It’s a dreary Tuesday morning at Bromley Beacon Academy in south-east London, but 15-year-old Sam has the music room pumping. He’s delivering a DJ set worthy of a spot in any bar or nightclub across the city. He’s focused, energised and clearly very happy. His music teacher, Jonathan Hawkes, looks on proudly, reflecting on how far Sam has come in attitude, behaviour and commitment to school.
Bromley Beacon Academy is a special school for 14- to 18-year-olds who have a range of social, emotional and mental health needs, and is part of the London and South East Education Group. DJing and music production have been part of timetabled provision for three years, ever since Hawkes, who is the curriculum leader for music and ICT, spotted the potential in introducing the lessons.
“Our students all have social, emotional and mental health struggles, and when they come to us, many of them haven’t been to school for a while,” he says. “They aren’t engaged and they aren’t focused. I thought this would be a really good hook, while also providing a path to a great career.”
The idea came to him after Noise Academy, an organisation offering music technology workshops, contacted the school about their services. Hawkes saw the potential for his students. And so, working with his senior leadership team and Noise Academy’s managing director, Joe Townsley, he came up with a bespoke programme that would suit his school.
Delivery happens in blocks - so while these lessons are available to every child in the school, students from a different year group are invited to take part each time.
Professional DJ Sam Lucas is the tutor and he delivers one-on-one sessions with students, in which they work towards a nationally-recognised qualification: either Pearson level 3 in music technology, AQA level 1, 2 or 3 in DJ skills or NCFE level 2 in music technology.
If a student is serious about DJing as a career, there is also a subsequent artist development programme, designed by Noise Academy, which coaches the students towards becoming professional DJs.
“Sam will come and take them through real scenarios which might come up. For example, you’re booked to do a DJ set, and half an hour before, none of your equipment is working - what do you do? We really prepare them for the job,” explains Hawkes.
The students are given opportunities to put their skills into practice at school events and are even allowed to take home the school’s industry-level equipment to use at family parties. The school already had a suite of MacBooks and, initially, Lucas brought his own DJ equipment and speakers with him. Once the partnership proved to be a success, the school bought its own equipment.
“I really want to encourage this career route for some students, and giving them access to professional equipment makes such a difference,” says Hawkes. “I want them to feel like they can go into the real world and perform. This isn’t a childlike version of DJing, they aren’t using toys. This is industry standard.”
The impact the lessons have had on the students is clear to see, he adds. Data from the school shows that for the students who have been taking part this year, attendance is up by 10 per cent, and behaviour incidents have reduced significantly.
“We don’t have behaviour issues in this class,” says Hawkes. “Obviously, the young people here have their challenges, but we’re quite straight up about the fact they are there to make music, and that culture is really embedded.”
It’s a great incentive for hard work in other areas, too: the students are aware participation is a privilege, and if their attendance is low, behaviour is bad, or progress is waning, then the lessons are taken away.
Alongside these benefits, Hawkes says he has also seen a huge boost in the confidence of the students taking part.
“Musicians and DJs have to be quite sociable. A lot of students have really suffered socially, and it can be a real barrier for them. These lessons can bring them out of their shell, and equip them with a skill they know they can deliver, and therefore their confidence has rocketed,” he says.
Hawkes is passionate about the impact a programme like this can have, but there’s no escaping the funding it requires. The trust pays around £250 a day for Lucas’ time, and then there are the equipment costs.
“In the grand scheme of things, I think it’s a small investment for children who need direction. I’m really grateful the school is paying for it, and the students are very appreciative. Now we’ve been doing this for three years, the SLT can clearly see the value it adds to our school,” Hawkes explains.
Resourcing, then, may be a barrier to other schools that are keen to replicate this work. There’s also the issue of cohort size: at Bromley Beacon, their cohort is small enough that they can offer students a one-on-one experience. But it would take significantly more resources to offer the same in a mainstream school, or even a larger special school. Hawkes says he could see how it could be scaled up, but only if there were enough DJ decks for students to access.
“To get the most of it, only two or three students per deck would really work, because they need to be hands-on. But if you could afford to have a few in a classroom, and noise cancelling headphones, there’s no reason why it couldn’t work as an activity for a large class,” he says.
And indeed, the London and South East Education Group is now rolling out this initiative across eight of its schools, based on the value it’s added at Bromley Beacon.
Given the funding needed, and the bespoke one-on-one tuition that is at the heart of this programme, it might not be something that every school can offer.
However, it does show the benefits of giving students who might be struggling access to industry-level support towards a career that they feel they can thrive in. Not only can that make them want to come to school, it can incentivise them to focus, right across the curriculum.
