Schools Music Award

What is the Schools Music Award?

The Schools Music Award is a new quality mark for schools across the North London Music Hub, recognising and celebrating high-quality music education.

It’s designed to raise the profile of music in schools, highlight outstanding practice and give schools a clear, supportive framework to reflect on and strengthen their provision.

The award is a simple, annual self-evaluation tool that helps schools take stock of their music offer and identify next steps. It supports meaningful conversations between music leads and senior leaders, and provides a shared language for what strong music provision looks like.

Schools self-assess their provision against a set of criteria and are awarded one of four levels:

  • Working Towards – music provision is developing
  • Bronze – a secure, minimum standard of music education
  • Silver – strong practice with breadth and progression
  • Gold – leading practice embedded across school life

The process is designed to be entirely supportive and developmental, and is not about inspection or judgement but about recognising success and encouraging growth.

Each September, schools will receive a certificate recognising their level, celebrating their achievement and commitment to music.

Why it matters

Music plays a vital role in school life, but provision can look very different from one school to another. The Schools Music Award helps to:

  • celebrate what schools are already doing well
  • support planning and improvement
  • strengthen music leadership
  • increase participation and opportunities for pupils
  • connect schools more closely with their local music service

Ultimately, it helps ensure that every child has access to a rich and meaningful music education.

How it works

Think about what evidence or examples you have for each element of the criteria for the three categories below - bronze, silver and gold.  You may find that you can answer questions across more than one category. However, to achieve the Bronze certificate, you need to be able to answer all the questions in that section. To achieve Silver, you must be able to answer all the Bronze and Silver questions, and the same applies for Gold.

Schools can indicate which Schools Music Award level they believe they should receive - Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Working Towards - by selecting the appropriate option on their Arts Council Data Return form, to be completed in the second part of the summer term.

We recognise that specialist SEND settings operate within a diverse range of contexts, and that some of the criteria outlined may not be fully applicable in the same way as in mainstream provision. In these cases, SEND schools are encouraged to interpret and adapt the questions to reflect their school context and pupil cohort.

Bronze Criteria – Standard Expectations

Schools must answer “yes” to all of the following:

  1. Is there a named member of staff responsible for leading the music curriculum, who engages with the borough music service (for example through network meetings, CPD, events or performances)?
  2. Do pupils in Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 3 receive at least one hour of music education each week (which may be delivered flexibly, for example through multiple sessions and/or singing assemblies)?
  3. Do pupils have access to a range of melodic and rhythmic instruments as part of their music learning?
  4. Is there at least one instrumental or vocal extra‑curricular group available for pupils to join?
  5. Are there regular opportunities for pupils to sing, either within curriculum time or as part of wider school activity?
  6. Do relevant staff attend borough music network meetings?
  7. Are pupils actively signposted to opportunities to make music outside the school?
  8. Is there a clear strategic plan in place for improving or developing music provision?
  9. Does the music curriculum support clear musical progression over time?
  10. Does the school complete and return its annual data submission to the borough music service?

Silver Criteria – Standard Expectations

Schools must answer “yes” to all Bronze criteria and all of the following:

  1. Is there a school governor with a specific link to music or performing arts?
  2. Can pupils access instrumental and/or vocal lessons in addition to curriculum music?
  3. (Primary schools only) Does the school access Whole Class Instrumental Teaching (WCIT)?
  4. (Secondary schools only) Does the school provide opportunities for pupils to study music at Key Stage 4 and/or Key Stage 5?
  5. Do pupils have opportunities to perform both within school and beyond the school community?
  6. Do pupils have opportunities to hear live music performed outside of school?
  7. Is there adaptive music provision in place for pupils with SEND, appropriate to their needs?
  8. Is there specific support in place to enable children facing barriers to learning to access music opportunities?
  9. Does the music lead attend subject specific CPD at least annually?

Gold Criteria – Standard Expectations

Schools must answer “yes” to all Bronze and Silver criteria and all of the following:

  1. Are pupils supported into clear, meaningful progression pathways appropriate to their phase, for example: WCIT to instrumental or vocal tuition in primary or ensembles, GCSE, A-level or music technology routes in secondary?
  2. Are representative numbers of pupils taking up the opportunity to study music at Key Stage 4 and/or Key Stage 5?
  3. Does the school actively contribute to music development beyond its own setting, for example, by leading CPD, hosting events, sharing resources, offering mentoring, or supporting other schools in the borough?
  4. Is music consistently embedded across wider school life, beyond curriculum lessons?

A shared commitment to music

The Schools Music Award has been developed by the North London Music Hub - a consortium partnership between Enfield Music Service, Barnet Arts Education Trust, Camden Music, Haringey Music Service and Music Education Islington - and is delivered locally by the music service in each borough. It reflects our shared ambition to support schools, raise standards and champion music as an essential part of every child’s education.