A professional body for musicians has launched a campaign for music to be included in the new English Baccalaureate (EBac).

The Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM) says it has been contacted by members who claim music is already being sidelined as headteachers scramble to increase attainment in the new portfolio of the Government’s most favoured GCSE subjects.

The ISM is asking its members and all those working in the music sector to write to the Commons education select committee, urging education secretary Michael Gove to include music in the EBac.

ISM president Professor Gavin Henderson, principal of the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, said: “Music is a rigorous, academically challenging GCSE subject covering, in itself, a broad range of disciplines.

“The decision to exclude it from the English Baccalaureate is short-sighted and risks undermining the place of music in our education. The creative and cultural sector will be put at risk if this decision is not reversed.”

The ISM has also found that music in schools is overwhelmingly supported by the public. A recent YouGov poll it commissioned showed that 97 per cent of adults think children should be taught music in schools.

The recent Henley review of music education, carried out for the Government, has already recommended that music should be part of the EBac.

Template letters addressed to the education select committee are available at www.ism.org and must be received by the committee by 8 March.