Haling Manor acclaimed as specialist music school

The DfES has acknowledged the excellence of education at Haling Manor High School by awarding them specialist school status. They are one of only 15 schools in the country that have secured specialist status in music.

Specialist schools seek to raise pupil achievement by building on their particular strengths and establishing their own distinctive identities. They work in partnership with private sector sponsors and are supported by additional government funding.

The schools new status will bring an additional £100,000 from the DfES for capital projects and extra funding over the next four years. The main aim is to raise standards even higher for all pupils across all subjects, increase access to music and provide more choice of subjects

Music is already a guiding force at the high-performing schools and the standards achieved in English are high. The added emphasis on music and literacy skills will be used to raise educational standards across all years.

Under the banner of ‘Listening for Learning’ music will now become an integral part of school life at Haling Manor, assemblies, for example, will have a musical focus, to stimulate and encourage all members of the school community at the start of the school day.

There are also plans to build state-of-the-art community facilities, set up a school radio station and share their good practices through projects and activities with local schools, the community and local churches.

Cllr Louisa Woodley, cabinet member for education, youth and lifelong learning, said: “I am delighted that Haling Manor has been granted specialist school status. It will not only benefit the pupils but the wider community. There is a lot of hard work involved in achieving special schools status and I’d like to congratulate them both on their success.

John Troake, headteacher at Haling Manor High said: “We are delighted to have been awarded Specialist Music College Status. The staff at Haling Manor have worked extremely hard to achieve this goal and to achieve national recognition for this effort is something of which we are all justifiably proud.”