Ed Sheeran has taken partial credit for the government’s move to overhaul the teaching of music in England’s state schools shortly after being mentioned by the education secretary in parliament.
The Department for Education (DfE) said it wanted to broaden the appeal of music education “to give every child a strong start in the subject” and boost the creative subjects taken at GCSE as part of its wider changes to England’s national curriculum.
The proposals were applauded by the arts sector and Sheeran highlighted his contribution on social media in the form of an open letter to Keir Starmer sent in January.
“With the help of the letter and everyone who signed it, I’m happy to say that some of the key points we raised have been recognised by the government today, marking the first change to the music curriculum in over 10 years,” he said.
“This involves diversifying the music genres taught in schools and removing outdated systems that stop kids from studying music and the arts as part of their school day. These changes give young people hope and the opportunity to study music.
“Without the encouragement I received in school, especially from my music teacher, I wouldn’t be a musician today, and I know so many of my peers feel the same,” Sheeran, who went to Thomas Mills state high school in Suffolk, said.
“My music education went beyond learning and playing. It helped me find confidence in myself, and music itself was – and still is – so important for my mental health.”
The letter was organised through Sheeran’s personal foundation and backed by more than 600 artists, organisations and cultural figures including Paloma Faith, Stormzy, Elton John and Coldplay.
The changes were unveiled in the government’s response to the curriculum and assesment review published this week by Prof Becky Francis.
The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, referenced Sheeran’s support on Wednesday when she told MPs: “Our creative industries are a source of such national pride but as Ed Sheeran has said so powerfully, we can’t continue to lead on the world stage without a broad base in our schools at home.
“The arts should be for all, not just a lucky few, and we’ll revitalise arts education, putting it back at the heart of a rich and broad curriculum.”
The curriculum review argues that schools don’t have enough time to pursue creative subjects, with the government offering changes to performance measures that would encourage takeup of arts GCSEs including music, dance and drama by scrapping the more academic English baccalaureate (Ebacc) suite of subjects mandated by Michael Gove when he was education secretary.
The Royal Shakespeare Company said the changes would make a material difference to young people’s lives, while the head of the Independent Society of Musicians (ISM), Deborah Annetts, said it was a historic moment.
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“The Ebacc has done immeasurable damage to music and creative subjects and that’s why ISM has been determinedly campaigning against it since it was introduced back in 2010,” she said.
The chief executive of Arts Council England, Darren Henley, called it “a great day for the next generation of creative talent”.
He said: “Subjects like art and design, dance, drama and music play a unique role in nurturing fully rounded human beings.”
The government also announced that pupils in England would be taught to “critically engage” with social media posts on TikTok and Instagram as part of media literacy lessons to be added to the national curriculum.
The DfE said that analysing blogs or social media posts was considered “a key skill in terms of media literacy and weighing up evidence, or learning to identify fake news”.
The government is also considering a new modern foreign languages qualification before GCSEs that could motivate pupils “to continue studying and developing their language abilities”.
