West London Free School · London, London
As
well as a knowledge rich education, the WLFS runs an extensive co-curricular
programme that encourages children to develop outside the classroom. The school
specialises in music and offers a range of sporting opportunities as well as
general interest clubs. All staff are encouraged to share their co-curricular
enthusiasm by committing one hour a week to running a school club.
The WLFS has been a music specialist school since its
foundation, and the department is well resourced, with four full-time music
teachers, supported by a full-time assistant and twenty visiting teachers.
Twelve pupils each year enter the school as music scholars. At Key Stage 3,
pupils have two hours a week of classroom music teaching, and develop a
thorough theoretical and practical grasp of traditional music notation. Around
half participate in either an after-school music ensemble or receive instrumental
lessons, with almost 300 individual lessons taking place each week, and a
scheme to encourage the study of ‘rare’ orchestral instruments. Our proportion of pupils taking Music GCSE (OCR) in
Years 10 and 11 is among the highest for any secondary school in the country.
At A-level we offer both Music (Eduqas) and Music Technology (Edexcel), and
former pupils often study at the country’s most prestigious universities, with
alumni winning choral scholarships and reading Music, recently at Merton and
New Colleges in Oxford. One of our pupils has been selected as a semi-finalist
in BBC Chorister of the Year 2026, to be televised later this year. The
department runs an orchestra, a string group, a wind band, and a number of
choirs, including a staff & parent choral society. There is a busy
programme of concerts, competitions, foreign and UK tours, cathedral visits,
and an ambitious history of school musicals (with recent examples including The
Sound of Music and Les Miserables). The programme for 2026 includes
a tour to France, singing across Normandy and in La Madeleine, Paris,
performances of Orff’s Carmina Burana and Britten’s Ceremony of
Carols, a production of Guys and Dolls, and evensong at
St-Martin-in-the-Fields, as well as concert trips to the Proms and Cadogan Hall.
Popular music continues to thrive at the school, with a rich culture of
pupil-led bands. As such, music is central to the life of the WLFS. We believe
that music makes our pupils’ lives, and our school community, richer in spirit.
In this the department is fully supported by the senior leadership team. Key characteristics of the role include: to impart your passion for Music & Music
Technology to the pupils you teach, whilst also ensuring their mastery of the
subject. to assist the Head of Department in planning
and delivering schemes of work for Key Stages 3, 4 and 5, and monitoring their
effectiveness. to monitor the progress of pupils according to
the school assessment policy. to enhance the quality of teaching and
learning in the depart