SUPAJAM
trauma, PTSD, or additional social and educational challenges.
Stillwell says,“ Post-traumatic stress syndrome, PTSD, really underpins a lot of our young people. As we become much more of a specialist organisation, allowing people to be able to acknowledge their trauma and then to be able to work their way through that trauma is really critical.
“ A lot of our young people also have classic neurodiversity, autism or ADHD, and they’ ve suffered from social and emotional needs as well.”
Standard schooling was a challenge for most of the students. Whether it be lack of support, lack of understanding, bullies or a syllabus that didn’ t suit their needs or interests, the conventional education setup was not working for these students. SupaJam came as a relief, with all education tailored around the students’ passion for music.
Whether that be learning maths through working on a music tour budget, English lessons turning into a concert review or history lessons providing the students with knowledge about the rich history and culture of music, the students learn through the realm of music.
“ We teach them all about the music industry, every level of it, from putting on gigs to marketing, sound recording and podcasting,” said Court.
Alfie, a student at SupaJam, provides his perspective:“ You really do learn about all the job roles in the music industry. It’ s not just about being an artist. It’ s about the media side of it, the podcasting, photography, filming, music video shoots. And then you also get the side of it where it’ s art like artists’ covers for albums and singles.”
The spaces inside the college have been considered with equal importance as the lessons. Rather than simply filling classrooms with rows of chairs and tables, each teaching space is carefully designed around the needs of the students, creating environments that feel safe, welcoming and tailored to how they learn best.
“ In every classroom there’ s sofas, there’ s nice furniture, there’ s lamps,
Gill Tee with a SupaJam student
L-R Nick Stilwell and David Court
there’ s really nice artwork on the walls, plants, a lot of muted lighting as well,” Court explains.
The reason for this, he stresses, is to make the environment markedly different from that of standard schools, because attending them resulted in trauma and other bad experiences for most SupaJam students.
“ Crafting spaces unlike regular learning spaces was paramount. What we try and do is create an aspirational space that’ s a little bit more like a record label or a recording studio,” explains Court.
Origins and growth
SupaJam didn’ t always have five colleges containing top-of-the-range music equipment. Court and Stillwell built it from the ground up.
SupaJam’ s story starts in a pub basement. Says Court,“ We started off with six students in the basement of a pub that always flooded. It was an absolute health and safety nightmare.”
SupaJam is personal to Stillwell and Court. Both had a difficult time in school themselves. Seeing a gap in the education system, they wanted to right the wrongs of the system in their own way.
Experienced festival promoter Gill Tee has been involved in SupaJam since its infancy. She says,“ I got involved 13 years ago, and it was just a few students in a temporary basement that had been converted into the first baby college.
“ They asked me if I would come and mentor these seven students, that they’ d pulled together to see if they could make a difference to their lives, and if I’ d just come and talk to them about how I grew in the music industry. So, I met with them and talked to them about it, and I related to these young people because they’ d had, for different reasons, some trauma in their life”
This shared vision among Stillwell and Court, alongside early supporters including Tee who bought into the concept, helped the initiative evolve from a small experiment into a wider educational model with industry backing and increasing recognition.
From its beginning as a basement experiment, SupaJam was expanded steadily over subsequent years. The first college opened in Swanley 10 years ago. Next came Canterbury, which opened in 2019. Three years later the Wandsworth campus opened its doors. Last year, the Brighton campus launched, and the Earls Court campus will open in September.
Court describes how quickly things escalated:“ We funded it for the first two years, and then very quickly we started getting more success, counsellors would come, and then MPs would come, and then before you knew it, we had a government contract.”
46 accessaa. co. uk