Music

At the heart of Music at Harris Academy St. John’s Wood is the belief that ‘Music is for Everyone’. Our Music curriculum has been uniquely designed to offer every student the opportunity to find and develop their individual musical talents to the full. While exploring new styles of music, pupils will work on a wide range of practical activities that immerse them in music making to develop their performance, composition and listening/appraising skills. Incremental skill development is the central focus of our KS3 curriculum where our units are simply the vessel through which we consistently revisit skills to ensure fluency of musicianship. We want every student to feel confident in accessing Music beyond KS3 but this is not the sole purpose of our curricular and co-curricular offering. Our core mission is that students at HASJW develop a love of music. “The sheer joy of music making can feed the soul of a school community, enriching each student while strengthening the shared bonds of support and trust which make a great school.” Model Music Curriculum Complementing our curricular offering is our co-curricular programme. Rehearsals, performances, workshops, competitions and trips/visits are central to developing rounded young musicians equipped for music making in the 21st Century. We also offer a peripatetic programme where students have the opportunity to receive 1-1 or small group lessons on a chosen instrument.

Throughout key stage three, students develop their performance, composition and listening skills through exploration of a variety of topics and genres of music. This includes traditional classical music, current popular music, the history and evolution of blues music, music from around the world such as reggae and film music to name a few. Each of these topics provides students with an insight into the key features of these styles, the history and context of them and gives students the skills needed to perform and compose in these styles. These practical based lessons teach students about the key elements of music such as melody, harmony and rhythm etc. Additionally, students have the opportunity to use our recording studio and learn how to record and mix their own music. This well-rounded curriculum gives students an insight into the varied and complex world of music which is planned to develop their understanding, passion and drive to be successful in the subject. 

GCSE Music offers a great blend of practical, theoretical and technological study. Students will continue to master skills in performance and composition alongside developing their musical knowledge and theory from four Areas of Study (AOS). By the end of Year 11 Students have achieved a well-rounded knowledge and experience of music, allowing them to either take music further in an education setting or direct into the industry as a performer or composer.

Instrumental lessons: We offer individual music lessons on the following instruments:

• Piano
• Guitar
• Bass Guitar
• Singing
• Drum Kit
• Violin
• Viola

Extra-curricular : As well as an annual Musical and concerts throughout the year, we offer the following clubs weekly:

• Year 7 Band
• Duke of Edinburgh award music club
• Arabic Music Club
• The Abbey Road Ensemble (Advanced Band)
• K-Pop appreciation society 
• Strings Club
• Friday Jamming (run with the SEN department)

The department contains 5 practice rooms for student use, a recording studio, and music suite where peripatetic instrument lessons are held.

Careers in music are explored throughout the curriculum where individual roles and organisations are referred to in practical and theory-based lessons. Professionals are invited in to give talks about their roles and responsibilities within the industry and are interviewed by our students. There is a huge range of careers available in music, which range from performing to other music related roles such as a stage runner for live events.

WJEC Eduqas GCSE (9-1) in Music