Music
Music Scholarship Programme
St Paul's Way Trust School's Music Scholarship Programme has now been well-established as a community scholarship for over a decade. In each year group up to 12 scholarship places can be awarded to Year 6 students based on their natural music aptitude.
Music in the Curriculum
Music is a core part of our curriculum. To find more about our curricular offer, click here.
Extra-curricular offer
The co-curricular music enrichment at SPWT is second to none; there are opportunities for all students in a wide variety of musical styles and experiences. All ensembles and clubs are available to every student whether a beginner or an accomplished instrumentalist.
The music department is open to students for independent work or clubs and activities before school, at break time, at lunchtime and after school so there is plenty of opportunity for students to be creative every day.
Students can make their own bands from scratch with support from staff or learn how to record and produce music in the 'Music Tech Club' in addition to being part of an annual musical, a symphony orchestra, a choir, and attend performances and workshops across the capital.
The music department is very inclusive and would encourage all students to come and try whatever takes their fancy.
There are 20+ performances of different sizes across the year, from ‘Informal Recital’ events for soloists at all stages and ‘Open Mics’, to two large school concerts in December and March, two ‘showcase’ events collaborating with drama and dance, and our annual school musical. We are lucky to have a fully-equipped theatre with professional lighting and 250 seats, enabling pupils to have exciting performance opportunities on-site, as well as visiting venues across the capital.
Trips and partnerships
Within our enrichment offer we try to immerse our young musicians in various performance and audience experiences as frequently as possible. Trips have included performance opportunities at prestigious venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Southwark Cathedral and Evolutionary Arts Hackney, as well as community music performances at the Royal London Hospital. Annual trips to see the wealth of music on our doorstep in London have included to Ronnie Scott’s, Barbican and Royal Festival Hall, as well as to theatre productions of Wicked and performances of film screenings with live orchestra.
Our partnerships enable pupils to work with professional musicians across a range of genres, including weekly samba drumming sessions with Drumworks and Tabla lessons through the World Heartbeat Foundation. Further partnerships include:
Instrumental Programme
Learning a musical instrument builds confidence and gives students opportunities to perform and express themselves in new ways. Studies consistently show that it can also enhance academic performance, with positive effects on literacy, numeracy and overall attainment.
At SPWT, the instrumental tuition offer is second to none. All orchestral instruments are catered for and there is breadth in other genres as required. These include jazz, folk, popular styles and world music. Tower Hamlets Arts and Music Education Service (you can also follow them on Twitter) provide most of our instrumental teachers, and we are proud to have a great relationship with the borough service. THAMES also host their Saturday Music Centre at SPWT and many of our students attend this on Saturday mornings.
Instrumental tuition is heavily subsidised for all students and no prior experience of playing an instrument is required. Lesson charges start at £3.04 per lesson. Music scholars and GCSE/A-Level music students receive funded tuition.
All instrumental lessons are provided during the school day and run on a rotating timetable once a week. Instrumentalists are encouraged to join a range of ensembles to supplement their tuition, including brass ensemble, woodwind ensemble and string ensemble.
In lessons, students work towards ABRSM examination grades, and these contribute to UCAS points, which strengthens students' university applications.
Students can choose from the following instruments:
- Woodwind: Flute, Clarinet, Saxophone, Oboe
- Brass: Trumpet, Horn, Trombone, Euphonium/Tuba
- Strings: Violin, Cello
- Keyboard & Percussion: Piano, Drum Kit
- Guitar & Bass: Guitar, Bass Guitar
- Voice
If your child is interested in taking lessons this year, please complete this form as soon as possible.
Please see here for further details about instrumental tuition, including the charging structure for lessons.
For any questions, please email Ms Zoë Miara at ZMiara@spwt.net
