Tuesday, March 10, 2020

More Cultural Policy - Norfolk Music Service


Cultural Policy 2020
Norfolk Music Service
Thousands of people have joined together by signing a petition to stop major cuts to Norfolk Music Service. Norfolk County Council plans to make cuts to its schools music service in a bid to reverse a £700,000 budget deficit. The council wants to halve the number of tutors it provides and increase the cost of lessons to parents by almost a fifth. The cost of tuition to parents would increase from £34 per hour to £40 per hour, while tutor numbers in the county would drop from 44 to 21. This would mean that a large number of tutors would then be made redundant and therefore be losing their job.  Tutors with a teaching qualification would be made to focus more on the school curriculum, while tutors without a teaching qualification will be focusing more on giving tuition. The council said that tutors would also be expected to “retrain” to teach multiple instruments and work in specific areas to reduce travel times. They also said there would be a focus on “whole class” and “group tuition” to ensure schools and low-income families “do not miss out.” The council has also added;
  •       “All pupils will still be able to hire an instrument free of charge.”
  •      “Pupils eligible for free school meals will continue to receive subsided tuition – and lessons will be free for children in care."
  •        The council is currently consulting staff on the proposed changes, which would come into effect in September.

The council says the service has run at a "substantial" loss over the past two years, due to "unsustainably low" tuition fees, "significant" travel costs and increased staffing costs. The council are proposing to make changes which see tutors teach more than one instrument and work in specific parts of the county. More than 270 schools make use of the music tutors for one-to-one instrumental tuition for pupils. 

The cost of tuition is also being increased, would make it more difficult for people to afford tuition and therefore decrease the amount of people doing music, even more.


A petition made by clarinet student, Emily Crook, from Notre Dame High School has well over a thousand signatures to stop these changes that are supposedly due to be made in September.

My Thoughts

I think that what the council is doing is wrong and should most definitely be stopped. The increased costs of tuition would make it harder for people to afford tuition, this means that the Norfolk Music Service would mainly be used by people who can afford it (such as private tuition, etc). Cutting travel would mean that fewer people will be learning instruments. The council said that tutors would need to “retrain” to learn more instruments.  This, to me, suggests that the council obviously don’t understand the struggles of actually learning a new instrument. You cannot learn an instrument in a matter of a few days. The council also said there would be a focus on “whole class” and “group tuition” instead of one – to – one tuition. This would mean that rare instruments, such as the bassoon, would basically become extinct in this county, due to the small number of tutors and students that play them. Group tuition is quite good for beginners who are starting to learn an instrument. However, when advancing with an instruments and taking different examinations, one- to - one tuition would be much more effective. It is also quite hard to find a tutor in this county that actually teaches or plays rare instruments such as the bassoon. Music in Norfolk has been declining for quite a while. The costs of tuition at the moment is already quite high and means that some people are unable to afford it. Although some schools teach music and do instrumental lessons or clubs. There is still very few students that play/perform or choose to carry on with an instrument. For example, I am in three orchestras, each in Norfolk. One is a keyboard orchestra with plenty of students, mainly because the keyboard is quite easy to pick up. The other orchestras, GYSMO and The Orchestrate! Project, are traditional youth orchestras. Orchestras usually have 12 violins first violins and second violins. GYSMO, overall, has one violin. Which is me. Therefore at the moment there is no one on second violin. GYSMO also has, 4 Clarinets, 3 Trumpets, 1 Trombone, 1 Euphonium, 5 Flutes, 5 Saxophones and one percussionist. Gysmo is an orchestra organised for any grade. The Orchestrate! project is designed for grades 4 and above, the highest level of playing we have is Diploma. The Orchestrate! Project contains; 5 First Violins, 3 Second Violins, 1 Viola, 3 Cellos, 2 Double Basses, 5 Flutes, 2 Trumpets, 1 French Horn, 1 Trombone, 1 Bassoon, 1 Clarinet and 3 Percussionists. To some non-musicians, this probably sounds like more than enough people in an orchestra. However, both of these orchestras would be considered incredibly small, due to the lack of musicians. To go into more detail, Although First Violins lead the orchestra, many pieces contain a melody played in the French horns or Trumpets.  

Many of the tutors who work for Norfolk Music Service work there because they love Music and enjoy teaching it. Many of the tutors have specialized in their specific instrument for quite a few years, some have even performed in professional orchestras and even toured around the world.
Teaching from these tutors is of incredibly high quality. Many of the tutors at Norfolk Music Service, provide students with high quality ensembles, however, without one-to-one tuition it would be hard for students to join these ensembles or for these ensembles to even be provided. One - to - one tuition allows students to develop musically. It allows students to build a professional relationship with their teacher, but also means that the student is able to ask questions and develop as a musician. This also allows tutors to spend more time with students and help them improve on things that they find difficult.   

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