Duchess School

The Music Department

Music has long been a strength of the Duchess’s Community High School, both in class and out. The department received considerable praise in our last Ofsted inspection in 2003, and the school was awarded Music Specialist College status in 2004, so far the only one in the north of England.

The Music Department is friendly and welcoming, with something to offer every student, whatever their musical experience or taste.

The Year 9 course is designed to open students’ ears to a wide range of musical styles, with practical performance and composition opportunities for all, as well as laying a foundation of musical skills for those who want to take the subject further. Two innovations in 2006-7 are the introduction of a Y9 class singing competition, and the opportunity for Y9s to obtain the bronze Young People’s Arts Award through class music and involvement in school music activities.

Take-up of music at GCSE is very encouraging, with 25 in Y11 and over 40 in Y10. Sixth form numbers are also rising, with 20 Y12s studying either music or music technology.

We are very proud of the extra-curricular opportunities offered at the school, and of how much the musicians offer both to the school and to the local community. Our choirs have long been highly successful, with – exceptionally for any secondary school – a school choir, a boys’ choir and a girls’ choir, plus a new addition, a Show Choir. The school choir is very proud to have been invited to take part in Festival 500 in Newfoundland, Canada in July 2007, only the second British youth choir to be invited in the 10 years of this prestigious international choral festival.

Our instrumental groups are also flourishing, including a wind band, a jazz big band, a string ensemble and assorted smaller groups. We take the region’s folk music very seriously at the High School, and our senior ceilidh band, NE66, reached the finals of the National Festival of Music for Youth in Birmingham this year, and has been invited to take part in the Schools prom at the Royal Albert Hall in November – a huge achievement at the first attempt.

The school also has an enviable reputation for the quality of its stage shows in the Alnwick Playhouse. Recent sell-out performances have included runs of ‘Cabaret’, ‘Grease’, ‘Guys and Dolls’, ‘Oklahoma’ and ‘Oliver’ and ‘West Side Story’ is planned for 2007.

A wide range of instrumental and vocal lessons is available in school, and we are very pleased to have added Northumbrian pipes to the list this year.

The Music Department is very proud of its past achievements and even more excited by its future possibilities.