendations of the Henley review commissioned by the government to assess Music education in the UK earlier this year. A hub is a partnership of organisations that come together to create and co-ordinate music in a region. In our meeting music teachers, peripatetic teachers, professional musicians, arts organisations, schools, colleges, universities and music providers including Kindermusik representatives V Webb (Kindermusik UK/Ireland Director), K De Freitas (Kindermusik Kent ABC representative and educator), A Manca ( Kindermusik International director), met to discuss how we can work together to create a strategy and action plan for Kent.
A key note presentation was given by Marc Jaffrey (OBE) , who in the past championed the Music Manifesto, the successful UK arts education campaign. Having already acted as an independent adviser to ministers in the Department of Education, Marc provided many ideas and insights to guide our discussions. Other motivating speakers included Peter Bolton Chief Executive of Kent Music and Richard Finn Chairman of the Kent Music Board of trustees.
Most of our day was spent in group workshops and Q and A sessions. Our contribution to the Early Year/Primary group was significant as we discussed how Kindermusik has already started being rolled out to schools in Kent with success and should be the model to follow in other schools. In addition in the Digital Strategy workshop the fact that Kindermusik already leads the way with online training, teaching and home materials for children means we are already at the forefront in this area and Kent can build a plan on these learnings.
The day was punctuated by discussions at members stands including our Kindermusik booth and some fantastic solo and group musical performances by the children of Kent.
We are looking forward to follow up meetings integrating recommendations from the National Plan for Music Education due to be published next month as we continue to strengthen Kindermusik’s partnership with Kent Music.
