Music Instruction and Academic Attainment: Creative Futures UK and Institute of Education

The EEF has awarded £415,000 to Creative Futures UK and the Institute of Education to test the impact of high quality music instruction on cognitive skills and academic achievement. The project will be structured as a randomised controlled trial and will involve 900 Year 2 pupils in 15 secondary schools.

The work builds on experimental research carried out in Toronto which indicated that music lessons can have a substantial impact on children’s cognitive abilities. Year 2 pupils at participating schools will be randomly assigned to receive weekly singing lessons, weekly lessons on a stringed instrument, or to an active control group that participates in a creative activity other than music. This design will allow us to isolate and measure the impact of music instruction, and may help build the academic case for music lessons in schools.

The National Centre for Social Research will independently evaluate the impact of the approach.