Trustees' Annual Report for the period From Period start date To Period end date 18 Sept 2024 17 Sept 2025 Section A Reference and administration details Charity name Raised by Music Other names charity is known by n/a Registered charity number (if any) 1206739 Charity's principal address 82 Ellison Road London Postcode SW16 5DD
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
Dates acted if not for whole Name of person (or body) entitled to Trustee name Office (if any) year appoint trustee (if any) 1 Rosemary Kilian Founder, trustee Full year 2 Suzette Coleman Trustee Full year Appointed by founder 3 James Sleigh Trustee Full year Appointed by founder 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20
Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)
| Name | Dates acted if not for whole year |
|---|---|
| n/a |
Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
| Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) | Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) | Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) |
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| Type of adviser Name Address |
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| n/a | ||
Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information) n/a
Section B Structure, governance and management
Description of the charity’s trusts
| Type of governing document (eg. trust deed, constitution) How the charity is constituted (eg. trust, association, company) Trustee selection methods (eg. appointed by, elected by) |
Foundation model constitution |
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Charitable Incorporated Organisation |
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Invited by founder |
Additional governance issues (Optional information)
You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:
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policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
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the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
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relationship with any related parties;
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trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.
Raised by Music is a small new charity – work on establishing the charity began in September 2023 and we began providing free instrumental tuition, instruments and daily supervised practice sessions to an initial pilot programme of seven children who attend Immanuel and St Andrew (ISA) Primary School in January 2024. The charity was officially registered with the charities commission on 26[th] January 2024 and registered its first annual return for the period to September 23rd 2024. This is our second annual return, covering 18 September 2024 to 17 September 2025.
The founder of the charity, Rosie Kilian, appointed two additional trustees as a requirement of establishing a registered charity. Trustees were approached on the basis of their expertise in primary education (Suzette Coleman, headteacher of ISA) and in string teaching and music education (James Sleigh, Professor at Royal Academy of Music). Suzette and James have confirmed that they are willing to continue as trustees of the charity for a further year.
The charity is now coming up to two years old. Though it is small, it has roughly doubled in size since last year with an annual budget of just over £25,000 (meaning that for the first time we need to have our accounts independently examined).
Prior to appointment, Trustees signed the statutory Trustee declaration form and were provided with the projected finances of the charity and the charity commission’s personal information charter as well as the charity’s foundation constitution. Trustees have signed the ‘fit and proper persons’ declaration form in connection with applying for charitable tax status.
Due to the fact that the charity works with children, trustees were subject to enhanced DBS checks. Trustees were provided with information on the charity commission’s safeguarding guidance and a copy of Raised by Music’s safeguarding policy, developed in collaboration with the designated safeguarding lead at ISA, our first ‘host school’. All tutors participate in bespoke in person safeguarding training at ISA and must refresh this annually at a minimum. (Latest training was January 2025, next planned for November 6th 2025).
Our governance structure remains simple. We are not officially connected with any other charities or business organisations, though we continue to build our network of organisations that have similar. Music Masters, World Heartbeat and Brixton Chamber Orchestra helped us reach a diverse field of applicants in last year’s recruitment campaign and London Youth Choirs kindly advised us on fundraising, including recommending a fundraising consultant who worked with us to run a successful fundraising campaign for our second cohort. We were delighted with the invitation for our first cohort to participate in a concert organised by music charity Water City.
