Is school engagement getting more difficult?

As a community music based organisation we are finding it increasingly difficult to engage with schools - even when offering our workshops and projects for free! We thought it was just us but it seems this is a wider issue...

Our work with Youth Music assumes strong relationships with Music Hubs and in turn schools as this is a tried and tested method of recruiting young people to participate in music projects through in-school experiences that open their ears to new opportunities to make music out of school.

A few years ago we could work with Creative Partnerships to access schools or work with our local authority schools engagement officer or arts development team to help promote opprtunities to schools. Now we live in a post-CP world where Bridge Organisations expect us to build strategic relationship through Cultural Education Partnerships, where our local authority has no school improvement or a full-time arts development officer and schools are working beyond capacity to meet Ofsted expectations that do not recognise music or push it to the bottom of the priority list.

In this world...

• Teachers and head teachers do not reply to our emails and calls for weeks (or never) and when they do the school has no budget/time/staff/space/students available... 
• Pupils cannot come 'off timetable'...  
• Music Hubs cannot provide assitance because the schools are not working with the hubs...
• Musical schools are too busy with their own productions and concerts to allow any pupils to take part in 'out of school' projects...
• Parents want to know the specific educational benefits of letting their kids take part before agreeing to try something...
• Teachers and partners want to know the details of the final product before you've started working with any young people...
• Potential partner organisations have become 'protective' of their young people and customers and fear losing their income/donations/participation to another organisation...

Does any of this sound familiar? 

I feel like we now exist in a space where the expectations of the funders and strategic partners have grown at the same time as the basic working environment has become exponentially difficult.

So how do you engage with schools in this environment? Please share any tips or good practice...

Our experience in the last year has led us to a few new strategies...

• Personal contacts are best - any personal contact that leads to a teacher or head-teacher is better than sending in unsolicited offers via the school secretary. We are now using social media to find people who know people within a school who can make sure our offer gets put in front of the right person to make a decision.
• The answer 'no' is better than no answer - usually we get no response from a school. If someone actually responds to say 'no thanks' at least they've made contact! We can work with this to find out if we can do anything to turn the 'no' into a 'maybe' or a 'yes'.
•  High quality, simple marketing - people don't have time to read our leaflets or emails. We no have to produce better, more engaging marketing that spakes to people who have no prior understanding of music projects or percieve the world of music through the prism of X factor, The Voice or the latest Gareth Malone vehicle.
• You need a video - you really need a video to promote/sell/explain it...

Please share your thoughts and methods to get your foot in the door with schools...