Reflections on In Harmony Telford & Stoke on Trent

Our In Harmony programme is a early targeted social development programme delivered through music. To improve the health, education and aspirations of disadvantaged children, young people and families through immersive ensemble music making, rooted long term in the community and in our partner schools.

The attached learning document is a set of personal reflections based on the past four years of our In Harmony programme working in Telford and Stoke on Trent and what ingredients we have used to develop our In Harmony programme and key learning points from the past four years.

In Harmony must not be a isolated programme but at the heart of the local music education ecosystem feeding in thinking, teaching approaches, evidence for the impact of music, successful approaches to engaging disadvantaged young people into the arts, performance opportunities and practice into Music Education Hubs, Youth Music funded programmes, other In Harmony programmes - a generous laboratory.

To work with local partners to raise the level of all stakeholders to deepen the impact on young lives, to contribute our best to music learning for all young people. Sharing practice not through just one-shot opportunities, but consistent practices that can make a program a regular contributor to the larger whole. Building partnerships and a stakeholder network in which the El Sistema lab becomes a valuable ongoing contributor to a wider set of music education and youth development players and goals.

Building connections and partnerships based on listening, and identifying the common aspirations so people want to learn from one another, and committing to succeeding together the way a musical ensemble does. An El Sistema Inspired programme should not be considered a replacement or substitute for existing music education programs.

Research and Evidence from the In Harmony programmes can help support Music Services and Music Education Hub advocate for music in schools across a range of educational and social outcomes such as based on the NfER Evaluation and In Harmony Liverpool’s various evaluation reports.