Emeritus Professor Music Education-Birmingham City University; BMERG. Academic, researcher, co-editor Brit J Music Ed. All views entirely personal!
Birmingham, UK
Joined November 2010
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Prof Martin Fautley retweeted
Delighted that @BirmCons & @MyBCU will be working with @EtioGlobal & @CharteredColl on the new National Centre for Arts Education
We can’t solve every aspect of widening access to the arts in our schools overnight. But it’s a step in the right direction
bcu.ac.uk/news-events/news/b…
Wondering if AI has struck again - today I was emailed (by a real person!) to be asked for a copy of a chapter I hadn't written, in a book that doesn't exist?
Prof Martin Fautley retweeted
So it seems that the decline of the arts in the curriculum is accompanied by celebration of maintaining/improving standards in three key areas of the curriculum. The idea of a broad and balanced liberal education no longer matters. Education is reduced to a commodity.
I'm still fretting about A-level music grades, so fascinated to read this from @edwardpwatkins today where he digs into the dataset elementalmusic.app/blog/musi…
Bit late to catch-up TV, but just watched that Panorama with the bit about silent music lessons. Eh...what?
Prof Martin Fautley retweeted
ISM research reveals a troubling fall in A-level Music entries, raising urgent questions about access, provision and music education. ⬇️ musicteachermagazine.co.uk/c…
Now wondering for nth year running why so many more A* grades are awarded in Maths A-level than Music. No comfort to those hard-working music teachers having to 'defend' their stats to SLT, I know.
Last year @edwardpwatkins dug around in the A-level data concerning this very issue, and wrote this reflection: elementalmusic.app/blog/musi… As I said, that was 2025 data, but he does raise some very intriguing questions.
No need to do my annual 'mess about with Excel' morning entering the A-level music data for England and getting depressed, as the Ofqual website does it all by itself nowadays. Result, still not good new for music. Screen grabs from Ofqual website. 1. Music A-level entries
Usual caveats - not my dataset, A-level only (and, no, I don't have the VQ dataset), and all numbers from Ofqual.
So, "Turn It Up: Our plan for music" Published 13 July 2026 Now carries the flag: "This was published under the 2024 to 2026 Starmer Labour government". Wondering what that means for its status today?
Prof Martin Fautley retweeted
Join the @UKMusicMasters team!
Could you be our new Impact & Evaluation Manager? Help shape how a growing organisation learns, adapts and influences the future of music education🎶
📆Deadline to apply: Tues 11th Aug, 5pm
musicmasters.org.uk/who-we-a…
#ArtsJobs #CharityJobs #Impact
Prof Martin Fautley retweeted
I’m delighted to share news of this exciting new role at @BirmCons - a strategic lead for all our work with young people.
Do please share with anyone you think might be interested - it’s a terrific place to work, with inspiring colleagues & young people!
jobs.bcu.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?…
Prof Martin Fautley retweeted
Wilful destruction based on ideology, but he thought he knew better than, “the blob” and the children and families who needed the most support have suffered as a result. We are all poorer thanks to his political meddling.
Now he tells us …
“I think that one of the things that the coalition government got wrong was its neglect of the Sure Start system:” Michael Gove @tes
tes.com/magazine/news/genera…
Prof Martin Fautley retweeted
I’ve got a bit tired of hearing that nobody at all will read your thesis. patthomson.net/2026/07/07/pe…
Piece by me in which I discuss assessment in music in the Primary School. It's available at: issuu.com/primarymusicmagazi…
Just read the Northern Ireland proposed curriculum for music and am hoping it doesn't signal the direction for England education-ni.gov.uk/publicat…
