Music Education Hubs are groups of organisations – such as local authorities, schools, other hubs, art organisations, community or voluntary organisations – working together to create joined-up music education provision, respond to local need and fulfil the objectives of the Hub as set out in the National Plan for Music Education.
Bexley Music is the lead organisation for the Bexley Music Education Hub.
Music Hubs are charged with delivering 4 core roles and 3 extension roles, which due to Covid-19, have been redefined as follows:
Core Roles
Music Education Hubs are to ensure that 5-18-year-olds in England are offered:
- The opportunity to learn a musical instrument (other than voice)
- The opportunity to make music with others, and to perform from an early age
- Affordable opportunities to progress to excellence in music making
- Regular singing opportunities
Extension Roles
Music Education Hubs are to:
- Offer CPD to school staff, particularly in supporting schools to deliver music in the curriculum
- Provide an instrument loan service, with discounts or free provision for those on low incomes
- Provide access to a range of high-quality music experiences for pupils, working with professional musicians and/or venues where possible
In addition, the Music Hub complements and supports the National Curriculum for Music in schools, through:
One-off short-term events on a regular basis in the form of:
- Workshops (including those offered by partners)
- One day events
- CPD events for practitioners from all sectors
- Holiday courses
- GCSE/GCE days
- Large scale performance opportunities which bring together pupils from different schools.
- More frequent activity for those at different stages of learning to play and sing in the form of:
- General ensembles in school
- School choirs
- Specific groups and ensembles which are more borough based (at Belmont Academy and in local schools) for beginner, intermediate and advanced players
- The continuation of ‘transition’ group tuition in secondary schools to provide progression routes from primary music provision.
- Introduction of Secondary WCET
- Opportunities for those with exceptional musical talent and commitment to access advanced music education and training via Trinity Guildhall, Centre for Young Musicians (CYM), National Youth Orchestra and Youth Jazz Orchestra etc.
- Opportunities to engage in creative music making in a diverse range of genres and styles
- Provision of borough wide workshops and bespoke CPD in music teaching relating directly to the NC for Music aimed at primary, secondary and SEND schools (ref: Model Music Curriculum).
Our Vision
Through these roles, activities, and opportunities, we will continue to demonstrate our drive to rebuild post-pandemic, maintain, develop, and grow the current music education provided by the Bexley Music Education Hub and to ensure that it continues to be of high quality, targeting individual needs and abilities, and accessible for all Bexley children and young people.
We want our hub development to enable us to continue to strengthen, expand and enrich the existing provision and to exploit the impact of music, thereby improving the quality and the range of music education opportunities for Bexley’s children and young people.
The Bexley Music Education Hub will continue to build on and extend the current high quality and varied music opportunities for children and young people, which exist throughout Bexley, ‘joining up’ the provision, and seeking new partnerships within and outside the borough, in order to provide a comprehensive and diverse range of music opportunities, available to all.
All children and young people will be able to access high quality music education through the opportunity of learning to play an instrument, learning to sing, to make music with others and to draw upon the benefit of working with professional role models. Our vision is founded on the belief that all children and young people should receive encouragement to develop high aspirations for their musical engagement in formal, non-formal and informal settings.
Bexley Music Education Hub Partners
- Arts Council England (ACE)
The Bexley Music Education Hub receives its annual funding from the Department for Education (DfE) via Arts Council England.
‘We believe that great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better’.
‘We champion, develop and invest in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people's lives. We support activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections’.
- ArtsTrain
‘ArtsTrain is a unique and pioneering creative music programme managed by a leading social enterprise Mytime Active. Our programme is part of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio for 2018-22 and supports children and young people in outer/South East London, targeting those who are often not engaged in formal music-making and face challenging circumstances
We deliver award winning creative music programmes across the London Boroughs of Bromley, Bexley and Lewisham. Developed over the past ten years, ArtsTrain’s innovative model of music making draws from practice across musical genres and focuses entirely on the creation of outstanding original work by young people. Since 2008 we have supported the development of thousands of young people and transformed the cultural landscape of music within South East London’.
Our work with ArtsTrain continues to demonstrate good practice in partnership working, providing opportunities for young people in Bexley to explore alternative music genres through creative ensembles. The Bexley ArtsTrain Academy is now well established. Relocating to Bexley Music at Belmont Academy, the Academy is ‘fed’ by other ArtsTrain projects throughout the borough. The designation of ArtsTrain as an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation has had wide-reaching implications for the Music Education Hub, evidenced by the expansion of Arts Train programmes in the borough.
