WILTSHIRE Music Service is back on track after an excellent Ofsted inspection report.

The county music service hit the headlines for the wrong reasons in April 2001 when it appointed Anthony Briggs as its head but sacked him after it learned of allegations that he dealt in Internet porn at his previous post in Salford.

Valerie Hayward became head in December 2001 and she and her team are now celebrating the Ofsted report, which said the quality of tuition is very good.

The report said: "The Wiltshire Music Service is well managed. It is highly regarded and valued by the schools it serves.

"There is a wide ranging and focused programme of continuing professional development, determined appropriately by the needs of individual members of staff and the music service as a whole."

The inspectors also praised the quality of the ensembles in the county, which were described as very good and some as outstanding.

The inspectors also said curriculum support is very good and praised recently introduced projects including a composition project in which school pupils compose their own soundtrack to a story.

Since Mrs Hayward's arrival the number of youngsters being taught by tutors from the county music service has grown by more than 1,000 to more than 6,000.

The number of groups has also grown by three to 32. One of the new groups is the Wiltshire Youth Jazz Orchestra and the established groups include the Wiltshire and Swindon Youth Orchestra.

Orchestra member Shula Barnes, 17, a pupil at The John Bentley School, Calne, took up playing the cello when she was offered lessons from the county music service at the age of six.

She said: "Having the chance to learn the cello has given me the opportunity to discover something I really, really love.

"If I had not been asked 'do you want to play the cello?' I would not have discovered it at all. Music now really means an awful lot to me."

Mrs Hayward, who in her youth was a professional cellist, said the success of the county music service was not all down to her.

She said: "The Ofsted report shows that the tutors and students have a lot to be proud about.

"When I came into the post the staff that were here had been doing an amazing job keeping everything together in the service.

"Before I came in there had been' a good two years without anybody at the helm, with a short term appointment in the middle and the service needed direction.

"I spent a lot of time consolidating what was going on and talking to schools and helping to win back their trust.

"I got to know the schools and what their needs were and gaining their trust."

Mrs Hayward is already looking to the future and hopes to encourage more youngsters to start playing an instrument.

The service has now got a curriculum progress study plan so all pupils get the same quality of tuition.

The service has also appointed a music therapist to work in the county's special schools.

Music therapy has been recognised as helping children with profound learning difficulties to communicate.

One of the service's most exciting projects is to get youngsters singing.

A vocal animateur has been appointed and she is working with primary schools with 100 pupils or less.

The project will culminate in a singing festival in June at the Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford on Avon.

Mrs Hayward said: "I would really like the county of Wiltshire to be a singing county.

"I want to develop singing in schools because this is how anyone can get involved in music at any time.

"Everybody has a voice and it's fundamental to how we express ourselves."