Head of Music at

Full-time, permanent, non-residential position for September 2024 or January 2025.

The Music department at More House School transforms the lives of very many of our pupils. Young boys who arrive at our School with very little self-esteem experience exceptional opportunities, discovering their hidden natural aptitudes across all musical genres, empowering their confidence and self-belief.

Following the department's incredible success under the leadership of Mark Place over more than two decades, we seek an inspirational Head of Music to deliver transformative experiences for our pupils. Likely to hold particular experience and interests in jazz, musical theatre and music technology, our new Head of Music will be innovative in supporting children, who find learning difficult, to find their musical strengths, and will complement the skills of the existing departmental staff team.

A beacon of best-practice in aspiration for children and young people with literacy and language-related learning weaknesses, and with excellent facilities, the More House Music department has performed on various international tours and local stages, boasting a large number of ensembles including an acclaimed jazz band, brass ensemble, concert band, chapel choir, junior band, woodwind group and senior choir. Class music is taught at all ages, including through our Junior Band Scheme (years Four to Six), GCSE and A' Level Music. There is frequent collaboration with the Drama department to stage fantastic musical theatre productions, which have resulted in performances at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Our new Head of Music will be an experienced teacher, who may hold Qualified Teacher Status or may be an ambitious graduate seeking QTS.

The School:

Nationally celebrated, More House School provides an exceptional, mainstream education for intelligent boys with Specific Learning Difficulties and weakness in their developmental language skills.

Providing a transformative education repeatedly recognised as 'Outstanding' by Ofsted over more than a decade, we offer a specialised learning environment for day and boarding boys from Year 4 to Year 13.

Our pupils are taught to recognise their strengths and develop their self-belief so that they achieve independence and extraordinary results at GCSE, BTEC and A' Level, above the national averages.

A majority progress to university.

About the department:

Our Music department is situated in the spacious Bradbury Music School.

The department has been significantly developed and enhanced over the past 20 years, and the curriculum and courses offered too.

The Bradbury Music school comprises a band-rehearsal room, dedicated classroom, Music I.T. suite, chamber-concert hall, studio and six practice rooms including an external purpose-built drum studio.

The resources in the Bradbury Music School are excellent and include two grand pianos, as well as standard uprights and Clavinovas.

The music classroom is equipped with a full set of keyboards, acoustic guitars and percussion. We have a full range of orchestral percussion and a steelpan orchestra.

The Chapel of Christ the King houses a Wyvern Pastoral Chamber Organ, with which the Chapel Choir rehearse and perform weekly.

Music lessons are delivered across the four key stages with KS2 pupils learning in an American Band environment; we have a full stock of concert band instruments that are loaned to the pupils in this age range.

KS3 lessons are taught in the main classroom through various units including Keyboard Skills, Graphic Scores, Folk Music, Samba, Blues, Minimalism, and Music and Media.

We offer the Eduqas GCSE Music and A' Level courses at KS4 & 5.

Extra-curricular activities and ensembles currently include Church Bellringing, Concert Band, Jazz Band, Dixieland Band, Choirs, Saxophone Ensemble, Handbell Club and Clarinet Ensemble.

The School affords its pupils ambitious experiences and in recent years, ensembles have performed in Cuba, New Orleans, Toronto, the Lake Garda region, Salzburg, and at G-Live in Guildford.

In March 2024, the jazz band performed in New York. As members of the Independent Schools Association, our pupils access regional and national competitions.

It is an exciting and busy department, supported by a wealth of visiting instrumental teacher resource offering pupils a very wide breadth of opportunity to develop their musical curiosity and talent.

The department has an excellent reputation both locally and further afield, sharing its expertise widely, and has pride in setting the highest standard in musical opportunities and successes for neurodiverse pupils.

About this post:

At More House, Music is pivotal not just to the curriculum but also to the wider school.

This is an extremely rare opportunity to work alongside our remarkable pupils and to lead the development of our Music curriculum, department and staff team in the years ahead.

Our new Head of Music will be an exceptional te

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