Section C Objectives and activities
| Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit) |
The object of Raised by Music, a charitable incorporated organisation, as set out in its governing document is: ‘For the public benefit, to provide high quality music education and instruments to children attending primary school in Lambeth who are from backgrounds currently under-represented in classical music, in particular but not exclusively by; - Providing instruments, sheet music and accessories free of charge to participating children - Providing 1:1 instrumental tuition to participating children free of charge - Providing supervised instrumental practice sessions and group musicianship sessions to participating children - Organising performance opportunities for participating children - Organising trips to see live music events for participating children |
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| The main activities undertaken this year by Raised by Music have been: - Provision of free weekly 30 minute violin lessons to participating children - Provision of free violins, accessories and sheet music to the participating children - Provision of 20 minute 1:1 daily supervised practice sessions to the participating children - Entry of children to Trinity Initial Grade public examinations - Organised Christmas concert and fundraising bake sale for participating children and wider school community - Organised performances at school’s weekly assembly - Entry of children to Trinity Grade 1 public examination - Organised summer concert for participating children and wider school community - Fundraising for a second cohort of Raised by Music scholars |
Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)
You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:
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policy on grantmaking;
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policy programme related investment;
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contribution made by volunteers.
Section D Achievements and performance
Achievements of the charity during the year Summary of the main achievements of the charity The charity continues to meet its objectives with the majority of during the year participating children making excellent progress on their instruments. Our first major success of this reporting year was the children’s first public exam - the 5 children following our main programme (2 participating children with SEND were following an adapted programme) took their Trinity Initial grade exam in November 2024, obtaining a 100% distinction rate. We were incredibly proud of them! Following this success we collaborated with music leads at our host school to organise an enjoyable Christmas concert and fundraising bake sale, which was well attended by the wider school community (audience approx 100). In preparation for this our children performed their pieces to the entire school (approx 400 pupils) during weekly assemblies. Our assistant tutor began offering 1:1 tuition to children from the wider school this year. This is independent from Raised by Music, but is one way in which we have been able to have a wider impact in our host schools. 8 children are now learning the violin as a result of our presence in our host school, in addition to the 7 participating in Raised by Music. The 5 children following the main programme have had further exam success this year, sitting their grade 1 exams in April (3 pupils) and June (2) pupils. We were again delighted to receive 60% distinction outcomes. We were very pleased to learn that our host school would be able to offer the space for us to start a second cohort of pupils hosted at ISA from January 2026 and so we have been busy fundraising to offer a further 7 scholarships from January 2026. At the time of writing this report we have had £17,000 of our target £24,000 committed which means the first year of tuition for our second cohort will certainly be viable. These are our most directly measurable outcomes, but we see every day the way in which the individual lessons transform children’s mood and confidence, and the satisfaction they get every time they work out the next section of a piece and achieve something that, 20 minutes ago, seemed impossible. We are steadily gathering video footage showing the children’s rapid technical and musical progress. Esther Cavett (senior research fellow at Kings College London and lecturer in music, Oxford University) said “What you’re up to at Raised by Music is something rather different. Because of the quality of your teaching, you offer a real chance to your students of progressing to play professionally.” Areas for improvement/ development and lessons learned
Section D Achievements and performance
It hasn’t all been plain sailing and our annual trustees meeting and this report is a good opportunity to also reflect on the challenges we have faced, the changes we have made to the original concept and the lessons we have learned.
Because of the small size of the cohort and the fact that this report is available publicly we will not reflect at length on individual participants, however, one child from our initial cohort has decided not to continue this year, meaning that our ‘cohort 1’ will continue with 6 participants rather than 7. As the children grow and their concentration span becomes longer, the afternoon session available to us to teach the children (2 ½ hours) feels squeezed for teaching 7 children, so we will continue with 6 participants in our first group, giving each child 25 minutes for their supervised practice session instead of 20 (weekly 1:1 lessons continue to be 30 minutes). For future cohorts, we think that recruiting 7 children still remains appropriate - in the initial year of teaching 15-20 minutes’ daily practice is adequate and it seems reasonable to expect that, on average, in future cohorts one child may not decide to continue through the full 4 ½ years of the programme.
We have also been working on developing our approach to behaviour management, identifying that this is not necessarily an area where string educators have had a lot of training and that failure to consistently follow tutor instructions promptly and with full focus presents a risk to children’s learning. We have developed a ‘toolkit’ of ways for managing behaviour positively (expectations clearly displayed, the ‘talent mountain’, sticker charts) and have organised a CPD session for our tutors on the school’s behaviour management framework so that music tutors can use a language that is consistent with wider school behavioural expectations.
