What a shame The TES chose to sing the blues last week when reporting on the Wide Opportunities pilots. Your article entitled Music pilots fail to hit right note with pupils continues in a negative vein before commenting on some of the many very positive findings in the report.

No mention is made of the superb event at the Barbican where hundreds of children showcased some of the excellent work resulting from these pilots in front of a massive audience.nbsp;Nor of the 30 main findings in the Ofsted report, 21 are positive and nine come under the heading of “improving the quality of pilot programmes”.nbsp; Surely, if we are going to give young people the best possible experiences, we need to encourage others to learn from examples of what went well as well as those areas that can be improved.

In Oxfordshrie, over 2,000 children have already benefited from this scheme.nbsp; Many of them come from families who have no previous experience of making music. After all the support The TES has given to music, the arts and the case for a balanced curriculum, it was particularly disappointing to read such a negative report of such a positive initiative.

Richard J Hallam
Director of music
County Music Service
Oxfordnbsp;