Built by music teachers, for music teachers

Elemental was founded by Ed Watkins, a music teacher working in London's schools for the past 20 years, most recently as a founding teacher and Director of Music at the West London Free School. Under Ed's leadership the music department at WLFS gained a national reputation for high quality in an inclusive environment. The department took equal pride in both sending students to read music at Oxbridge and building a track record supporting students reintegrating from pupil referral units.

Ed has a strong track record delivering country-leading results at GCSE, with almost a third of the pupils who have been through WLFS since 2011 gaining a GCSE in music, a comfortable majority with 7s or higher. He is now working on Elemental to offer schools first class software, teacher-built and geared to the realities of our classrooms and students.

Ed Watkins

Founder

Email LinkedIn Website

Alongside his work at WLFS, Ed has worked more widely in education and policy including:

Ofsted
On secondment to Ofsted as their subject specialist in music. This work included the music materials for the inspector training curriculum and writing Ofsted's research review in music.
Department for Education
On secondment to the Department for Education working on the writing and drafting of 2021's Model Music Curriculum.
Ofqual
As a subject expert for Ofqual, including as the Lead Reviewer for the accreditation of the current GCSE specifications.
OCR and Eduqas
As an examiner for OCR GCSE and Eduqas A Level.
National Plans for Music Education
As a board member of the monitoring board of the 2011 and 2022 National Plans for Music Education.
Inner Voices
As the founder and director of Inner Voices, a London-based youth choir with a focus on excellence in an inclusive culture.

Content Creators

The composers behind the music

Elemental is based on a substantial library of music, some of it out of the public domain and some of it newly created. The team of composers/producers who are writing much of the music on Elemental are ensuring that the concepts we are exemplifying use as wide a range of music as possible, including in contemporary styles and with influences from beyond Europe.

Oyin Ogunjobi
David Herrera Chavez
Sequoia Ralph
Darin Nagada
Eddie Chesterman
Kate Sitaraman

Live Recordings

Orchestral Melodies

The live orchestral melodies in the Elemental platform are all the same set of tunes played on each of the orchestral instruments, the aim being to isolate timbre as the feature which changes. These were recorded for us by a group of Royal College of Music students: