Social impact & outreach

• Health & wellbeing: our “Health for Life” programme ➡️ in primary schools continues to be recognised for its innovative approach to supporting and encouraging a healthy lifestyle amongst children and their families. This year, 15 primary schools from across Birmingham were awarded for building and sustaining healthy lifestyles, gathering at Cadbury Concert Hall in Bournville to celebrate their achievements and proudly accept their plaques from the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Councillor Ken Wood.
• Inclusive Programmes: We continue to prioritise inclusivity, ensuring children with special educational needs and disabilities had access to music and learning opportunities. More than 20% of children supported by our Music Service have special educational needs.
• Community Engagement: Through projects and events, we have strengthened ties with local communities, supporting wellbeing and fostering a sense of belonging among participants. 

  Music & cultural engagement

• Music Education at the Core: We continued to champion music education, inspiring and nurturing talent across schools and community settings. Our charitable projects, such as the #MusicCan campaign, highlighted the transformative power of music in young lives.
• Outdoor Festival & Events: We hosted events such as the Outdoor Festival 2025 ➡️ and Youth Proms ➡️ at Symphony Hall which brought together students, teachers, and the wider community to celebrate learning and creativity.  Our young musicians were selected to perform at Music for Youth’s Annual Proms at Royal Albert Hall before an audience of around 5,000.
• Community & Inclusive Choirs: The Birmingham Inclusive Choir ➡️ and Community Choirs ➡️ saw significant growth, with regular participation and positive feedback from members and their families. These initiatives reinforced SFE’s commitment to inclusivity and community engagement through music.

 

  Educational provision & support

•  Comprehensive Professional Development: We maintained a strong focus on empowering educators and school leaders through a wide range of professional development opportunities. This included ongoing CPD (Continuing Professional Development) courses, updated safeguarding training, and targeted support for school improvement initiatives ➡️
• Free to access resources: Blogs and advisory articles written by our experts keep teachers, classroom assistants and parents/carers up to date with the latest news and advice. More than 30 were published during the year on topics ranging from mental health to safeguarding and statutory guidance for RHSE (Relationships, Sex, and Health Education) ➡️
• Online interactive courses: We have further developed live online courses to provide schools with easier access to expert advice and interactive discussions. This includes a free new course on how to get the most out of AI tools and chatbots ➡️

  Partnerships, Fundraising & Recognition

• Charitable Fundraising: Our fundraising efforts included innovative events like our first sponsored tandem skydive ➡️ (successfully completed by two courageous supporters) raising funds to expand access to music education. Our free outdoor festival last May was only made possible through the generosity of our supporters ➡️.  We have further developed our corporate connections and introduced new Christmas fundraising initiatives ➡️
• Partnerships: We have appointed ten Birmingham schools as Lead Schools for Music as mentors to other schools to assist in their development of their music curriculum and wider music offer ➡️. We also partnered with Birmingham Commonwealth Association with 50 children from two Birmingham primary school choirs performing at two events to mark Commonwealth Day in Birmingham in March. This included the first ever performance at a Citizenship Ceremony attended by the Lord Mayor. Their performances included a song written by our Composer in Residence inspired by the words of the late Queen Elizabeth II ➡️ . We have developed a partnership with CPOMS – a software platform for schools to manage safeguarding, wellbeing, and pastoral care ➡️  
• Our Trustees: This year we welcomed two leading and experienced educationalists who have been appointed to the board of trustees – Eluned Mansell and Oliver Wilson ➡️.  We would also like to recognise the achievement of our trustee and former chair Sarah Smith on obtaining the award of MBE ➡️
• Media Recognition: Our work and achievements were regularly featured in national and regional media, including a number of radio interviews, showcasing our work, specialist advice and our impact to further raise our profile in both education and charitable sectors ➡️. Our Chief Executive delivered a seminar on leadership at the Charity Finance Group’s Annual Conference and participated in the podcast Wit and Grit ➡️. Our voice in some fairly niche areas of safeguarding, wellbeing and school advisory support has opened unique opportunities, for example, after publishing a blog on links between animal and domestic abuse, we were invited to a veterinary charity conference alongside the NSPCC. 

  Thank you

To all our our supporters we want to express an enormous amount of gratitude to all who support our charitable causes, it really makes a difference.

And to our staff and trustees, we thank you for your hard work, loyalty and enthusiasm. It helps us to bring music and learning to life.

  2025 Facts and Figures