Inspiring Music and Young Sounds celebrate one year of transforming music education in Central Bedfordshire
Thursday, 23 October 2025
Pupils, staff and guests marked one year of a music pilot at Sandy Secondary School, run by Inspiring Music, our music service, and national charity Young Sounds UK.
The celebration event brought together around 35 pupils from schools across Central Bedfordshire where they were able to experience a turntablism workshop, meet young people from other schools who are also enrolled on the Young Sounds UK Connect programme and enjoy a celebratory lunch together.
In 2024 Inspiring Music was chosen to take part in the Department for Education’s Music Opportunities Pilot, which is being led nationally by Young Sounds UK via its acclaimed Connect programme. Since then, 60 children who were identified to have musical potential, have benefited from being enrolled on the Young Sounds UK Connect programme, enjoying their learning an instrument and other opportunities provided to them through the programme.
The Connect programme has been in development since 2008 and is designed to support talented young musicians from low-income families once free provision in schools has ended. Every child has access to free instrumental lessons, free instrument hire, a trained mentor, a personal bursary, and free access to their local music centre. The programme now supports nearly 1000 young people across 23 different regions of England.
Councillor Steve Owen, our Executive Member for Children’s Services, said:
This celebration was a fantastic opportunity to showcase the achievements of the talented young people involved in the Connect programme. By working together, Young Sounds and Inspiring Music are making sure that every child can access music education and build their confidence, no matter their background or circumstances.
Neil Phillips, Connect Programme Director for Young Sounds, said:
It’s wonderful to be able to celebrate such a successful first year of this pilot programme. Our partnership with Inspiring Music has gone from strength to strength which really shows in the fantastic musical progress the young people are making. The pilot will run for 4 years and the learning we take from it will be shared across the whole music education sector, so this is hugely important work.