Rockschool music qualifications are tailor-made for the contemporary musician.
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30 December, 2025
RSL Wrapped 2025: A Year That Hit Every Note
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This Wasn’t Just a Busy Year. It Was a Defining One.
2025 was a year of momentum for RSL, not simply in terms of activity, but in purpose and direction. Across the organisation, we focused on strengthening what we do, why we do it, and how we support learners and educators in a fast-changing creative landscape.
From new brand launches and qualifications to major industry recognition, international engagement, and meaningful conversations about the future of vocational education, this year reflected both ambition and responsibility. It was about building on our legacy while continuing to evolve.
This is RSL Wrapped 2025: a look back at the moments, milestones, and people that shaped a year of progress, creativity, and collaboration.
RSL continues to redefine what can be achieved in creative arts education. Our innovative approach is having a greater impact than ever before. We are so proud of the students and partners who work with RSL.
– Tim Bennett-Hart, RSL Group CEO
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Brand & Business Launches
- A New Chapter: The RSL Group Structure
- The Original Rockschool: Back to the Roots
- RSL Awards & MusicTeacher.com: A Trusted Home for Music Teachers
- Stageschool: Raising the Bar for Performing Arts Education
Product Power: What We Launched
- Piano Syllabus: From Abbey Road to the Classroom
- The brand-new Classical Music Theory syllabus
- Introducing RiFF: Knowledge, Unlocked
FAB Awards: Awarding Organisation of the Year
Showing Up: Events That Put Us Face-to-Face with the Industry
Shaping the Conversation: VQ Conference – Creative Futures
Real-World Impact: Case Studies That Tell the Story
New Voices: Launch of the Creatives’ Corner Podcast
Beyond Borders: Travel, Workshops & Global Reach
Giving Back: Causes We Care About
Big Moves: Brand & Business Launches
A New Chapter: The RSL Group Structure
The introduction of the RSL Group structure was one of the most significant developments of the year.
This change brought greater clarity to how our brands, qualifications, and programmes work together, while strengthening governance and accountability. It enables us to innovate with confidence, maintain rigorous standards, and respond effectively to the evolving needs of the education sector.
As part of this evolution, RSL Group was established as the overarching organisation, bringing together RSL Awards and Rockschool as distinct but closely aligned businesses. This structure allows each brand to focus clearly on its purpose, with RSL Awards continuing to lead on regulated qualifications and assessment, and Rockschool concentrating on contemporary music education and performance, while remaining united by shared values, expertise, and ambition.
Together, this model creates a stronger, more resilient organisation, designed to support learners, educators, and partners both now and into the future.
The summer of 2025 was a real milestone for RSL. Our associate and franchising programmes allow greater integration than ever before. This has also allowed us to think about our governance and the way in which we can ensure our qualifications are rigorous, reliable, and high-quality.
– Tim Bennett-Hart, RSL Group CEO
The Original Rockschool: Back to the Roots
Rockschool has always been about more than learning an instrument. It’s a global movement built on confidence, creativity, and the belief that music education should be engaging, relevant, and accessible.
In 2025, returning to iconic venues such as Abbey Road and Dingwalls was a deliberate reconnection with Rockschool’s roots. These moments celebrated over 35 years of experience distilled into a modern approach to music education, one that supports learners from their first notes through to performance, progression, and professional ambition.
As the fastest-growing global network of music educators and schools, Rockschool continues to empower teachers and students alike. Through a combination of curriculum, training, technology, and business support, it provides a proven framework for high-quality music education, whether delivered through franchises, associate schools, or associate tutors.
Rockschool’s journey is one of structured progress, performance-led learning, and real-world relevance, helping learners find their sound and educators grow sustainable, successful teaching businesses.
RSL Awards & MusicTeacher.com: A Trusted Home for Music Teachers
A further milestone in the evolution of the RSL Group was the decision to make MusicTeacher.com the official Teacher Registry for RSL Awards.
This partnership brings together RSL Awards’ independent certification with MusicTeacher.com’s established international platform, creating a modern, trusted home for music teachers. It provides clearer professional recognition, access to targeted CPD, and improved visibility for teachers, while giving parents and students confidence when choosing a verified professional.
Building on more than a decade of the RSL Teacher Registry, this move allows the registry to be modernised, strengthening safeguarding standards, improving search visibility, and expanding the support available to teachers, ensuring the community continues to grow with confidence and credibility.
Stageschool: Raising the Bar for Performing Arts Education
The launch of Stageschool represents both a new chapter and a continuation of a strong legacy. Its foundations were shaped by the work of PAA, whose qualifications supported performing arts learners and educators for many years, helping to establish clear progression routes and trusted standards within the sector.
Stageschool builds on those foundations, taking what worked, listening to educators, and responding to how performing arts education has evolved. The result is a qualification designed for today’s learners, while remaining grounded in the values, experience, and expertise that PAA helped establish.
