Miliband’s help to future “Billy Elliots”

Citation

(2004), "Miliband’s help to future “Billy Elliots”", Education + Training, Vol. 46 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2004.00446eab.006

Miliband’s help to future “Billy Elliots”

Miliband’s help to future “Billy Elliots”

New national grants in music and dance for exceptionally talented children, allowing them to gain access locally to specialist training, have been announced by the School Standards Minister, David Miliband.

He announced that there would be four new centres for advanced training from September, based in Newcastle, Leeds and London, with the aim of establishing one in every region over the next few years.

Mr Miliband said: “High standards and creativity go hand-in-hand. Creativity stimulates high standards and music, with other performing arts, can make a special contribution to education. Not only do we want to give all children the opportunity to enjoy and participate in music, but we also need to identify and nurture those with a real desire and the dedication required to make music or dance a career.

“We all remember the character of Billy Elliot leaving his home town to train in London. I want to extend these opportunities to children similar to the character of Billy so they can enjoy the benefit of excellent training but still go to their local school and remain active participants in local artistic communities, without having to leave home.”

Talented children will receive most of their specialist tuition at existing junior departments of music conservatories and four new centres for advanced training. These are:

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  The Sage Gateshead (music);

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  Yorkshire Young Musicians, in Leeds;

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  Yorkshire Advanced Training Scheme for Dance, in Leeds (in partnership with Northern Ballet Theatre and Northern School of Contemporary Dance); and

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  London Contemporary Dance School.

The new grants will differ from existing provision in that the training programme will be developed specifically for the individual child out of normal school hours and will not necessarily all take place at one training organization.