The Music Workshop Company Blog

Each month the Music Workshop Company publishes two blogs. One blog, written by the MWC team addresses a key issue in Music Education or gives information about a particular genre or period of music. The other blog is written by a guest writer, highlighting good practice or key events in Music Education. We hope you enjoy reading the blogs.

We embed multimedia content in many of our blog posts, if you have rejected cookies for this website, you may have white spaces where the multimedia content should be. This is due to a recent change of policy by YouTube, Spotify and other platforms. We are in the process of updating all our posts. If you come across white spaces in a blog post, you can open the link in another browser or private browser and approve cookies to access all the content. We are sorry for any inconvenience this causes.

To contribute as a guest writer please email Maria@music-workshop.co.uk

The EBacc and the Importance of Arts Subjects in Schools

Posted on 30th December 2015 at 14:00

There has long been discussion about the structure of secondary education. Recently this has centred around the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), a school performance indicator linked to the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE).

The EBacc is designed to measure the percentage of students in a school who achieve five or more A* to C grades in GCSE mathematics, sciences, foreign languages, history or geography. It is called a baccalaureate, but it is not like the French baccalauréat, which qualifies students for entry into universities and tertiary education.

Introducing Jenny

Posted on 16th December 2015 at 13:00

The Music Workshop Company team has grown this year with the addition of our wonderful new Social Media Assistant, Jenny Wright. Let’s meet Jenny and find out about her role…

The Music Education Expo

Posted on 30th November 2015 at 14:00

The Music Workshop Company has found the annual Rhinegold Education Expo an invaluable source of information and inspiration. We catch up with Alex Stevens, Editor of Rhinegold’s flagship education publication, Music Teacher Magazine, as he shares his plans for the 2016 event.

Bridging the Musical Gap

Posted on 29th October 2015 at 14:30

Across the UK there are outstanding young musicians whose financial circumstances are a real barrier to achieving their full musical potential. According to the Institute of Fiscal Studies, more than 2.5 million UK children currently live in poverty, and of these, 350,000 are not able to pursue a leisure activity or hobby such as learning a musical instrument due to a lack of available finances. It is estimated that, as a result of deprivation, between 600 and 1000 children with exceptional musical abilities are lost to our society every year.

Scottish Dance: A Rich Mix of Cultural Influence

Posted on 15th October 2015 at 16:00

Scotland is internationally renowned for its traditional music and dance, in particular the unmistakable sound of the highland bagpipes. But the pipes are only one aspect of Scottish music: They are often used to accompany solo and competition dancing, but music for social dancing is more likely to be performed on instruments including the accordion, fiddle and flute.

Take Your Music Further

Posted on 29th September 2015 at 16:00

Here at the Music Workshop Company, we are passionate about creating opportunities for young people to explore music. We make sure that each of our workshops involves a performance element so participants can enjoy the experience of playing to an audience.

Leading educational travel company, NST, specialises in running concert tours, primarily for school children but also catering for adults. NST knows that the buzz musicians get from performing is unlike any other feeling, and the chance to perform in exciting international venues is even more of a thrill.