AND THE WINNER IS….

The high quality work of West Lothian Council’s Arts Services will be recognised at national awards ceremonies in London and Glasgow later this month.

On Friday 21 November Arts Manager Colin Hutcheon and representatives of Instrumental Music Service travel to London to be awarded a Diploma in the National Music Council (NMC) Local Education Authority Music Awards.  Less than a week later Arts Education Service has been invited to Glasgow where one of its projects has been short listed for the title of Education Initiative of the Year in the Herald Society Awards 2008.

The National Music Council Local Education Authority Music Awards are designed to “celebrate the remarkable achievements of music services in providing evidence year on year that those services reach an ever increasing number of young people and introduce them to a breadth of musics from world, folk, rock, jazz to classical.”   West Lothian is one of only three Scottish Local Authorities being honoured with a Diploma this year.

This is the second Diploma awarded to the Instrumental Music Service by the NMC in less than two months.   On 25 October the service was awarded the prestigious “Will Michael Diploma” in recognition of its outstanding commitment to jazz in education.     

Executive Councillor for Education Andrew Miller said:   “I am delighted that the imaginative, high quality work delivered by Arts Services in our schools is being recognised at these national award ceremonies.

 The quality of the Instrumental Music Service provided in West Lothian has long been recognised locally and, more generally, by other local authorities and organisations across Scotland.   This NMC award takes that recognition to a new level, judging our service to be among the most impressive in the UK.  It underlines the dedication of our instructors as they deliver a range of imaginative, often specialist projects on top of their routine commitment to our many school groups and ensembles.   The work of Arts Education Service is probably less well known but this service is now taking professional artists into all of our schools providing imaginative and original arts projects and activities that enhance the curriculum and enrich our education service”.  

West Lothian Council’s Arts Education Service and Instrumental Music Service worked together to create the projects Wee Stories and Wee Voices.   These took early years music specialists and poets into nurseries across the district to work with pre-school children, write songs (music and words) then record them in a professional studio and produce CDs that are now prized recordings in West Lothian schools and in home collections across the world.   The creativity and huge success of this project has led to it being short listed for the title Education Initiative of the Year in the Herald Society Awards 2008 to be announced on Wednesday November 26th in Glasgow.

For more information contact Maggie Mackay on 01506 777884 email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

UK Council of the Year 2006