Drayton Manor High School

Music is at the heart of our community. From twice-weekly keyboard sessions in the canteen to singing together in assembly, students experience the joy of making music as part of everyday school life. Within their very first term, Year 7 students step onto the stage for their concert debut, beginning a journey filled with regular performing opportunities. Our large summer festival, with multiple stages showcasing talent across the school, celebrates creativity and collaboration on a grand scale.

Our specialism is ensembles, and we work creatively to ensure that every student can access performing opportunities. Whether through choirs, bands, or collaborative projects, we provide high-quality, practical experiences that help students develop their skills as working musicians. This focus on ensemble music-making builds confidence, nurtures teamwork, and ensures that all students grow as performers while discovering the power of collective creativity.

Find out more: https://www.draytonmanorhighschool.co.uk/music.html

The Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls

Music is a huge part of school life here at EWS. All students in year 7 and 8 study Music before opting to choose it for GCSE, studying a broad and practically-focused curriculum. We have excellent music facilities including a brand new mac suite, two music classrooms and 6 dedicated practice rooms. We offer a broad range of extra-curricular musical opportunities for our students, including EWS orchestra, string orchestra, KS3 string quartet, KS4 string quartet, jazz band, big band, vocal ensemble, choir, and woodwind ensemble. We also have many students involved in rock and pop bands that they have put together themselves, receiving support from our guitar and drum tutor Mr. Murphy in dedicated drop in sessions.

We have over 250 students taking part in subsidized music lessons through our fantastic team of 8 peripatetic teachers, who also play a significant role in leading our musical ensembles. Students have termly performance opportunities through our winter, spring and summer recitals, both as soloists and as part of the ensembles. Students also have the opportunity to participate in our end of year Musical Theatre production, either as part of the cast, chorus or student orchestra. Our specialism as a lead school will therefore focus on establishing effective extra-curricular musical provision for pupils.

Find out more: https://www.ellenwilkinson.ealing.sch.uk/1418/music

Little Ealing Primary School

At Little Ealing, we want to inspire children to love, appreciate and take part in music. We want to challenge them to develop theirimagination and creativity, knowledge and skill – as they learn what it means to be a musician. At the same time, we strongly believe that music has a powerful role in fostering personal development and maturity, creating a sense of achievement and self-worth, and increasing pupils’ ability to work with others. To that end, we are committed to providing a rich and diverse musical experience to all pupils, both inside and outside the classroom.

Twyford C of E High School

Twyford C of E High School is renowned for its vibrant, high quality, and inclusive musical culture. From the moment students enter the school, they are immersed in an environment where music is celebrated, nurtured, and woven into the fabric of daily life: the music department works closely with other areas of the school, integrating music into assemblies, celebrations, and cross-curricular projects (all students at the Twyford Trust sing together in assembly every week, and every assembly has a musician/band performing).  Weekly year-group singing lessons in KS3 give students the opportunity to develop their singing skills and technique, and they perform as a year-group choir at least twice in public every year at our large-scale school concerts.

Music is inclusive, aspirational, diverse, and offers high quality musical experiences for ALL students which engender a life-long appreciation of, and love for music. We embrace the 10:10 ethic in our approach to learning; students are appropriately stretched / supported in the classroom; they achieve, or exceed, their potential, and are encouraged to make mistakes and learn from them.  At Twyford, we teach a skills-based music curriculum, designed to inspire creativity and confidence, offering a diverse range of musical styles and traditions and opening up progression to studying Music at KS4/5.

Students develop a sense of curiosity about music and are inspired and excited to learn about Music. They develop the ability to communicate, listen and collaborate in Music: working as individuals, in pairs and in groups and participate in community singing in assemblies and performances throughout the Trust.  Regular classroom activities include singing, instrumental work, composition, and music technology (we use Cubase, Sibelius and Musescore), ensuring that every student can find their niche and develop their skills. We offer two pathways at Key Stage 4 (GCSE Music (AQA), and BTEC Music Technology (Edexcel), and two at Key Stage 5 – A-Level Music (Edexcel) and A-Level Music Technology (Edexcel), and have strong numbers on all courses which buck the national averages (between 15-20 students on each KS5 course in each year, and 25-40 students at KS4).

10% of each year group are admitted on music places (including 6^th Form). These students both benefit from, and are integral to, the rich musical community and tradition we all enjoy and of which we are so proud.

As a Lead School for EMS, we will be leading on curriculum and transition, and are looking forward to working with local schools to develop aspirational and diverse music curriculums in their schools.

Find out more: https://twyford.org.uk/specialisms/music-specialism

West Twyford Primary School

We are a diverse and vibrant school community where 40+ different languages are spoken. Our school is 36% PPG, 25% Send and 72% EAL.

Our pupils learn to play musical instruments in a whole class setting. OFSTED noted: “There are high quality opportunities to support pupils’ wider development. All pupils in Years 3 to 6 learn musical instruments with opportunities to perform. Pupils follow an ambitious curriculum that reflects the scope of what is expected nationally.”

All of our pupils sing, both in their class settings, assemblies and concerts and we also have extra-curricular choirs for KS1 and KS2.

We regularly perform in music festivals outside of school and have been selected to perform in the Music For Youth National Festival 4 times. The Music For Youth Mentors said this about our performances:

“You sing with such joy! It’s clear that you have worked very hard on this. You follow your conductor so well. We could hear every word and the harmonies were great!”

As part of our role as a Lead School for Music we are happy to be able to offer advice and support for Music curriculum development, singing and performance at EYFS, KS1 and KS2.

Find out more: https://www.west-twyford.ealing.sch.uk/page/?title=Music&pid=45