As mentioned in last year’s report we have continued to find that the balance of responsibilities between lead and assistant tutor is more heavily weighted towards the assistant than imagined in the original concept. Because the assistant works with the children every day, in practice the assistant often feels like the person with primary responsibility for the children’s development, and requires a high degree of maturity and interpersonal skill. For this reason we have decided to restructure for our next cohort. Rather than having a ‘lead’ and ‘assistant’ tutor with the lead visiting once per week to do the children’s weekly 1:1 and the assistant supervising practice, we will have a single violin tutor who works with the children every day (this may also be structured as a job share) at a higher hourly rate of pay, reflecting the maturity and experience we think is required for this position.
Rather than then having another tutor coming in each week for ‘weekly 1:1s’ we will organise masterclasses/ CPD events for our tutors as budgets allow, for example by inviting a leading string educator to visit and observe sessions on one day, giving feedback, and on the next day to teach and be observed by the Raised by Music tutor. We will also offer
Section D Achievements and performance
tutors the opportunity to be paid their usual hourly rate to go and observe other string educators in action at their usual place of teaching.
This will mean that we are able to offer a higher hourly rate to our daily violin tutors (£36/hour) without increasing the overall ‘core’ tuition budget by a great deal (approx £2,000 per year) but, as budgets allow, will be able to continue to offer our tutors CPD opportunities and the benefits of learning from other experienced string educators.
Risks
With our new higher rate for the ‘daily’ tutor, we no longer feel that retention of assistant/ daily tutors (flagged as our most significant risk in last year’s report) is a significant risk.Tutors are reporting high job satisfaction and enjoying the fact that the children make such rapid progress with their daily supervised practice sessions compared to other pupils they teach where practice between lessons may be minimal or ineffective. Tutors also appreciate the flexibility we offer (through our pool of ‘cover’ tutors) to accept performance opportunities as they come up.
As discussed above, we have identified that any emerging behavioural issues represent a significant risk to children’s learning and so behaviour management (wherever possible using positive tools and remaining sensitive to the fact that participating children may have significant social/ emotional needs) needs to be a greater focus of our CPD offering. We are lucky enough to be extremely well supported in our current host school who have offered to lead a training session on this.
As identified in last year’s report, a further key risk is that pupils’ musical journey ends when they leave the programme at the end of year 6. We will not be able to continue to deliver daily supervised practice sessions during the week once children disband to different secondary schools. To mitigate this we will work with parents/ carers to try to secure music scholarships/ bursaries for participants at excellent secondary schools so that their musical journey continues to be supported, and will transition in the last year of the programme to give a much greater focus to ‘teaching independent practice’, organisational skills and work with parents/ carers.
Another risk identified last year was the risk involved in accepting children with more complex needs into the programme. Though the potential rewards are extremely high in some cases, we do want to ensure that we target the available funding towards children who are likely to get the most benefit from the specialist skills our tutors are able to offer. We have a philosophy of non-exclusion of children once they have started the programme, which means careful consideration needs to be given at the pupil recruitment stage (planned for December 2025 for our January 2026 cohort).
Section D Achievements and performance
We will also continue to reflect on the connection between behaviour outside of instrumental lessons and participation in the programme. We firmly believe that children who exhibit behavioural issues in a whole class setting may thrive in 1:1 instrumental tuition, and the nature of our programme means that participating children have an above average likelihood of having additional social and emotional needs. However, we also need to reflect on whether one role of ‘scholars’ in the wider community of our host school should be to set a good example, and on potential risks to our organisation’s reputation of recommending children e.g. for scholarships or bursaries for their onward musical journey, if they cannot be relied upon to exhibit behaviours in line with a host school’s values.
