The report on the first National Music Teacher Mentoring Program has come in and the message is loud and clear.

If you visit your doctor, having been tested for some illness or other, “the results are positive” is not necessarily the thing you want to hear. However, if you have been piloting a Music Education program, which has been undergoing very rigorous analysis led by a crack team of university professional researchers, then this may be exactly the feedback you want.

For some time now, this magazine has been hugely supportive of Music Education, for which I am truly grateful. It is therefore a great thrill to report that since publishing the recent article ‘Singing is our salvation,’ the National Music Teacher Mentoring Program’s first official research results are to hand and they are truly wonderful.

To me, the results are not a surprise. The excitement comes from the fact that what all music teachers really know about the power of music in education is now officially documented from research done in this country. We don’t have to rely on other countries’ efforts. We now have our own statistics and our own evidence.

This article provides me with an opportunity to...