Arts and Culture

Engagement with the creative and performing arts teaches our boys to be more self-disciplined, attentive and better at organising their busy lives. Through the arts, boys find their own voice, the confidence to express their individual creativity, and a connection with the most enduring and significant elements of our cultural past.

Whether it’s learning a musical instrument, playing in ensembles, singing in choirs or in Houses, performing in plays or discovering beauty in fine art, sculpture and ceramics, there is plenty of opportunity for creative expression at Harrow. Indeed, our philosophy behind the arts is for all to appreciate, most to participate and the very best to excel.

All Shells are involved in House Drama productions, undertake a creative project, and have timetabled lessons in Music and Art. Exhibitions in the Art Schools are extremely well attended and boys' work adorns many of our communal spaces. It is not unusual for the number of music concerts in a week to equal or exceed the number of days therein, and repertoire ranges from the accessible to the more refined. Several Harrovians have played with the National Youth Orchestra and its jazz counterpart. Others have successfully auditioned for the National Youth Theatre, having directed or produced niche work at School. In the Old Speech Room Gallery, a nationally significant collection of art and artefacts, boys can handle, interpret and restore items of real significance, and curate exhibitions themselves.

We believe that engagement with the creative and performing arts not only sets our boys on a lifetime of personal enrichment and enjoyment, but also teaches them to be more self-disciplined, attentive and better at planning and organising their busy lives. Boys who participate in them also find that this involvement has a broader, more beneficial effect on their overall academic performance. By encouraging boys to develop artistically, we see them finding their own voice and the confidence to express their individual creativity, regardless of innate talent.