Head of Piano

Package Description

Required for: September 2024

Location: Dean's Yard - Westminster School

Contract: part-time (term-time only), permanent. Approximately 4 hours per week required.

Salary:  £46.83 per hour.

The deadline for applications is 09:00, Friday 14th June 2024. Interviews will take place on Friday 21st June.

Job Introduction

Music at Westminster

Music plays an integral part in life at Westminster, where pupils are encouraged to learn and participate as fully as possible in a weekly routine of rehearsals, recitals and concerts. Many internationally renowned musicians have been educated at the School, including Henry Purcell, Adrian Boult, Roger Norrington, Ian Bostridge, George Benjamin, Julian Anderson, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Gavin Rossdale, Mika, Dido and members of the band Clean Bandit.

Westminster musicians regularly attend the junior departments at the Royal Academy, Royal College and Guildhall, and a good number are members of ensembles such as the National Youth Choirs and Orchestras of Great Britain.

Up to twelve Music Scholarships are awarded each year. Academic Music standards are very high, and the teaching of Composition is excellent.

Facilities

The Manoukian Music Centre is fully equipped with Rehearsal/Performing Hall, Recording Studio, classrooms, practice rooms, rehearsal rooms and instrument storage. The Manoukian Centre Recital Hall houses both a Steinway C and a Yamaha C7, and the School Hall houses a Steinway D. Concerts take place annually in St John’s Smith Square, Westminster Abbey and the Barbican.

The location of the School allows unrivalled opportunities to attend musical performances on the South Bank and in the West End.

Vocal and Instrumental Music

Around 30 vocal and instrumental ensembles rehearse each week, including four choirs, a symphony orchestra, a concert band, two string orchestras and numerous brass, wind and percussion ensembles and jazz ensembles.

Staff

A team of 40 visiting teachers provides instrumental and vocal tuition coordinated by Heads of Brass, Piano, Popular Music and Jazz, Singing, Strings and Woodwind, and a School Organist. The teaching staff are supported by an administrative staff of three and by a Music Technician. There are currently six piano teachers within the Piano Department.

The Post

We are seeking to appoint a Head of Piano to oversee the development of all pianists in the School.

The successful applicant will be an outstanding musician and educator, and an inspirational communicator with a willingness to be part of a friendly and supportive team. They will be flexible in their approach, with the ability to work across a variety of musical styles, both with those pupils who are exceptionally talented and with those who are less advanced.

As well as overseeing the administration of the Piano Department, the Head of Piano will have the opportunity, where possible, to coach chamber music.

They should provide pianists with the opportunity to perform at an early stage in their development and take a leading role in encouraging meaningful progress throughout a pupil’s time at the School. This should apply in equal measure both to those pupils who are exceptionally talented and to those who are less advanced.

This is a part-time position, required term-time only. Please see below for further details.

There may be the opportunity to undertake some individual tuition of pupils in piano, the fees for this work being paid directly to the teacher by the pupils’ parent(s).

Main Responsibilities

• Continued development of piano playing and monitoring of all piano pupils within the School (regardless of whether they learn in school or externally)
• Communicating with piano pupils in person and via school intranet
• Identifying further ways to encourage the next generation of piano players to apply to the School
• Assisting the Director of Music in the appointment of new piano teachers
• Allocation of piano pupils to piano teachers
• Communicating with piano teachers and full-time members of the Music Department in person and via school intranet
• Liaising with piano teachers with regard to pupils’ practice routines, departmental pedagogy, performance opportunities etc.
• Checking all piano teacher instrumental reports (twice a year) and adding Head of Section comments where appropriate
• Attending at one VMT parents’ evening per year in the capacity of Head of Section
• Organising and administrating the annual Piano Masterclass, and any other opportunities such as a series of Piano Fora
• Overseeing the progress of all ensembles involving piano players in collaboration with other members of the Music Department
• Allocation of piano pupils to chamber ensembles in collaboration with other members of the Music Department
• Coaching of chamber music
• Planning and sourcing repertoire for chamber ensembles in collaboration with chamber music coaches
• Ensuring that school pianos and Goble harpsichord are maintained to a consistently high level throughout the academic year and particularly before performances and examinations
• Managing the upkeep of the dampp-chaser system for the Steinway Model D
• Updating piano inventory once a term and submitting annual inventory
• Assisting with the maintenance of piano-related chamber music library resources
• Contributing to weekly departmental meeting (Wednesdays), attended by all Heads of Section
• Good working knowledge of the Music Database on the school intranet
• To sit on the panel for the annual 13+ and 16+ Music Award auditions

