The key tenets of a successful subject department

Kensington Aldridge Academy (KAA) is a start-up academy that opened in September 2014 with 180 year 7 pupils. Now in its second year, it is opening a sixth form in September 2016 and will then have more than 650 students.

The school serves a diverse community in Ladbroke Grove, west London; 43 per cent of pupils are Pupil Premium and 53 per cent speak English as an additional language.

The opportunity to build a department from scratch in a brand new start-up school is unique and while challenges are inevitable, essentially you are working on a blank canvas.

As the new school’s first head of music, the first thing I wrote on my blank canvas – taking into consideration the curriculum and specification changes at key stages 4 and 5 – was in fact a question: “How can I ensure pupils achieve excellence in my subject?”