Developed for performing arts schools and training providers, Stageschool offers structured, tailored pathways that balance artistic development with academic rigour. It reflects RSL’s commitment to continuity, quality, and progress, ensuring that the steps continue to support learners as the sector moves forward.
Product Power: What We Launched
Piano Syllabus: From Abbey Road to the Classroom
The launch of the new Rockschool Piano syllabus was a standout moment in 2025, introducing a revamped complete pathway for pianists from Premiere to Grade 8.
Built around real music and real skills, the syllabus spans classical, pop, jazz, film, and classic rock, keeping performance at the centre of learning. Professionally recorded backing tracks from Abbey Road Studios bring studio-quality sound into lessons and practice, helping learners connect with real-world performance from the very start.
Designed for flexibility, Rockschool Piano supports both one-to-one and group teaching through a blended format combining printed content with interactive resources powered by RiFF. Shared repertoire across Rockschool instruments also encourages ensemble playing, while Grades 6–8 carry UCAS tariff points, supporting progression into further and higher education.
The brand new Classical Music Theory syllabus
The launch of RSL Classical Music Theory in 2025 strengthened progression for learners looking to deepen their musical understanding alongside performance.
Covering Grades 1–5, the series provides a clear, structured approach to learning how music works, from keys and scales to harmony, intervals, and modulation. Each grade combines an integrated guidebook and workbook, allowing learners to study and practise from a single, essential resource.
Designed to support progressive mastery, Classical Music Theory equips musicians with a shared musical language, helping them communicate ideas with confidence across genres, ensembles, and borders, and become more well-rounded musicians in the process.
Introducing RiFF: Knowledge, Unlocked
This year, RSL introduced RiFF, a powerful new digital sheet music player designed to make music teaching and learning more effective, flexible, and engaging.
Replacing the previous Learning Platform, RiFF represents a significant upgrade in how digital content is delivered and used. Existing digital book purchases transferred seamlessly into RiFF, while new subscription options give teachers access to a growing library of interactive e-books, all managed through their RSL Awards account.
Built to support practice, performance, and exam preparation, RiFF brings music to life through intuitive tools such as multi-angle video, smart playback controls, looping, tempo adjustment, and flexible notation views. Advanced learning aids can be switched on to support development or switched off using Exam Mode, allowing learners to rehearse under printed exam conditions.
RiFF reflects RSL’s ongoing commitment to practical, teacher-led innovation, providing tools that enhance learning without adding complexity, and supporting musicians at every stage of their journey.
Recognition That Matters: Awards & Industry Wins
FAB Awards: AO of the Year
Being named Awarding Organisation of the Year at the Federation of Awarding Bodies’ Qualifications & Assessment Excellence Awards marked a proud moment for RSL Awards in the Awards’ tenth anniversary year.
Announced during the opening evening of the #FAB2025 Conference in Milton Keynes, the award recognised RSL Awards for its innovation, commitment to learners, and leadership in creative and performing arts education. Judged by an independent expert panel, the recognition reflects both sector confidence and rigorous external scrutiny.
A highlight of the evening came from learners at Rhythm Room Music School, whose live performance offered a powerful reminder of why creative education matters, bringing the purpose behind the work into the room.
The award represents the collective efforts of RSL Awards’ teams, educators, examiners, centres, partners, and learners, and a shared commitment to raising standards across creative education.
To be recognised by our Trade Body as Awarding Organisation of the year is a true reflection of the passion and commitment our teams have for our work. We celebrate this achievement with our staff, the amazing assessors and examiners, and our partners in education – the teachers, schools and learners across the globe.
-Tim Bennett-Hart, RSL Group CEO
Showing Up: Events That Put Us Face-to-Face with the Industry
Throughout the year, RSL continued to engage directly with the sector through key industry events, including the Music and Drama Education Expo, the UK Guitar Show, UK Drum Show, and MOVE IT.
These events created opportunities to connect with educators, learners, and industry professionals, to listen to emerging needs, and to share insight. Being present in these spaces helps ensure RSL’s mission remains relevant, responsive, and informed by real-world practice.
Shaping the Conversation: VQ Conference – Creative Futures
Our first-ever VQ Conference – Creative Futures marked a significant milestone for RSL and the wider sector as the first event of its kind dedicated to the future of creative and performing arts education.
Bringing together educators, creatives, policymakers, and industry leaders, the conference created a focused space to explore how creative education must evolve, from qualification design to access, inclusion, and long-term progression.
Keynote insights from the Department for Education and Skills England set the tone for a day of forward-looking discussion. Two live recordings of The Creatives’ Corner podcast added energy and openness, sparking conversations around creativity, opportunity, and the skills needed for the next generation of learners.
The breadth of voices and perspectives reflected both the challenges and the possibilities facing creative education today.