- Bexley Primary, Specialist, and Secondary Schools and the Bexley Virtual School for Looked After Children
Our key partners as a Music Education Hub. If you are a school which is not currently working with us, and would like to, please get in touch with This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
- Charange Music
‘Contemporary digital resources for music teachers and schools – exciting online learning for children and young people’
Music Service leadership team members are Charanga CPD trainers. The majority of Bexley Music staff utilise Charanga resources in the classroom. This partnership provides Bexley schools with ICT support direct from the Music Hub.
- Creative Bexley
A Local Cultural Education Partnership for Bexley – uniting a range of partners to develop a creative offer for children and young people in the borough.
“Our vision is a sustainable partnership that provides three key activities: first, to create a conduit for sharing opportunities (and practice) with the schools and young people in the borough in a timely and efficient way; secondly, to build a sustained connection between arts and cultural activity in schools and beyond it, so partners and educators can build projects in genuine partnership: thirdly build the capacity of teachers and young people through professional learning and supporting schools in achieving Artsmartk and embedding Arts Award into their schools. Most important is the long term vision of a partnership that creates new work for Bexley that would not be possible individually”.
- East London Music Association (ELMA)
A strategic collaborative of 8 Host and Gateway Borough Music Hubs representing the boroughs of:
- Barking & Dagenham
- Bexley
- Hackney
- Havering
- Newham
- Redbridge
- Tower Hamlets
- Waltham Forest
- Gateway to Music (G2M)
A delivery and programme-based collaborative of 9 Host and Gateway Borough Music Hubs representing the boroughs of:
- Barking & Dagenham
- Bexley
- Hackney
- Havering
- Lewisham
- Newham
- Redbridge
- Tower Hamlets
- Waltham Forest
- London Music Fund
‘The London Music Fund awards scholarships to children with talent and helps thousands of young Londoners develop their potential’.
The Bexley Music Education Hub currently has 6 London Music Fund scholars all of who are actively involved in the lessons and ensembles at Bexley Music. - London South East Children's University
Children’s University is a charity that works in partnership with schools to develop a love of learning in children. We do this by encouraging and celebrating participation in extra-curricular activities in and outside of school. The impact of these activities is proven to be positive which is why we’re committed to creating a level playing field of opportunity and opening up access to children of all backgrounds.
- Music Mark
‘Music Mark is a membership organisation, subject association and charity. Our membership consists of Music Education Services and Hubs, their teaching and support teams; schools; individuals; NYMOS; HE/FE bodies; Hub and Corporate Partners’.
‘On behalf of our members, partners and the wider sector, Music Mark lobbies for, and champions, a government supported, high quality, music education provision for all school aged children and young people which addresses diversity, equity and inclusion at its core’.
“Music Mark believes in the fundamental right to experience a high-quality music education for all children and young people, in and out of their schools.”
- Rotary Club of Sidcup
Through the R.o.S.E.T. (The Rotary Club of Sidcup Educational Trust) which has the ‘aim of making financial grants to young people up to the age of 25 who live, are being educated or work in Sidcup who need help to enable them to pursue educational and character forming projects’, members of Bexley Music ensembles have benefitted from funding for:
- Participation in a Music Tour as a member of an ensemble
- Participation in a Music Tour in the role of Student Mentor
- Participation in an LSO Masterclasses
In addition, most recently during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Rotary Club Benevolent Fund has helped Bexley Music by donating funds to:
- Provide bursaries for children in the borough to start or continue instrumental lessons and join Bexley Music ensembles
- Purchase new instruments to supplement and update our current hire stock
- Purchase recording equipment to enable us to enter students for digital music grade examinations
- Purchase chrome books to enable more online lessons to take place from Bexley Music when necessary
- Sound Connections
(Sound Connections) ‘develops, enables and empowers young Londoners through high quality music-making opportunities. We do this by delivering ground breaking musical opportunities, providing professional development to music organisations and practitioners, and undertaking high quality action research and advocacy to promote best practice in music education’.
‘We bring together organisations and practitioners working across four key music specialisms: Challenging Circumstances, Early Years, Youth Voice and Sector & Workforce Development’.
