Salary:
Competitive pay plus excellent benefits
Job type:
Full Time, Permanent
Start date:
September 2025
Apply by:
24 February 2025
Job overview
A wealth of musical opportunities for all
We seek to appoint a new Assistant Director of Music to join a flourishing boarding and day school, set on an attractive 100-acre campus and in a beautiful part of rural Surrey.
The Music Department aims to enable every pupil, regardless of ability, to experience the highest quality and widest range of music possible. Our busy, thriving and well-resourced Music Department is housed in the purpose-built Countess of Munster Music School located at the heart of King Edward’s Witley. The Department contains classrooms, a Mac suite, recording studio, five large performance auditoria, practice rooms and teaching rooms.
Music is an important and respected part of school life; aiming to bring out the best of all pupils regardless of ability through an exciting curriculum. Music also flourishes outside the classroom with over 25 ensembles including choirs, orchestras and specialist instrumental ensembles from Chamber Music to Rock Bands. With our strong links with the City of London, pupils often sing and play in the City for important events.
The department is entering its next phase of expansion, as we strive for excellence in music across King Edward’s Witley and Barrow Hills Schools. Our aim is to provide a seamless and inspirational education journey from Nursery through to the Upper Sixth and this is a pivotal and exciting time to join our community.
The ideal applicant will be an experienced and outstanding musician who will use their experience, skills and aptitudes to further improve pupils’ attainment, to continue to help raise the profile of music within one of the School’s leading departments where standards are already high and numbers are thriving. Aside from teaching across both Schools (Years 5 to Year 13), he/she is expected to take part in the wider co-curriculum and pastoral aspects of school life, focusing on inclusion which is deeply ingrained in our school and underpins all that we do.
This is a fantastic opportunity to join a supportive group of colleagues and the chance to teach, motivate, and inspire diverse and interesting pupils. We also offer job satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment, a competitive salary, pension scheme, the potential for on-site accommodation at significantly reduced rental, staff fee remission on School fees at King Edward’s, Barrow Hills and Longacre as well as free car parking, free use of our gym, swimming pool and sports facilities, all meals and snacks on duty and a Cycle to Work Scheme.
For further details, please visit our website: www.kesw.org
To apply, please complete the Application Form via the Quick Apply button.
Closing date for applications: Noon on Monday 24th February 2025.
Interviews will take place week commencing 3rd March 2025.
Applications will be considered on receipt and early application is recommended as we reserve the right to interview and offer the position.
King Edward’s Witley is fully committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff to share this commitment. Please refer to our websites or ask HR for our child protection and rehabilitation of offenders’ policy. All successful applicants will be required to complete an Enhanced disclosure through the DBS. Applicants from underrepresented groups are particularly welcome.
About King Edward's Witley
* King Edward's Witley
* Petworth Road, Godalming
* Surrey
* GU8 5SG
* United Kingdom
King Edward’s – yesterday, today, tomorrow
Yesterday
As one of the longest-standing co-educational schools in the country and one of only two remaining Royal Hospitals from Tudor times, King Edward’s Witley has a rich history of providing an education which is holistic, inclusive and progressive.
Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London, convinced the boy King Edward VI to grant his palace at Bridewell on the banks of the Thames to the Lord Mayor of London, so creating the parent foundation – Bridewell Royal Hospital – as a place for the training and education of poor children in 1553. In 1860, the new charity scheme for Bridewell Royal Hospital was created and the House of Occupations was renamed King Edward’s School admitting boys and girls from aged 10.
The pupils from King Edward’s Boys’ School moved to its current site in Witley in 1867 and the School now occupies around 100 acres of stunning Surrey countryside. The School became co-educational again in 1952 and 2017 marked the 150th anniversary of the Witley school on its current site.
Today and tomorrow
We are steadfastly proud of our heritage and longstanding engagement with the City of London through the Bridewell Foundation. King Edward’s Witley and Barrow Hills School are the operational arms of Bridewell Royal Hospital, a charitable Foundation from which both schools inherit a culture with diversity, generosity, opportunity and social responsibility at its heart, combining a global outlook with a sense of local belonging. More concretely, a significant endowment from Bridewell allows us to provide boarding places to pupils with a clear boarding need – our Foundationers.
King Edward’s holds true to its Founders’ mission to offer a foundation for life to young people from a range of backgrounds. At King Edward’s this means an exciting and challenging curriculum, a broad range of sporting, artistic, social and cultural opportunities and an environment which is specifically created to inculcate the values of independent learning, responsibility for others and the enjoyment of challenge.
Pupil experience is at the heart of what we do. The School has over 475 pupils, many of whom are day pupils from primary and Prep Schools. Boarding is a core pillar of the King Edward's community, with over 140 boarders accommodated in Houses including an Upper Sixth pre-university House. All pupils, day and boarder belong to a house and are cared for by their Housemaster/ Housemistress and their team.
Around 30% of pupils live abroad, in over 30 different countries and there is a growing cohort of local day pupils. The Sixth Form generally numbers more than 100 pupils, most of whom go on to study at Russell Group, Oxford and Cambridge (in small numbers), and leading European or US-based universities.
Tradition continues to be highly valued and close links with the City of London remain through the Court of Bridewell (Board of Governors). The Lord Mayor attends Admissions Day and the School’s annual Foundation Day Service at St. Bride’s Church. Pupils participate in a range of events and activities associated with the City of London, perpetuating the School’s links with its historic roots.
The School has a long tradition of philanthropy and addressing disadvantage and vulnerability. King Edward’s offers welfare bursaries through the Bridewell Foundation, livery companies and other charities, for young people who are less advantaged and who have a particular need for a boarding education. Over 50 pupils are supported by the Foundation and other charities with financial contributions equal to annual boarding fees to attend the School. King Edward’s is proud of its ongoing work transforming the lives of disadvantaged young people through providing a safe, fulfilling and purposeful educational environment.
The Head is a member of HMC.
Further details of the School are to be found in the Independent Schools’ Yearbook, or on our website www.kesw.org.
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