Friends Summer Newsletter 2025 - Services For Education

Welcome to the Summer 2025 edition of our Friends of Our Ensembles newsletter, where we will be sharing a bit more insight into the world of our Ensembles and what’s been happening.

SUMMER 2025 EDITION

Welcome to the Summer 2025 edition of our Friends of Our Ensembles newsletter, where we will be sharing a bit more insight into the world of our Ensembles and what’s been happening since our Spring edition.

It has now been a year since we launched Friends of Our Ensembles, and it has been wonderful to have people like you sign up an d be part of our young musicians’ journeys.

For those of you who have joined since Spring, welcome to your first Friends newsletter; they are an opportunity for different members of our SFE Team to share some of their highlights from the Ensembles world with our supporters.

Lots has been happening since our last newsletter, which you can read about below.

A Few Words from Charlotte

2024-25 Academic Year: A Symphony of Success

The 2024-25 academic year has been an extraordinary journey of musical excellence for our young musicians, marked by remarkable achievements across all our ensembles.

Music for Youth Festival Triumphs

In the Spring, we celebrated significant success at the Music for Youth Regional Festival. This led to five of our Ensembles being selected to perform at the prestigious National Festival in July. Training Percussion, String Sinfonia, Symphony Orchestra, Guitar Ensemble, and Double Reed Ensemble each delivered performances that demonstrated technical excellence and musical maturity beyond their years.

National Recognition

Our Ensembles continue to build a national reputation, evidenced by our nomination and shortlisting at the National Charity Awards. This recognition speaks volumes about the quality of our ensembles and the dedication of our young musicians and staff.

Youth Proms 2025: Our Crowning Achievement

The icing on the cake was undoubtedly the Youth Proms 2025, which were bigger and better than ever. The Primary Choir returned to surpass pre-pandemic levels, featuring the largest number of young vocalists in our history. Alongside our Central Ensembles, The Massed Ensemble, now in its third year, saw record numbers of participants, creating a truly breathtaking spectacle that showcased the collective power of our musical community.

As we reflect on this remarkable year, we extend our deepest gratitude to all the young musicians, their families, our dedicated staff, and supporters who have made these achievements possible. We look forward to building on these successes in the coming academic year as we continue to nurture the next generation of musical talent.

On a personal note, I’d like to thank our entire SFE community for their support during my tenure as Deputy Head of Music Service and Head of Ensembles. I’m incredibly proud of all we’ve achieved together—from online sessions and performances to my final Youth Proms this summer, which were such a joy. I will continue to watch and support SFE from afar as I take up my new role as Chief Executive of Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust in the autumn.

Charlotte Buxton

Deputy Head of Music Service, Head of Ensembles and Designated Safeguarding Lead

Richard’s Reflections

The summer term saw another busy term for our wide ranging and varied ensemble programme, which culminated in our fantastic four-night Youth Proms at Symphony Hall in July. This event really showcased the wide-ranging offer that is provided to young people through the Services For Education Ensembles programme, and it was great to see such hard work, dedication and a sense of togetherness all coming together to create such an incredible musical extravaganza. A huge thanks must go to all our staff who were involved across the week, the way in which everyone played their role to enhance the life chances of the young people in Birmingham was brilliant to see, and a great reflection on all involved.

In addition, last term, we also had 5 of our ensembles representing us at the Music For Youth National Festival. Although held in Birmingham, this national event brought ensembles from across the country together in a series of sessions to determine who will perform at the Music For Youth Proms in November. At the time of writing we are still awaiting feedback, but it was fantastic to see our young people shining on the national stage.

Finally, it would be remiss of me not to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to our Deputy Head of Music Service and Head of Ensembles, Charlotte Buxton. As many of you will be aware, Charlotte leaves SFE in August to take up a new role in Northampton from September. Charlotte has played an instrumental part into the development of our Ensemble programme over recent years and has ensured the quality of our provision never falters. She will be sorely missed, and we wish her all the success in her new role.

Have a great summer, and I look forward to speaking to you again in 2025/26.

Richard Mabbott

Head of Music Service

Fundraising Fun

As already mentioned, our Youth Proms in July were a highlight for everyone, the Fundraising Team included. It was great to be front-of-house and meet many parents and other supporters joining us to see our young musicians on such an incredible stage. Our fundraising efforts through the week help raised nearly £1,500 in terms of cash donations and merchandise, which will go towards the ongoing costs of running our Music Ensembles.

Being front-of-house also gave me an opportunity to meet some of you who, as Friends of our Ensembles, claimed your complimentary tickets to the concerts – it was nice to put faces to names and email addresses. We also welcomed other supporters and business contacts who were keen to know more about SFE and how they can get involved.

A first for this year’s Youth Proms was the introduction of musician photos, working with Paul Painter who is dad to a couple of our Ensemble musicians. Paul was keen to support our fundraising efforts, whilst making memories for those involved at the same time. It proved to be popular, and having seen some of the initial photos, the results are fantastic.

We also collaborated with some local restaurants to offer discounts for audience members who might want to make the most of the evening. This hadn’t been done before and is something we hope to build on going forward.

You may have seen on our website and social media that Services For Education was recently shortlisted in the ‘Arts, Culture and Heritage’ category of The National Charity Awards 2025. Our Ensembles programme was a large part of our entry, and although we didn’t win, we were ‘highly commended’ by the judges, which is a big achievement given the number and calibre of the nominations received.

Thank you to those of you who will be reading a ‘Friends’ Newsletter for the first time, having only recently joined. The fact we have had more parents donate and sign up to be a Friend of Our Ensembles shows how people really value the opportunities we offer for their children and are keen to support us where we can. A couple of parents have spoken to me about how their businesses can support us, which is something we are looking forward to discussing further.

Sarah Caldwell
Fundraising Manager

Tell Us Your Story

In the Spring newsletter, we asked people if they were willing to share stories to show the real difference our music-based activities make in young people’s lives. As we’ve had some new people join since then, we’re asking again.

As your child is part of our Ensembles, we’d love to hear what being involved has meant to them. It could be around a special moment for them, the difference music makes to their lives or perhaps multiple generations in your family have been part of our Ensembles.

It doesn’t need to be long — just a few heartfelt words can help others understand the true power of music.

Every story is a reminder of why we do what we do and could be shared (without full names) in funding applications, on our website, and across our social media, helping us reach more people and continue our work.

If you have something you would like to share, please sent it to [email protected]