​Hours of Work

For Play (Autumn) Term 2024, the Head of Piano will be employed for 4 hours per week, term-time only. This would include administrative tasks, including one hour for a weekly departmental meeting (Wednesday, 11.00am). This excludes any additional hours coaching chamber groups.

This post is subject to a 6-month probation period.

The Ideal Candidate

Please refer to the below (attached) person specification.

Equal Opportunities

We are an equal opportunities employer. We therefore encourage candidates to apply irrespective of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, gender identity, sex or sexual orientation.

Safeguarding and Child Protection

Westminster School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the post, including checks with past employers and the Disclosure and Barring Service.

About The School

Working at Westminster

Westminster School is a busy, purposeful and vibrant place to be and an excellent workplace. The community is made up of 750 pupils, 120 teaching staff and 108 support staff.

Our teaching staff — the Common Room — are friendly and welcoming and all new teachers quickly become part of the rhythm of life here, both inside and outside the classroom. Common Room social events are regular and varied, with plenty of opportunity to socialise outside working hours.

It also does not matter where you come to us from. Some teachers come to us straight from university or having just taken a PGCE. Some have taught in independent schools before while others come from the state sector, or another industry altogether. The common ground is that all our teachers have a great knowledge and love for their subject and are willing to be fully involved in the life of the School and the lives of the children who study here. The School has a vibrant co-curricular programme that offers a wide range of opportunities beyond the academic curriculum. We welcome candidates who can contribute their energy and expertise to the co-curricular life of the School as well as the academic.

At Westminster we will always select the best candidate for every position. However, we know we can only truly choose the best person on every occasion if a broad and diverse pool of candidates see the job advertised and are encouraged to apply.

As such, we continue to work on how our job roles are encountered, and particularly welcome applications from groups who have traditionally been underrepresented here.

Westminster School is for everyone, regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or any other protected characteristic. We hope you are encouraged to apply.

The School

Westminster School is a selective day and boarding school for boys aged 13 to 18 and girls aged 16 to 18. There are approximately 360 boys in the Lower School (Years 9 to 11) and 400 boys and girls in the Upper School (Years 12 and 13). One quarter of the pupils board, and the School is structured and run as a boarding school, with an extended day and week and a strong House-based system of pastoral welfare, for boarding and day pupils alike.

Westminster is an ancient school, whose origins can be traced to a charity school established by the Benedictine monks of Westminster Abbey. Its continuous existence is certain from the early 14th century. Henry VIII personally ensured the School’s survival by statute and Elizabeth I, who confirmed royal patronage in 1560, is celebrated as the School’s foundress. Westminster is rare amongst long-established schools in remaining on its original site in the centre of London. Its proximity to Parliament and Westminster Abbey, and the use of the Abbey for its chapel, together with the stimulating diversity of the South Bank and West End, account in part for its special atmosphere and outlook.

The School is one of the foremost centres of academic excellence both in this country and internationally. Central to its academic ethos is the dialogue between teachers and their pupils, whether in the classroom or in tutorials, inspiring enjoyment of intellectual enquiry, debate and search for explanation and the development of skills of rational, independent thought well beyond any standard examination syllabus. The desired environment is happy, busy and purposeful; the pupils are intellectually, socially, ethically and politically engaged, with plenty of opportunities to develop initiatives and to articulate and defend their views, in line with the enduring values of the liberal tradition reflected in the School’s Charter. That tradition is fully committed also to the nurture of each pupil’s spiritual, moral, emotional and physical development and wellbeing – with a particular emphasis on drawing out individual talent wherever it lies - and to the preparation of young people for fulfilled private and public lives beyond School.