Dear Supporters, Have you asked your friends and family to sign up to Don’t Stop The Music? We’ve had some huge successes with Ofsted, but I need you help to keep fighting to ensure that music counts in all our schools. I need to share some concerning news with you: The Department for Education currently seems determined to make the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) – a list of subjects which doesn’t include music and other arts subjects – compulsory for all secondary school pupils. Making it compulsory will have a devastating blow on music in schools. Since they first tried to introduce the EBacc to school league tables in 2011, the number of pupils studying arts subjects – including music – has declined. The Government back-tracked on this proposal in 2013 (introducing a league table in which music can count) but they now want to make the EBacc compulsory! This year I went to speak in the House of Lords about the need to fight for music in schools and it was great to hear the Lords debating the omission of creative subjects -including music from the EBacc recently. Hearing so many peers from across the political divide, urging the government to reconsider the EBacc proposal, because of the danger it poses towards music and the arts, is very encouraging. Music changed my life. I know from my own personal experience how important music is in changing people’s lives for the better. I agree with the comments made by Nicky Morgan MP, the Secretary of State for Education, when she said that ‘a young person’s education cannot be complete unless it includes the arts.’ I agree that ‘access to cultural education is a matter of social justice’ and I agree that it is ‘a sad truth that often those with access to the best opportunities that the arts have to offer, are those young people with parents with the ability to pay.’ Music changes lives, helps children and young people develop socially, emotionally and intellectually, and underpins our world class creative industries. Above all, without access to music and the arts, children in our schools, quite often those from disadvantaged backgrounds will be denied a well-rounded education. This is a tragedy. The Incorporated Society of Musicians and the Music Industries Association – who are helping me with this campaign – have already stepped up their cross-arts campaigning and now we need you to make our voices heard. I am asking you to please forward this email to your friends, put the petition link on Twitter and Facebook and get as many people as possible to sign up to the campaign. Thank you, thank you and thank you again. Best wishes James