Dear Supporters, Before we break for Christmas, I just wanted to send you all my sincerest thanks for your continuing support for Don’t Stop the Music. The campaign has taken off incredibly well, in just the short while it’s been running. And believe me when I say, your support has absolutely been the foundation and the engine of its success. I thought I’d just take a minute to tell you how far we’ve come since we started in the autumn. Over 70,000 of you have signed this petition – that’s a huge number for an issue which many people aren’t familiar with. Countless numbers of you have made your support for music education emphatically clear – posting on social media, encouraging friends to sign the petition, tweeting and retweeting our campaign actions and publicity. Many, many of you posted to the Department for Education Facebook page too – so that policy makers could be in no doubt of the strength of feeling about music education. All of this has made people sit up and notice. Don’t Stop the Music has been name-checked in parliament several times – which means that we have become a significant and persuasive campaign voice in just a few short months. A great number of the nation’s most influential voices in music and education united with us to write to the government, and demand that action be taken to end the inequality of opportunity in schools’ music. The letter was also published in the Sunday Telegraph, and prompted a tremendous boost in interest in the issue. You also responded in your droves to the Ofsted consultation on the way it inspects schools. Exact figures aren’t through yet, but it looks like hundreds of you made sure Ofsted heard your opinions about the inspection of music education. That’s a huge number of responses in this context – and a persuasive argument for Ofsted to take notice of our views. Ofsted will likely report on the outcome of the consultation in the next couple of months – watch this space! All this achieved, and Don’t Stop the Music is just a few months old. Imagine what we’ll achieve in the future. I’m writing today to let you know that we’re having a short break for Christmas, but will be back with vigour in the new year. Above all I wanted to say thank you, thank you, thank you, once again. You have been tremendous supporters, and with your continued help, I believe we really will make change happen. James