We are delighted to inform you that the opportunity to place your music orders for the 26/27 academic year is now available. Below you’ll find all the essential information about the process for this year, so please take a moment to read through.
Book your music provision, HERE
Deadlines for this year:
Firstly, the deadline for orders will be the 17th July 2026. If, however, you’d like to request specific staff, orders placed before 1st May are much more likely to be accommodated. While we can’t absolutely guarantee requests, placing your order early and completing the “Comments / Requests” section with your preferred staff member gives you the best chance of retaining them.
Pricing Approach 2026/27:
Turning to our pricing approach for 2026/27, we know how vital it is to keep costs as low as possible, especially with increasing pressures on school budgets. I’m therefore pleased to share that we have been able to hold our prices this year for both CMS and Instrumental and Vocal Teaching. This price freeze has been made possible by a careful review of how we allocate our funded music-teaching hours to schools. Over time, the way these “free” hours were assigned has become less clear, so we are planning to retire the current Player of Potential scheme and launch a new programme called Make Music Possible.
This new initiative will ensure transparency in how we distribute funded hours, targeting support to children who need it most – schools will be invited to apply for this programme. Alongside this, we are actively seeking external funding from Trusts and Foundations to help reach as many children as possible with this vital project. We are also planning to still support some of the current endangered instrument hours through ACE funding – eligible schools will be contacted in due course.
This means that we will be removing the “free” hours that schools have been given over the previous years. We believe that this will enable our limited funded resources to be allocated to the young people in the city who need them most. I hope you agree that the combination of a frozen hourly rate, alongside the Make Music Possible scheme, will enable a more equitable and affordable model for the young people of Birmingham.
Benefits to working with SFE Music Service:
By continuing to access music provision through Services For Education, your school will still benefit from funded instruments to all pupils who learn with us, as well as extensive and wide-ranging concert opportunities through the Music Service as well as our hub partners through the Birmingham Music Education Hub. Our staff are all given regular safeguarding training based on the latest KCSiE update each September, and are given regular subject-based training through our pedagogically secure CPD programme. We firmly believe that this makes our staff great role models to help your young people on their musical journey.
For further details please click HERE.