Rock star Stevie Van Zandt in plea for more arts and music in English schools

Legendary guitarist and Sopranos star Stevie Van Zandt has made an impassioned plea for more arts and music in England’s schools as a way of engaging disaffected young people during a visit to south London.

It was a last day of term like no other for pupils at Beckmead College – a school for students aged 14-19 with social, emotional and mental health needs – when the E Street Band member turned up, dressed like a rock star in purple velvet, winkle picker boots and trademark bandana.

Van Zandt, who will perform with Bruce Springsteen at Wembley later this week and is still renowned for his role as mob consigliere and strip club owner Silvio Dante in the classic television show, is also the founder and creator of TeachRock – an online educational programme which uses music to help pupils access the curriculum.

Helped by the likes of Bono, Jackson Browne, Martin Scorsese and Springsteen, Van Sandt launched TeachRock as a way of “keeping the arts in the DNA of the public education system” of the US after the introduction of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, with its emphasis on annual testing, academic progress and report cards.

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Now it is being adopted in – and adapted for – schools in England in the Beckmead Trust, which provides education for children and young people with complex needs across 10 schools in London, Essex and Sussex. Van Zandt was visiting to see his programme in action.

The trust chief executive, Dr Jonty Clark, a diehard Springsteen fan who came from his hospital bed to witness the visit, said many of the students at Beckmead are among the most disadvantaged in the country. They are vulnerable to grooming by gangs and some have already been in youth offender institutions.

“While we provide them with excellent education and care, it is also critical that we first engage them to attend,” said Clark. “The TeachRock programme we have adapted has been one of the ways we have done that since the pandemic and it’s proved hugely successful.

“Additionally, research has shown that music plays a key role in supporting brain development – language, motor skills, social collaboration skills and emotional intelligence are all improved.

“TeachRock has already delivered excellent results across our schools, including an increase in student attendance and an improvement in positive attitudes, self-expression and confidence.”

Van Zandt watched keenly as 17-year-old Kerniel performed a protest song he had written in celebration of the resilience of the Windrush generation, and applauded enthusiastically after a barnstorming performance by a group of students playing guitars given by a charity, cheered on by their teachers.

Some of them had not so much as held a guitar until a few weeks ago. “It’s miraculous,” beamed Van Zandt. Then he was handed a guitar and was invited to join them, an offer he could not refuse, jamming with what looked like real joy with London teenagers. From there he went on to watch an assembly and tour Chaffinch Brook school, which supports students with autism.

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“A lot of kids are just not comfortable with the precision of basic science or maths. They don’t see the reason for it. They don’t understand it,” said Van Zandt, who believes in meeting a child “on their own turf”, exploring their own interests first, rather than imposing a regimented, one-size-fits-all curriculum.

Instead of asking a student to take out their ear buds, he asks them what they’re listening to. “‘Who are your favourite artists?’ Kids talk about them and they stay with you.” He complains that children today are being taught the way he was taught decades ago.

“Kids come to school with gifts intact. Imaginations, curiosity, instinct, taste, opinions – and the basic education protocols are to have them leave that stuff outside the classroom. ‘Come in, empty your mind and we’re going to fill it with what we feel you need.’

“That’s what’s still going on. That’s how it was taught 100 years ago – 50 years ago – and it’s still going on now, and this is not going to be effective with this generation.”

At the end of Van Zandt’s visit to Beckmead, Kerniel can’t stop smiling. He wants to be an actor, he says. Was he nervous performing in front of such a legend? “When I saw Stevie, I thought – you know what? I can do this.”