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Classical musician James Rhodes is on a one-man mission to transform music education in primary schools. Janet Murray finds out why.

"Imagine if this was a PE class and instead of using footballs and rugby balls they made their own equipment. It just wouldn't happen in a million years," says the classical pianist and TV presenter James Rhodes in his new series Don't Stop the Music. He's standing in the hall at Roysia middle school in Hertfordshire watching pupils perform a number from the musical Stomp on improvised instruments which include laundry baskets, dustbin lids, margarine tubs and tin cans.

But as music teacher Amanda Mitchell points out, as she shows him the school instrument cupboard – which contains a broken cello, a trumpet, a few recorders and a set of tubular bells made out of copper piping – with a budget of only £2.20 per child for music, she just has to manage... Keep reading on The Guardian