THE STANWAY SCHOOL
TEACHER OF MUSIC
An enthusiastic, inspirational and hardworking teacher of music is required to start in 2018. The suitable candidate will need to be able to teach music lessons across the age and ability range (years 7 to 11), as well as being committed to the extra-curricular life of the department.
With the construction of our exciting new Music department due for completion in September 2018, we continue to expand our provision and maintain good uptake at GCSE.
In years 7 and 8, Music is taught 1 hour per week and, at GCSE, 5 hours fortnightly. At GCSE level, students are studying the Eduqas course which allows a broad depth of musical study through Performance, Composition and Appraising. Students are given opportunities to go on trips to watch concerts and shows, both local and national and we have good connections with local colleges.
The Music department may be relatively small (at the moment!), however, there are a host of extra-curricular activities including Stanway Singers and Orchestra. In addition, there are string and guitar groups for beginners. Every break and lunchtime, the department opens its doors to a number of students who try out instruments, ask to learn their favourite pieces or like to have informal jam sessions. Over the last three years, the number of students taking one-to-one lessons has increased massively, and the diversity of instruments is encouraging – we have several violinists, trumpeters as well as a double bass and an oboist!
Last year we put on the full-scale musical production, We Will Rock You, and this has led to a big uptake for our current musical in development, Oliver! due to be performed in March 2018. Our orchestra and singers take part in the annual Colchester Schools Prom concert, alongside our Christmas concert and summer outdoor Arts festival StanFest.
We are very well resourced and have two large, spacious classrooms, each with dedicated music software (Cubase Elements 8), USB piano keyboards, class sets of guitars, ukuleles, violins and more. Our curriculum aims to make musical as practical as possible, with singing and instrumental work the main focus, alongside the theory. We use Google Classroom as a powerful tool to distribute resources, set homework and encourage collaboration between students.
The department is a lively, hard-working and dedicated group of musicians who work well as part of a team. We are committed to raising achievement further and have high expectations of our students. We look forward to welcoming a new colleague in 2018