Music has the power to enrich and transform lives. For children and young people, it can be a useful learning aid, a route to vital life skills and, for some, a lifeline. This year’s applicants to the Harris Foundation Schools Progression Award clearly understood that potential, each showing real commitment to supporting their students through music-making. With 72 strong submissions, assessors faced a tough task. However, seven education providers stood out, earning a welcome boost to their music provision.
Launched in 2023, the Harris Foundation Schools Progression Award is part of a three-year partnership between Music for All and the Harris Foundation for Lifelong Learning. It aims to help schools enhance their music provision for groups and to extend the experience of music making to even more students.
Supporting diverse student communities
Children and young people from a variety of backgrounds are represented by the seven grant winners. These education providers range from primary schools through to a college for 16 to 25-year-olds. Many of them cater for diverse student populations, including ethnic minority groups, pupil premium students and those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Two of the grant winners are specialist SEND providers.
Making music together
The award funding will be used in a variety of ways, with a particular focus on ensemble music-making. Cambridge Primary School in Hampshire will put their grant towards their new music classroom, where they will utilise ukuleles, recorders and keyboards in lessons and flutes and clarinets in small groups. They will also use accessible Nuvo instruments for those students with additional needs.
St Bede’s Primary School in Durham is using their funding to purchase a piano and also to fund training for their teachers ahead of their participation in Big Sing 2026 at The Glasshouse, an international centre for music. In addition, they are purchasing SingUp teaching resources, which can be used across all activities.
William Hulme Grammar School in Manchester welcomes children from nursery age through to sixth form. They will use their funding to build on a successful ‘Good 2 Great’ project which will offer small group instrumental tuition and band ensemble development.
At Ashmount School in Loughborough, their grant will pay for a freelance specialist SEND Music practitioner to work with the school over 20 weeks in order to deliver accessible ensemble creative workshops, one-to-one tuition to support some students, whole class instrument groups, training for classroom staff, and ensemble performances.
Dundonald High School in Belfast is creating a music technology suite with ten iMacs, MIDI controllers, and headphones (some of which has already been fundraised for). This will be used to support the reintroduction of GCSE Music, to increase music engagement at KS3, and to offer sessions for pupils at risk of disengagement.
Oasis Academy South Bank in London will replace a broken set of steel pans, enabling a relaunch of ensemble rehearsals and up to six performances per term. The cultural and educational value of steel pan music, particularly for the schools’ students of Afro-Caribbean heritage, is fundamental to their overall educational experience.
At Harrogate Personalised Learning College, a specialist SEND provider, the funding will be used to launch a sustainable inclusive music programme which will allow learners to engage in composition and group performance. It will also go towards CPD for staff, helping them to embed music into their teaching so that it becomes a regular, valued part of college life.
Championing music in education
Jonathan Harris, chairman and founder of the Harris Foundation for Lifelong Learning, comments: ‘At a time when education providers are under immense pressure, it’s heartening to see so many still championing music. They’re giving students a lifelong skill that will offer numerous benefits in the classroom and beyond.’