Real-World Impact: Case Studies That Tell the Story
BN1 Arts
Based in Brighton, BN1 Arts is a strong example of what it means to be an RSL Vocational Qualification centre. With a clear ethos centred on access to high-quality, industry-relevant training, BN1 Arts ensures every learner has the opportunity to develop their creative potential.
By delivering RSL’s Level 3 Creative Music Industry and Level 3 Creative & Performing Arts qualifications, the centre provides clear progression routes into professional creative careers. Tutors with direct industry experience bring practical insight into the classroom, ensuring learning is relevant, focused, and tailored to each student’s goals.
Artemis College
Artemis College is helping shape the future of the creative arts by offering free, government-funded performing arts training for students aged 16 and over.
Using RSL’s Creative & Performing Arts Vocational Qualifications from Level 1 to Level 3 as the foundation of their curriculum, Artemis delivers hands-on, vocational training across acting, dance, musical theatre, and technical pathways. The focus is on turning passion into profession, equipping learners with the skills, confidence, and experience needed to progress into further study or industry.
Together, these centres reflect the real-world impact of RSL Vocational Qualifications: supporting educators, empowering learners, and strengthening creative education from the ground up.
New Voices: Launch of the Creatives’ Corner Podcast
This year also saw the launch of The Creatives’ Corner, a new podcast from RSL Awards that shines a spotlight on the people shaping creative arts education.
Hosted by our very own Mark Crawford, the series brings together educators, practitioners, and industry voices from across music, performing arts, digital media, and beyond. Each episode explores real experiences from the sector, the challenges, the successes, and the ideas driving creative education forward.
Through open conversation, The Creatives’ Corner highlights how vocational qualifications empower learners, open up career pathways, and support meaningful progression. It offers a space for shared insight and inspiration, connecting the voices behind creative education with those teaching and learning within it.
Beyond Borders: Travel, Workshops & Global Reach
International Tours
2025 was a busy year for international engagement, with RSL teams travelling extensively to strengthen relationships across our global territories. From China, India, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Hong Kong, to Spain, Italy, South Africa, and the UAE, these visits reinforced partnerships, supported centres on the ground, and ensured RSL’s qualifications continue to reflect local needs within a global framework.
Handel/Hendrix House Workshop
Alongside international travel, 2025 also saw moments of creative focus closer to home. As part of the Handel & Hendrix House Guitar Summer School, RSL Awards CEO Tim Bennett-Hart led a songwriting workshop for young musicians in one of the most historically significant creative spaces in the world.
Working in the same rooms once used by Jimi Hendrix and George Frideric Handel, students explored how to develop ideas, write songs, and turn inspiration into original music, a powerful reminder of how creative education connects past, present, and future.
Giving Back: Shooting Star Children’s Hospices & SupaJam Foundation
Walking Together: The Shooting Star Walk
On 7 September, members of the RSL Awards team will take on a 43km walk from Hove to Arundel as part of the South Coast Ultra Challenge, raising funds for Shooting Star Children’s Hospices.
The challenge supports children with life-limiting conditions and their families, helping to provide care, comfort, and vital support when it is needed most. Taking on the walk is a collective effort, one that reflects RSL’s belief in community, compassion, and showing up for causes that make a real difference beyond education.
SupaJam Foundation: Supporting Young People to Thrive
In 2025, RSL Awards began its sponsorship and support of the SupaJam Foundation, a charity dedicated to supporting young people aged 16–25 with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) as they pursue their passion for music and prepare for life beyond education.
Through creative mentoring, wellbeing support, and community connection, SupaJam Foundation empowers young people to build confidence, resilience, and a sense of belonging at a critical stage of transition. Central to their work is a mentoring programme that pairs young people with trusted adults from the creative, education, and wellbeing sectors, supporting personal goals, creative development, and next steps.
This new partnership reflects a shared belief in the power of creativity to support wellbeing, inclusion, and opportunity, and marks the beginning of a collaboration focused on helping young people feel valued, visible, and supported as they move forward.
Looking Ahead: 2026 Is Already Warming Up
As 2025 draws to a close, the focus turns firmly to what’s next. The year ahead will see continued development across RSL’s qualifications and services, with new launches already in progress, including Acoustic and Vocals new syllabuses, alongside further updates to career development pathways and resources.
Alongside product development, plans are in motion for more events, deeper international engagement, and continued collaboration with educators, centres, and partners across the sector. The aim remains consistent: to deliver creative qualifications that are rigorous, relevant, and genuinely supportive of learner progression.
At the heart of everything is the same mission that has guided RSL from the start, to champion creative education, support those who teach and learn within it, and help ensure that creativity continues to open doors, build confidence, and create opportunity.
The story doesn’t end here. 2026 is already taking shape, and there is much more to come.
The year ahead will continue to be packed full of innovation and achievement. I’m looking forward to new products and qualifications, along with expanding our reach into new countries. The power of creating arts education continues to enrich lives and help build brighter futures.
– Tim Bennett-Hart, RSL Group CEO
