This is about what we teach in lesson time, how much time is spent teaching music and any music qualifications or awards that pupils can achieve.

Pupils receive one hour of classroom music per week throughout Key Stage 3, three hours of classroom music per week at Key Stage 4 (GCSE Music) and five hours of classroom music per week at Key Stage 5 (A-Level Music and A-Level Music Technology).

Some aspects of the model music curriculum (published by the department of education in March 2021) have been included when planning the Key Stage 3 curriculum, but partly due to the availability of ICT in the department, there is a greater emphasis on the use of this within composition work and on composition in general.

At Key Stage 3 pupils focus on developing keyboard skills and their ability to use sequencing software to compose their own music.  This also relates to the school’s vision of instilling a love and passion for creative learning in pupils. They also develop ensemble skills, learn about staff notation and develop their use of musical terminology and their ability to describe the music that they hear. 

Pupils are able to study GCSE Music in Years 10 and 11 and A-level Music and A-level Music Technology in Years 12 and 13.

These courses allow pupils to continue to develop performance skills (both as a soloist and in ensembles), composition skills and listening and appraising.  They will develop an increasing ability to analyse the music that they hear in detail and describe it using a broad and sophisticated musical vocabulary. 

We aim for all pupils to be in a position to choose GCSE Music as an option, whether or not they’ve received instrumental/vocal lessons in or out of school.

Throughout Key Stages 3, 4 and 5 the department ensures that the work of a wide variety of musicians, working in a number of different genres, is studied, again in correlation with the school’s vision of a broad and relevant curriculum.

Those learning instruments in school with Redbridge Music Service also have the option of taking graded exams on these instruments, either using the music service’s exam system or with other exam boards such as Trinity College of Music or Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM).

This is about opportunities for pupils to sing and play music, outside of lesson time, including choirs, ensembles and bands, and how pupils can make progress in music beyond the core curriculum.

Instrumental tuition on all orchestral woodwind, string and brass instruments, as well as guitar, piano and drum kit is offered through Redbridge Music Service.  Pupils eligible for the pupil premium and/or free school meals have their tuition fees subsidised by the school.

The department offers a range of ensembles that are freely available to pupils in all year groups.  These include a string group, a woodwind ensemble, a brass group, a jazz band, two choirs and a steel pan group.  The department also stages musicals with the dance and drama departments, which again are all freely available to pupils and open to all year groups.

Pupils are also encouraged to make use of practice rooms and classrooms in their breaktimes, lunchtimes, free periods (sixth-form pupils) and after school to write their own music, practice their instruments, prepare classroom performances and form bands.

The music department puts on two concerts each year, towards the end of the autumn term and summer term.  In the spring term, either a musical is staged with the dance and drama department, or we take part in the bi-annual Redbridge Choral Festival at the Royal Albert Hall.  This spring we staged a very successful production of ‘Our House’, a musical based on the life and music of ‘Madness’, which involved over 100 pupils.

In addition to this, additional performances in the local community often take place, such as the school jazz band performing at Our Lady of Lourdes school summer fayre in June 2026 and the school Key Stage 3 choir performing at the opening of the Christmas Lights on Wanstead Green in December 2026.  Bands and solo singers perform at events such as the school’s Culture Day, which takes place in July each year.

In addition to this, regular performances of music take place in achievement assemblies at the end of each half-term, as well as open days, welcome evenings and transition day concerts for new pupils.

Pupils taking music in Years 10-13 are sometimes taken to professional concerts where set works are being performed.

The school is taking part in the ‘Orchestras for all’ project that is being co-ordinated locally by Redbridge Music Service.  This will culminate in a performance at the Redbridge Choral Festival in March 2027.  We will also be taking a choir to this event and will aim to involve at least sixty pupils from the school in this.

We are keen to continue to increase the number of pupils taking GCSE Music, A-level Music and A-level Music Technology and will be actively promoting these courses to pupils during this academic year.  We will be developing a new A-level Music course based on the AQA specification.

We are also keen to increase the general number of pupils taking part in extracurricular music, both in a formal and informal way, and in particular to increase the number of disadvantaged pupils participating in these.