The Rocksteady Foundation – Rocksteady Music School

Rocksteady Music School is delighted to be shortlisted for Best Charitable/Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative at the 2025 UK Company Culture Awards for the work of the Rocksteady Foundation.

Being shortlisted at this year’s UK Company Culture Awards is a special honour and a chance to celebrate our incredible team at Rocksteady – along with the amazing children, schools, and charities we work with – who share our passion for breaking down barriers to music education.

About Rocksteady

We are the UK’s largest rock and pop school, teaching fun and inclusive in-school band lessons to 100,000 children in thousands of schools nationwide.

Rocksteady lessons are taught by highly trained professional musicians, who draw on their experience and enthusiasm to ignite a passion for music in the next generation. As the UK’s largest employer of full-time permanent musicians, we are a community of like-minded people who all believe music has the power to transform children’s lives.

The Rocksteady Foundation: Changing lives through music

In addition to our core teaching service in schools, the Rocksteady Foundation was set up in 2016 to ensure even more children, who would otherwise miss out on inclusive access to music, can experience its transformative power, no matter where they are or what challenges they face. Since then, the Foundation has awarded more than £6.3 million in free teaching and charity workshops.

The Rocksteady Foundation delivers free music provision in two ways:

Working with hundreds of charities and support groups across the country, including hospices, hospitals, prisons and SEN schools, to provide free workshops and music experiences to disadvantaged children and those facing challenging circumstances. Last academic year, Rocksteady held more than 220 free events in charities and support group, reaching 4,500 children and young people.

Offering free bursary places and match funding options to primary schools so thousands of children can attend Rocksteady lessons at no cost. More than 5,000 free in-school bursary places were awarded last academic year to children who would not normally be able to access music lessons.

No child left behind: An ethos embedded in our company culture

Supporting the work of the Foundation doesn’t fall to just a handful of Rocksteady staff members. Everyone, whether they are band leaders or office-based – whether they are ‘musical’ or not – have the opportunity to get involved in the Foundation and make a genuine difference to children’s lives. Throughout the year, we host company-wide Foundation Days, giving as many team members as possible the opportunity to visit charities across the country and lead inspiring music workshops for children.

Having the opportunity to support the work of the Foundation is included on every Rocksteady job description, it’s woven into our company culture – whether you’ve been with Rocksteady for over a decade or less than a month.

More than 300 Rocksteady staff members have organised and supported events so far, with more people getting involved all the time!

That’s why being nominated in the 2025 Company Culture Awards means so much to us! It’s not just a testament to the incredible power that inclusive and accessible musical experiences can have on a child’s life, it highlights the dedication and passion of our staff members and the deep-rooted belief across the company that no child should be left behind.

Your passion, their future

With new schools joining Rocksteady every week, exciting and varied teaching and non-teaching opportunities are opening up across the country. If you’re interested in applying for a job and joining a community of like-minded musicians and music lovers, and making a genuine difference to children’s lives through your day job and by supporting the Rocksteady Foundation, visit our careers page to find out more – https://www.rocksteadymusicschool.com/careers/