25/06/2009
Children's Secretary Ed Balls spoke of the importance of music and his high hopes for In Harmony at yesterday's official launch of the Lambeth In Harmony project.
Lambeth is one of three music projects, inspired by Venezuela's El Sistema, working intensively with young children in deprived areas of the country.
Balls told the Music Manifesto that he hopes by the end of the current phase, in three years' time, "every part of England, every town and every community will be saying: 'We want an In Harmony project in our area!'
"I want them to say that because we've demonstrated in Lambeth, Liverpool and Norwich that it works," he said. "That it works to find hidden talents, but also to raise the aspirations of the children.
"It's all about making [children] see that they can do something, that they have to work hard at it, but they get results from that. We hope that then kicks into their wider view of life and will raise results in the school."
Balls stressed the government's commitment to music in schools and his belief that its benefits can be far-reaching.
"When I go to visit schools around the country, sometimes schools that started in a tough place and have really driven up their results, you're there for 45 minutes and the headteacher's got to make a decision, what does he show me about the school?
"Invariably they'll take me to see music and dance. Because they know that this is something massively important to their schools. Not just because the kids enjoy it, but because it translates directly back into their maths and English results.
"I think the best practitioners know that music helps to make great schools. It's more central to our thinking about education than it's ever been. I think the Music Manifesto is achieving great results for us."