What makes us passionate about our subject? (Intent)

Music is both a familiar, common, life experience and yet a relief from the educational norm.  It promotes cohesion and unity; a sense of community.  It is an essential part of society and the way we interact and socialise, yet it is equally personal, enabling individual expression and identity.  Our aim is for students to expand their own selves musically and to develop a relationship with musical experiences that are both familiar and unfamiliar.

Music is often a safe haven, a place of self-expression, passion and an emotional outlet promoting resilience and self-esteem.  It can be an area of the curriculum that allows students to discover their strengths and talents and to truly excel within the subject.  Like other Arts subjects, Music embodies a huge variety of different skill sets.  It is creative, expressive, emotional and stimulating, yet it is also practical, theoretical, intellectual and logical.  Music encourages well rounded individuals.  It encompasses creativity, performance, listening, composing, analysis, essay writing, dictation, imagination, improvisation, communication, expression, independence, cohesion, entertainment, reflection, release, identity, passion, freedom and much more.

The high profile of music allows the subject to stretch well beyond the classroom, supporting the wider Academy and community through extracurricular activities, events and performances.  Music is enjoyable and resonates with areas of the mind and emotions that are otherwise barely touched.  It is unique and expressive; the emotional heart of education, creating empathy without the need for words.

What do our students gain by studying our subject? (Impact)

In the classroom, students actively engage in musical opportunities, ensuring it does not remain a purely passive experience.  The study of Music develops a broad range of transferable skills as well as providing many cross-curricular links.  Music helps students explore a range of emotions with obvious mental health benefits, promoting well-being and resilience.  An experience rich with different challenges and appeal, students grow as individuals, developing their own skills, talents, interests and creativity, often feeling excitement and joy at having created something from scratch that they are proud of and can call entirely their own.  Musical training helps develop areas of the brain related to language and reasoning, increasing IQ and spatial-temporal skills, facilitating learning in other subjects.  Music helps develop social identity and builds relationships through the experience of sharing and participation.  The variety of performing, composing and analytical skills required in Music can have a huge impact on self-confidence, promoting a feeling of pride in achieving something that takes practice, commitment, perseverance and resilience; all skills that will help in future life experiences.

Music Curriculum and Assessment

GCSE

At GCSE we follow the Eduqas Music GCSE course.

To visit the examination board website click Here

A-Level

At A level (Eduqas), the majority of students achieve a grade B or above.  We are proud to mention that several of our Music A Level students have gone on to study Music at Cambridge University and one to Oxford.

To visit the examination board website click Here