1. This evaluation provides no evidence that ASP-music workshops had a greater impact on maths or literacy attainment than ASP-drama workshops.
2. Analysis of students receiving free school meals similarly found no evidence that ASP-music workshops had a greater impact on maths or literacy than ASP-drama workshops.
3. The process evaluation suggested that some tutors — particularly those with less experience of teaching groups of primary school children — needed more guidance on how to run their sessions.
4. Although not necessarily typical, there were related concerns that some strings workshops struggled to keep students focussed on learning music.
5. Class teachers reported that confidence and social skills had improved for some pupils. Teachers also felt it was important that children from disadvantaged backgrounds had the opportunity to learn a new skill that they might otherwise not be able to access.

• This evaluation found no evidence that the ASP-music workshops had a greater impact than the ASP-drama workshops in terms of maths or literacy attainment. Although small effects (positive and negative) were identified during the analysis, it could not be concluded that these effects were anything other than random chance. Each of the two different types of music workshop (strings and singing) was also analysed separately. As was the case with the main analysis, neither strings nor singing workshops showed evidence of out-performing drama workshops in advancing maths or literacy attainment.
• Similarly, there was no evidence that, among pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM), music workshops had an impact on attainment when compared to the control group (ASP-drama). Again, effect sizes were close to zero, indicating that disadvantaged children did not particularly benefit from music instruction relative to drama workshops.
• Interviews with school staff and workshop tutors suggested that there were differences in the way the programme was implemented by different tutors, reflecting the flexible nature of the programme. Tutors valued the ability to choose flexible approaches to music tuition. However, the process evaluation suggested that some tutors — particularly those with less experience of teaching groups of primary school children — needed more guidance on how to run their sessions. This led to related concerns that in some of the strings workshops, it was a struggle to keep students on task.
• In general, the process evaluation suggested that pupils enjoyed participating in the program, and were engaged. Teachers also reported that some pupils’ confidence and social-skills improved during the program.
• Last, it is important to reiterate that the design of this trial only allows for comparisons between music and drama workshops. This design was chosen for several reasons, including the fact that a previous study (Schellenberg, 2004) had found that music tuition increased attainment over and above other creative pursuits. This present study, which involved a much larger sample than Schellenberg, was unable to replicate this result.

Findings from this trial have a high degree of security. The trial was set up as a randomised control trial, with pupil-level randomisation. The trial was classified as an effectiveness trial, meaning that it sought to test whether the intervention can work at scale, and in situations where the developers are no longer the only deliverers. Before the trial started, there was a good balance of pupil characteristics between the group receiving music workshops and those receiving drama workshops (the control group). The attrition was low: in total, results from 814 pupils were assessed compared to 909 pupils who began the project (attrition of 10%). There was no evidence that systematic attrition had biased the results. There were some minor threats reported to the validity of intervention protocol. The security rating of 4 padlocks fits with the overall output of this report.