Music in Schools
From a first classroom lesson to opening night at The Lighthouse, Poole funded instrumental learning, curriculum support and live performance reaching schools right across Dorset and Somerset.
Whole-Class Instrumental Teaching
Every pupil learns an instrument together, term after term, built straight into your timetable. Somerset Music and Dorset Music Service run it at scale; My Music Lessons delivers the same model hybrid – in-app lessons, shared instruments and optional online continuity for schools.
WHO MAKES THIS HAPPEN
Dorset Music Service Somerset Music My Music Lessons’ Rural Hybrid Music Access Pilot.
Workshops, Residencies & World Music
A specialist ensemble moves in for an intensive block withnew instruments, new sounds, a real performance at the end and no ongoing timetable commitment needed. Actiontrack’s Gamelan & Global Music residencies, Dorset Rural Music School’s whole-school “Our Story” co-creation, and Sound of the Streets’ first-steps workshops.
WHO MAKES THIS HAPPEN
Actiontrack’s Gamelan & Global Music Dorset Rural Music School’s “Our Story” Sound of the Streets B Sharp
School Projects
From a full opera to a GCSE composition portfolio rehearsed, performed and worth remembering. Jackdaws’ OperaPLUS turns pupils into an opera company; Sonopera’s Sonorities bridges Year 9 into Year 10 with an original composition; BSO Elevate builds primary and GCSE pupils toward a professional concert; Wessex Schools Music brings the same ambition to Dorchester.
WHO MAKES THIS HAPPEN
BSO Elevate (Octagon Theatre), Jackdaws (OperaPLUS), Sonopera and Wessex Schools Music
Events & Festivals
Beyond your own classroom – county-wide festivals and ensembles for your most engaged musicians to go further. Purbeck Youth Music and PSYM open doors into county ensembles and opera; Jackdaws’ Year of Brass and Summer Production, and Wessex’s Singing Schools Festival, Dorchester Young Musician Festival and Wessex Arts Fest put pupils on stage with young musicians from across the region.
WHO MAKES THIS HAPPEN
Dorset Music Service, Dorset Rural Music School, Jackdaws, Purbeck Youth Music, Sonopera, Somerset Music, Wessex Schools Music
School Enrichment
Enrichment is a live policy priority right now, not just a nice-to-have. The Department for Education’s Enrichment Framework for Schools and Colleges – published June 2026 and updated as recently as this month sets out a “core enrichment entitlement” for every pupil, with arts and culture as one of its five categories, and its own benchmark text names music explicitly: “taking part in and having live experience of music” is given as the example. Ofsted is expected to factor enrichment into its Personal Development judgement from September 2026, though the framework itself remains non-statutory. Every one of OMH’s 20 funded partner organisations already delivers exactly this kind of provision, so schools don’t need to build an enrichment offer from scratch or find new budget for one it’s already funded and ready to book. For the fuller picture beyond the school day itself choirs, ensembles, bands and open-access groups pupils can join outside timetabled lessons see the Music-Making Groups pages.