Our first cohort has ‘ringfenced’ and guaranteed funding for the life of the programme (a further 3 years), however, at the time of writing we have raised only funds to guarantee the first year’s tuition of our second cohort. We will need to continue to fund raise throughout the life of the second cohort to fund its subsequent years. We will manage expectations of parents/ carers and pupils at the recruitment stage that there remains a risk that tuition does not continue beyond the first year, but we will be energetic and resourceful in continuing our fundraising efforts for this second group and beyond.
Plans for the future
In terms of our immediate plans for our first cohort, we are excited that our children have been invited to perform at a ‘Water City’ Concert in central London on 9th October. The children will also be representing the school by performing at a school open morning that day. Later in the term we will be organising a Christmas concert and the children will be performing on their violins with the wider school at the Christmas carol concert. Our pupils will start to sit their Grade 2 exams - we expect these to take place between December 2025 (those who are ready early) and June 2026. We will also be turning our attention to pupils’ secondary transfer targets in the new year, discussing with parents’ carers what the options could be for continuing a financially supported instrumental education beyond the end of this programme as they move to secondary school, and what the steps over the next 2-3 years would be to ensure this.
For our second cohort (starting in January 2026) we will be recruiting pupils in December 2025, on the basis of simple musical aptitude tests (aural and rhythm) and in discussions with our host school as to which children would be likely to benefit from the programme most/ would otherwise be unlikely to access a high quality instrumental education. We are extremely fortunate in having recruited a very well qualified ‘main tutor’ for this cohort, Tansy Garrod, and will be running a recruitment campaign to find additional cover tutors to undertake daily teaching if main daily tutors are offered orchestral work or tours.
Section D Achievements and performance
As per the new structure of ‘main tutor plus masterclasses’ we will also turn our attention to organising masterclasses and CPD events. Energetic fundraising efforts will continue to secure the funds for the tuition for the second cohort’s subsequent years (January ‘27 to June ‘30) and we will be looking for opportunities to secure multi-year or larger grants that would enable us to start expanding into other local ‘host’ schools.
Section E Financial review
The charity is extremely small and as such does not yet hold reserves or Brief statement of the have a reserves policy. All our funds are channelled directly towards charity’s policy on reserves tuition of our existing cohort of pupils and our next cohort due to start in January 2026. Details of any funds materially n/a in deficit
Further financial review details (Optional information)
Please see attached financial report. You may choose to include additional information, where During this financial year we have again had a single main source of relevant about: funds from an individual donor who has committed £20,000 annually over ● the charity’s principal 5 years to fund our first ‘pilot’ cohort of pupils throughout their whole time sources of funds (including with the programme. We also raised £460 with our Christmas concert any fundraising); ‘JustGiving’ appeal towards funding tuition for the first year of our second ● how expenditure has cohort. supported the key objectives of the charity; We have been busy this year making applications to trusts and grant ● investment policy and giving bodies to fund our second cohort. During the financial year objectives including any covered in this report we had had £12,250 committed for cohort 2 but not ethical investment policy yet transferred, and had an additional approx. £40,000 of funding adopted. applications for our second cohort submitted and pending outcomes. Our expenditure this financial year for cohort 1 has totalled £20,824, the vast majority of which (£19,107 or 92%) has been directly for tutor fees for 1:1 lessons with the children. We also spent £1,250 (5 days@ £250/ day or 6% of total expenditure) on outsourcing some of our fundraising for cohort 2 to an experienced fundraising consultant. Our costs are otherwise minimal with small costs incurred for bank service charges, instrument and public liability insurance, DBS certification, exam entry fees and instruments/ accessories/ sheet music.
Once cohort 2 has started in January 2026 we will continue to fundraise for the second and subsequent years of their tuition as our first priority. If we are able to secure any larger or multi-year grants, the next stage would be further expansion (either through further cohorts in our current host school if the required physical space becomes available or through expansion into other local primary schools).
