The Harris Group

Harris Academy Greenwich has become the first academy in the UK to be awarded an international music grant by Sony Music and the Fender Play Foundation.  

The package includes thousands of pounds worth of instruments, music equipment and workshops with Fender. Harris Academy Greenwich was selected after winning the RTM:UK Battle of the Bands 2022 - the annual competition run by music education charity Restore the Music:UK with judging panel featuring Brand New Heavies’ co-founder Andrew Levy and SonyMusic A&R Manager Preye Crooks.

Restore the Music:UK delivers capital funding for music provision in areas of high socio-economic deprivation via its School Grant Program. In turn, this enables schools to build well-resourced departments and offer all of their students the opportunity to access transformative experiences & multiple new opportunities through a comprehensive music education.  Restore the Music:UK counts many Harris Academies amongst its grantees, in itself a recognition of the Harris Federation commitment to placing sustainable music provision at the heart of all of its schools. 

To celebrate this amazing partnership, Harris Greenwich welcomed Cat Burns, a Brit Award nominated singer-songwriter to visit the school and see the massive difference that Sony Music, Fender and Restore the Music:UK have made to pupils lives at the academy, and for Harris students to showcase Music within the Federation, something which donor support has been transformative to in recent years.

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Restore the Music:UK aims to ensure that as many children as possible have access to a full, comprehensive music education and the many opportunities that come with it. Restore the Music:UK works with many academies across the Harris Federation, none of this possible without their hard work and the vital support from Harris donors. 

Cat spent vital time with our students at Harris Greenwich. Listening to music they themselves performed and answering the many questions they had about music, her experience in the industry and what it is like to go from busking on the South Bank to being nominated for the Brit Awards.

Nationally, 85% of children have given up on music education by GCSE - with less than 10% taking it as a subject. Harris Academies are bucking the trend with more students than ever opting for and thriving in certificate music courses.

Austerity and funding cuts have hit music hardest –It is because of organisations such as Restore the Music:UK and the support of Harris donors that we are able to give more and more students access to music and a gateway into what is a £5bn industry that we want to make sure our students have equal access to.