Music

Subject intent

Every student will be a leader in their chosen field, with many choosing to be leaders in STEM. At HSAEL, we believe in leadership with GRACE. We enact this mission by developing growth, fostering a sense of responsibility, promoting ambition, encouraging compassion, and cultivating excellence. In addition, the goal at HSAEL is for all student to develop a love of music and grow as well-rounded musicians who are equipped for music making in the 21st Century.

Subject links to HSAEL values

It takes students out of their comfort zone (and show growth) by promoting the ability of our students to develop their practical, analytical, and compositional skills, regardless of the musical level they enter the school at.

It helps students tackle social injustice (and demonstrate responsibility) by taking responsibility for high quality performances by building the habits of practice and rehearsal.

It helps promote ambition by delivering a rigorous, academic curriculum containing not only practical exploration of music but also theory skills and higher-level musical terminology

It celebrates diversity (compassion) providing several extracurricular activities which promote participation between scholars and offering links with external elite-level groups through which our scholars can perform with people from outside their school community.

It helps students develop independence (excellence) by providing scholars with the cultural capital and knowledge they need to engage on an intellectual level with a range of musical concepts, periods, and styles.

Music is particularly important at HSAEL because it is a universal language, a medium of limitless power and regardless of who people are or where they come from, the opportunity to be able to access music in an area of high deprivation, with above-average levels of EAL youngsters and overall lack of cultural exposure, puts HSAEL at the forefront of nurturing real opportunity for all. Whatever a student aspires to musically speaking, our in-house curriculum and extended Harris Music network will help them to get there.

How does the study of Music link to future careers?

Music is widely accepted as a universal language, uniting people of all cultures. It is also challenging yet rewarding, in that it builds self-confidence, leadership skills and promotes good mental health. It offers clear transferrable and analytical skills through both independence and team work, nurturing a non-wavering sense of resilience. Out-with the obvious career in performing (e.g. in an orchestra or pop band) music offers a gateway into a plethora of different and varied careers. These include:-

• Teaching (peripatetic, secondary classroom, primary classroom)
• Music Therapy (could also be linked to the NHS)
• Composer (Classical, Film/TV, Gaming, Songwriting)
• Arts Administration
• Publishing
• Broadcasting
• The Record Industry
• Production
• Professional Organisations and/or Music Charities

How does Music link to the extra-curricular provision at HSAEL?

Co-curricular music is flexible and fluid, depending on main interests of our students each year. A staple diet on offer is always choir, violin ensemble and keyboard club. There are also ensembles for woodwind, brass and both Samba and African drumming. Performing opportunities are a-plenty, ranging from Rewards (and non-rewards) assemblies, concerts, Open Evenings to specific Harris Federation groups (e.g. choir and orchestra). Rewards trips also occur for those who have contributed to our array of musical enrichment (e.g. a backstage tour of the Barbican and trips to professional musical productions at the West End).