Finish This… Secondary KS3

Finish This… for secondary schools is back! In a new revised format, working with a brand new stimulus piece, Plant This Seed by Elif Karlidag.

Following a successful pilot (read more about this below) in 2025-26 involving a small number of secondary schools from across England, ENO are delighted to be rolling out the new and improved version of Finish This… KS3 for the 2026/27 academic year.

Co-created with secondary teachers, this project is aligned with the KS3 curriculum, and accessible to students of all musical levels, though particularly suited to those in Years 7 & 8.

Finish This… is English National Opera’s FREE* music making programme for schools nationwide; bringing a fusion of opera, film and animation into your classroom, as a creative springboard for composition work. Co-created with teachers and Secondary specialists and aligned with the KS3 Music curriculum.

*Finish This… is free to state schools. It is charged at £200 per class for independent schools.

Why sign up?

Pupils will…

• Develop skills in creative composition, performance, listening and analysis
• Be supported to increase their self-belief, self-expression, confidence and resilience
• Develop skills in teamwork and collaboration
• Enter their work into our competition to win the prize of having their composition arranged for a small ensemble of ENO musicians who will visit their school to perform it

Teachers will…

• Access high-quality digital teaching resources and training materials co-designed by primary specialist, artists and
  teachers
• Develop their confidence to utilise opera as a creative stimulus in their teaching.
• Explore and deliver new playful, creative student-led approaches to composition
• Develop confidence in teaching composition and further enrich their creative music practice

Read the executive summary of the evaluation report for our pilot project that took place in 2025-26:

Download the report here.

Timeline

Booking: Booking opens on 5th May 2026 and closes on 10th July 2026.

Toolkits & Online Resource access: Physical toolkits are sent out to arrive at your school for the start of the Autumn term. You will receive the link to the online hub to access digital resources at the end of the current summer term.

Online project briefing: Teachers are invited to access our online ‘Project Briefing session’ – likely to take place in July ( it will be recorded and made available to watch back). This will introduce you to each stage of the project, and give you ideas for how you can use the resources, whilst providing a flavour of the creative activities, to ultimately support you with a confident delivery for your class.

Submitting your composition: you will be invited to submit your composition by either one of two set submission deadlines. For 2026/27, deadlines are as follows:

Submission Deadline 1: Wednesday 16th December 2026

Submission Deadline 2: Wednesday 24th March 2027

Sharing & Celebrating

Participating classes receive a celebratory package including: a video message from the Composer and a pack full of ideas to share the work within your school. Each music submission will be showcased and available on our ENO SoundCloud and Interactive Map on our website.

Schools are invited to submit 3 compositions per year group. Members of the ENO Chorus and Orchestra will listen to all of the pieces submitted and a winning composition will be selected. The class who composed the winning composition will receive:

• a special arrangement of their composition for small ensemble – this arrangement will be made by Elif Karlidag
• a small ensemble of ENO musicians will then visit the winning school to perform this arrangement and deliver a workshop for the winning class!

Explore this year’s celebration of Finish This …

Listen to the winning piece from the 2025-26 pilot:

Take Part

Booking opens on 5th May 2026 and closes on 10th July 2026. Book your space for this 2026/2027 academic year!