
Ed Watkins
Music educator and choral conductor in London; founder of Inner Voices youth choir and Elemental, lead author of the DfE's Model Music Curriculum and Ofsted's Research Review in Music.
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Sep 29, 2026
A Level Music: A Subject in Decline?
6:25
6:35
6:48
7:04
7:19
35:28

Michael WrightHOST
Is it a music problem? Is it the school funding? Is it curriculum problem? What do you reckon it is?

Ed WatkinsGUEST
On this one, this is just this, these are educated guesses as to why, because a lot of the problems, a lot of the challenges in taking A-level music have been the same.

Ed WatkinsGUEST
So as you know, there would have been similar challenges for a child making that decision in 2010 because the course is reasonably similar and the GCSE that introduced it is reasonably similar.

Ed WatkinsGUEST
But what some of the things that might have changed are the huge focus we've had on STEM within our sort of school system in the last 15 years, which has been a very good thing for those subjects.

Ed WatkinsGUEST
And, you know, has been it's been sort of wonderful to see the improvements that our school system has made over time in various different ways.
28 MINS LATER

Michael WrightHOST
So in terms of the figures then, so are you saying in your research that the majority of the A stars for A-level predominantly come from the independent, or is there perhaps something else that you can read in the data?