May 2026
After Ali Davies’s interview last year for the position of head of music at the Sir John Colfox Academy in Bridport, the head teacher took her into the main lobby to show her one of the school’s greatest treasures. And when Ali saw the Steinway concert grand piano tucked away under the stairs, behind a row of display boards, she knew she really wanted the job.
Of course, she was successful, and has been in post since the beginning of this academic year. A career musician and experienced instrumental teacher, Ali is relatively new to mainstream education, and completed her two-year Early Career Teacher induction last July while working at Holyrood Academy in Chard. Then she saw the vacancy at Colfox.
“Head-of-department jobs don’t come up very often, and I knew I had to apply,” she says. “Being in Bridport is a gift, culturally speaking, and there are so many opportunities for making connections in the community. And the Colfox students are fantastic – there’s lots of talent and curiosity here.”
Fast forward a couple of terms, and that Steinway has seen some action. Maintained but little used for years, the piano was in good shape to be played, inspiring Ali to launch the Music at Colfox programme of public and in-house performances. Informal monthly concerts by students started in October, giving young people a chance to experience performing and grow in confidence. Five or six students (who may or may not be having instrumental lessons) take part, and the concerts are in the music department after school so parents can come along.
Ali plans to organise one professional, public, ticketed concert each term. In March, pianist Duncan Honeybourne kicked off the series with a recital of music by JS Bach, Brahms and Schumann, plus 20th-century composers Reginald Redman and Francis Pott. “The concert brought in people from the community,” says Ali. “We sold 75 tickets, which was a great result as I’d like the department to be largely self-sufficient. Duncan also led an afternoon masterclass for 10 students at a standard of Grade 4 or 5 upwards. He was so encouraging and absolutely brilliant at talking to them.”
Towards the end of last term, students from Years 7 to 13 put on their spring concert, with a huge range of music from Bach, Vivaldi and Debussy to Queen, Jessie J and Madness, and many in between. The students sang, played piano, drums, guitar and hand bells, and came together in bands and a 15-piece orchestra. There was standing room only in the packed hall, and the audience of family, friends and supporters was spellbound.
Ali is determined to nurture a love of all kinds of music in her students. She took 16 of them to hear the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra playing a programme of film music, and took a group of GCSE students to meet film composer David Arnold during the Bridport Film Festival’s Meet the Makers series in April. She has arranged a 20% Colfox discount at Bridport Music Shop, and adds house points to each student’s ‘music merit card’ every time they practise at school.
Her approach also includes teaching students to read musical notation. “We start in Year 7, writing in note names and getting students to work them out,” she says. “The ‘dots’ are code, and the students learn coding in computing, so why not music? Pushing them to try, to persevere, develops a lifelong skill, particularly in a world where so much is instant – but it has to be a practical experience, not just note bashing. We’re not trying to make hundreds of professional musicians, we just want them to love music, and to be able to make a bit for themselves. Having the basics can open doors to further study for some, and means they can be part of a musical community wherever they end up.”
Alongside class teaching, instrumental lessons are the other lynchpin of music education, and Colfox has a growing team of peripatetic (visiting) teachers covering a range of instruments. Ali would like to encourage more students to take up brass and woodwind instruments, and is holding taster sessions. “We need these instruments to make an orchestra! Our orchestra started as a band, but I’ve renamed it – we have strings, drums, saxophones and one clarinet, but we’d love to have more.”
With an eye to the future, the department is working to set up an after-school music club, where all local primary-age children (including those who are home educated) will be able to come for instrumental coaching. “We’d like to get four or five teachers along to each session,” says Ali. “It’ll be a useful stepping stone between primary and senior school, and the kids will find out what they can expect here at Colfox. I’d also love to start visiting local primary schools to talk about our music offer.”
With regular reports in the media about the neglect of music education – despite the importance of music itself to nearly everyone in our society – it’s reassuring and exciting to learn that our local secondary school is doing such great things to promote the subject. “The head is super-supportive of what we’re trying to do,” says Ali, “and I have fabulous colleagues both on the staff and in our peripatetic team. But of course it’s the students who are most important; I just want them to love music as much as I do.”
www.colfox.org/music