We do not have investment funds.
Section F Other optional information
Section G Declaration
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
Signature(s) R. Kilian Full name(s) Rosemary Kilian Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc) Founder, trustee Trustees Date 1/12/2025
| Charity Name | No (if any) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raised by Music | 1206739 | ||||
| Receipts andpayments accounts | CC16a | ||||
| For the period from |
Period start date 18/09/2024 |
To | Period end date 17/09/2025 |
| Section A Receipts and payments | Section A Receipts and payments | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Receipts | Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ 25,220 461 - - - - - - 25,681 - - - 25,681 5,918 13,189 25 77 58 1,250 64 137 106 20,824 543 - 543 21,367 4,314 - 50 4,364 |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
Total funds to the nearest £ 25,220 461 - - - - - - 25,681 - - - 25,681 5,918 13,189 25 77 58 1,250 64 137 106 20,824 543 - 543 21,367 4,314 |
Last year to the nearest £ |
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| Donations | 25,220 | 12,110 | ||||
| Fundraising | 461 | - | ||||
| - | - | |||||
| - | - | |||||
| - | - | |||||
| - | - | |||||
| - | - | |||||
| - | - | |||||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) |
25,681 |
12,110 | ||||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
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| - | ||||||
| - | - | |||||
| ~~Sub total~~ | - | - | ||||
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
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| 12,110 | ||||||
| Lead tutor fees | 5,918 | 2,340 | ||||
| Assistant tutor fees | 13,189 | 7,794 | ||||
| Instrument insurance | 25 | 25 | ||||
| Bank service charges | 77 | 36 | ||||
| DBS certification | 58 | 147 | ||||
| Freelance fundraisingconsultant | 1,250 | - | ||||
| Public LiabilityInsurance | 64 | - | ||||
| instrument repairs sheet music and accessories |
137 | - | ||||
| exam entry | 106 | - | ||||
| **Sub total ** | 20,824 | 10,342 | ||||
| A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
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puchase of violins |
543 | 1,820 | ||||
| - | ||||||
| **Sub total ** | 543 | 1,820 | ||||
| Total payments Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end |
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| 12,162 | ||||||
| 4,314 | - | - | 4,314 | - 52 | ||
| - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 50 | - | - | 50 | 102 | ||
| 4,364 | - | - | 4,364 | 50 |
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
09/02/2026
1
| Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B1 Cash funds |
Details Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Details Details 12 Stohr Novara violin sets Details Signature Rosemary Kilian |
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - 4,364 - OK OK Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) 2,426 - - - - - - - - Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) - - - - - Print Name ROSEMARY KILIAN |
Endowment funds to nearest £ |
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| OK | |||
| Endowment funds to nearest £ |
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| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
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| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
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| 1,500 | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| When due (optional) |
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| Date of approval |
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| Rosemary Kilian | ROSEMARY KILIAN | ||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
09/02/2026
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CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to tha trusteèsl membors of Raised by Music On accounts for the yr ended 1710912025 Charity no {if any) 1206739 Sot out on pages I report to the thjstees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (Ihe Trust.) for the year ended 17 109 12025. Responslbllltles and As the charity tNstees of the Trust. you are responsible for th8 preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 nhe Acr). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out undèr seclion 145 of the 2011 Act and in carying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Direction8 given by the Charrty Commission under seclion 145{5)(b) of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confim that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believ8 that in, any material respect: accounting records were not kept in accordance wtlh section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord wtth the accounting records Independent examiner's statsment I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to vthith attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Pleas8 delete the words in the brackets rf they do not apply. Slgnod: DI/Dz/iD2 Name: Georgina Rolling$ Relevant professlonal quallflcationls) or body (if any>: FCA Address: Stathsh A¢¢ounting 3rd Floor. 25-29 Queen Street Maidenhead, SL6 1NB IER October 2018