Music
Music is a very important part of life at the Royal School. Our all through curriculum, from year 1 right through to year 13, allows students to explore and develop skills and knowledge across the breadth of music as a subject. We take pride in exploring a wide range of music from many cultures, styles and times in history through listening, performing and composing. Music also allows students to develop a huge range of different skills, including communication, teamwork, leadership and presentation whilst also working on their confidence!
At the top of the school we offer our successful BTEC National Extended Certificate in Music Performance. This is a course for advanced performers and extends and deepens students performance skills in both solo and ensemble contexts. Alongside this, students grapple with complex harmony, theory and composition techniques and learn transferable project planning skills, working towards a comprehensive plan for a musical event or product.
Students choosing to study BTEC music should be well-versed and competent on their chosen instrument or voice and should be passionate about spending time honing their personal skills outside of lesson time. The course is delivered in a practical way so that students are fully immersed in music from day one of the course.
Students develop their skills as musicians in four detailed units:
Practical Music Theory and Harmony
The Music Industry
Ensemble Music Performance
Solo Performance.
Students are assessed through a range of exam and coursework elements, based on real world applications which will allow students to thrive as they look towards potential future careers in the music industry. Many of our previous course alumni have gone on to study music further at university, whilst others are using the skills that they have developed within other areas of their life or in further live performance opportunities.
Alongside the course, our extracurricular offer is incredibly popular with students. We are very proud of our collaboration with the Wolverhampton Music Service which sees nearly 300 pupils enjoying weekly instrumental or vocal lessons on one of 18 different offered instruments. Similarly, students are able to get involved in a range of different rehearsal opportunities within school. Senior students can choose to get involved in senior choir, chamber choir, senior orchestra, rock and pop groups, rapping, ukulele, string orchestra and our annual school production. We offer a busy calendar of performance opportunities throughout the school year, supported by our Music Prefects scheme – a management and support group run by students.