Bromley High School has an outstanding musical tradition, with many girls gaining places in borough and national orchestras, university music departments and music colleges. Music is at the heart of school life in every aspect – socially, academically and spiritually.
Pupils are encouraged to develop and share their music within school, the local area, London venues and abroad and greatly benefit from a specialist music wing that includes a purpose built recital room, two iMac suites and multiple practice rooms. Girls have the opportunity to perform in a rich and varied range of concerts, recitals, and competitions in addition to the wealth of weekly music groups. Over 350 individual music lessons are taught each week, delivered by a 23 strong team of visiting professional musicians and girls can take both ABRSM and Trinity College exams at the school.
Years 7 - 9
The KS3 curriculum develops the skills of performance, composition and appraising through a rich and varied range of topics such as Blues, film music, song writing, and Samba. Pupils learn to use a variety of instruments (keyboard, percussion, ukulele and voice) to explore and extend performance skills whilst developing their theoretical understanding. Music Technology is interwoven into the course from Year 8 with specialist tuition in our purpose built iMac suite.
GCSE
In this wide ranging course, candidates have the opportunity to engage with music through the development of musical knowledge and skill. 60% of the Edexcel qualification is coursework. This comprises of two performances (one solo and one ensemble), and two compositions, (one ‘free’ and one set to a brief) with each element accounting for 15%. The remaining 40% is a written examination which explores both set works and unfamiliar music. Areas of study include Instrumental and vocal music, music for stage and screen and fusion. Candidates should have attained a standard of at least Grade III (or equivalent) at the start of the course.
Co-Curricular
The breadth of music-making available to the girls provides them with the flexibility and opportunity to experience a variety of musical genres, whether through performing as part of a group, a soloist or listening to their peers at one of the regular concerts.
The leading ensemble is our large Senior Orchestra which enables the very best of our instrumentalists to rise to the challenge of playing full orchestral repertoire. Other ensembles include Junior Jazz Band, a specialist String Chamber Orchestra, Woodwind ensembles and Rock and Pop groups.
Bromley High has a strong choral tradition and a quarter of pupils sing in one of the school’s nine choirs. All pupils have the opportunity to join one of two annual worldwide music tours and perform in top London venues such as Southwark Cathedral, Covent Garden’s Swiss Church and the Royal Albert Hall.
We have recently begun a series of specialist Masterclasses delivered by graduates of the Royal Academy, Royal College and Royal Northern Conservatoires, which aim to improve the quality of solo performance within all disciplines. We also greatly benefits from our close links with the award winning Bromley Youth Music Trust, just a 5 minute walk from the school. This includes tuition, joint concert opportunities, masterclass sessions and access to outstanding ensemble playing.