T-Time: Talking about Music Education Inspection across the UK

With our next T-Time session on Primary Curriculum rapidly approaching on March 17th, we wanted to look back to last term’s session, where we kicked off the academic year talking about inspection.  

For those new to T-Time; T-Time creates an online space reserved for classroom teachers across the UK to share peer-to-peer, and have professional debate about music in education.  

In September, we hosted a small group of teachers who wanted to discuss their experiences of inspection. Below, you can find some reflections from the session.

Inspection  

All education settings in the UK have a moderating body to ensure standards are kept high, children are kept safe, and parents and the wider community have lines of formal communication about the education of their children.  

In England, there have been a number of documents, announcements and consultations from the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofsted: 

1. Supporting documents for the Ofsted Big Listen response    
2. Response to the independent learning review by Dame Christine Gilbert    
3. CONSULTATION closes 28/04/25 Improving the way Ofsted inspects education 
4. CONSULTATION closes 28/04/25 School accountability reform 

News headlines in early September focused on the announcement of the removal of single-word judgements for schools in England and the introduction of a ‘report card’ (see the third consultation above to give your feedback on the proposals due from September 2025). 

This year also expects to bring change for Scotland, following the introduction of the Education (Scotland) Bill in June 2024 which is currently at Stage 2.  

About the Inspection-focused T-Time Provocation  

Each T-Time session starts with a provocation from a guest to stimulate discussion and debate; this time, we worked in-house at Music Mark to present how music was (and wasn’t) reported in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland academic last year.    

From the samples of Primary settings we looked at, music featured under different headings, with varying detail, and sometimes not mentioned at all. Music sometimes featured as a comment about how the school connects with the community, for example:   

Children have collaborated with local businesses in recent years on projects to support the school and community. For example, outreach lessons with the countryside ranger and a music and literacy project with a local arts and heritage centre. Children talk animatedly about their experiences in outdoor learning and expressive arts.  – Braemar Primary School, February 2024   

Through exploring a wide range of reports there was considerable variety of how, when and why music is mentioned. I summarise these into the following groups;    

1. Reports where music gets no mention, including associated words such as ‘choir’, ‘singing’, or ‘instruments’.    
2. Reports which include music within one sentence, usually alongside another creative subject or often PE.    
3. In some reports, though not many, technical detail is provided about the learning of music, the experiences afforded to them and the skills children learn.   
4. There were some reports where music is described as fundamental to the school, and this came through as core to the leadership and school ethos.    

These four categories highlight the mixed picture in reporting about music education, even within each inspectorate.    

Following the provocation, we handed the discussion over to our attendees to discuss their experience of inspection and what they would like to see in future reporting.   

What did we discuss, learn and share?  

Education and the arts are devolved responsibilities; funding is devolved to the four nations in terms of how they support schools, and services vary. The inspectorates all differ because they have different curricula. The interim report from the Curriculum and Assessment review (for England) is imminent.  

Development Plans  

For some schools, music forms part of the development plan for wider work in the community. This School Music Development Plan template created by the DfE encourages schools to create and publish a summary of their music development plan to:   

• raise awareness of their music development plan   
• promote the school music offer to parents and prospective parents   
• give greater opportunity for schools and music hubs to work together   

In Part C, ‘Musical Experiences’, the template encourages schools to set out what musical events and opportunities they will organise and to include information about partnerships the school works in to support musical experiences. This could be the local music service, music education organisations, or musicians. One attendee mentioned ‘Rocksteady’.   

Assessment and progressions in schools  

Discussion moved to how different teachers monitor assessment, and how we think inspectors do too. We touched on models for non-musical specialists such as the tools in ‘Music Express’. One attendee mentioned that a music specialist has the expertise to assess pitch by ear. Ofsted’s Chris Stevens (HMI National Lead for Music) delivered a webinar for Music Mark in September 2023 and spoke about assessment (skip to 31min 50sec). 

Inspection framework & deep dives  

There was a desire to know how subject deep dives may evolve. We will be hosting another webinar with HMI Chris Stevens on 12th May 2025, which you can sign up for here.  

Take Aways  

There is a huge amount available online that reports aspects of the inspection process. What you hear directly from an inspector, school leader, or teacher following their experience gives greater context as it isn’t limited by frameworks or reporting templates.  

During ongoing reform, I am optimistic music will feature in inspection reporting to recognise the significant contribution it gives to the well-rounded education of pupils in that setting.  

Further reading and resources:  

• School Setting Reports: Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, Wales.  
• HM Inspectors of Education published a thematic inspection of curriculum design. Scotland: May 2024   
• A Learning Inspectorate – Independent review of Estyn (gov.wales) Independent review of Estyn, Wales, June 2018  
• Ofsted Big Listen, England, updated September 2024  
• Chief Inspector visits College Farm Nursery School, Armagh | Education Training Inspectorate (etini.gov.uk) Northern Ireland, June 2019   

Get involved:  

If you’d like to share your thoughts or feedback on inspections, please get in touch at info@musicmark.org.uk 

Join our next T-Time session on 17th March, 4pm – 5pm.  

We are looking forward to welcoming Jimmy Rotheram who will be providing a provocation about his experiences of delivering and supporting non-specialists to deliver the music curriculum in the primary classroom.