A note from our Chief Executive

Welcome to our second Annual Review which is a collection of stories, memories and highlights from this very unusual year.

For those working in education, 18 March 2020 was a defining moment – it was announced that there would be a period of mass closure of schools, the likes of which hadn’t been seen since WW2. Here at Services For Education (SFE) we teach music in schools, and we provide training and development for teachers and school leaders. On that day, with that one announcement, our world looked very different.

Looking back on 2019/20, it is easy to focus on the period since March. However before then, we were out and about in schools, delivering training, providing consultancy, running our award-winning Health For Life programme, teaching music – and delivering a fabulous array of concerts all through the festive period.

As I reflect on the past year, creative, resilient and talented, are the attributes which have shone through the team every single day.

Creativity is in our DNA – from day one of lockdown our aim was to keep delivering for our customers. Our colleagues in educational settings needed our support then, more than ever, as they faced school leadership during a pandemic. Music had to stay alive for the children and young people of Birmingham and beyond. Seemingly overnight, with a phenomenal effort from colleagues across the organisation, we transformed into an organisation with a virtual learning platform and embraced on-line delivery, across our whole product portfolio. Our music school has gone from strength to strength, providing opportunities for adults as well as children.

Throughout the year, the team have role-modelled resilience. As each week goes by, new challenges emerge for SFE, but they have been relentless in their determination to meet them head on, and I am incredibly proud of what they have achieved. I have the privilege of working with a highly talented team. As you will read in the articles that follow, some of that is very visible to an external audience, but so much work goes on behind the scenes to ensure everything runs smoothly.

We are proud of the feedback from our customers – whether from our 5-star Trustpilot reviews, or your comments on social media. They mean so much to us as we continually seek to improve and develop our product portfolio.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the incredible team who I work with, for all of their hard work, as well as our Board of Trustees whose support has been invaluable during these unprecedented times.

ANNUAL REVIEW 2019 >