MUSIC PROVISION AT ST MARY’S

At St Marys we are proud of the opportunities we give our children to develop confidence in musical activities. We want all children to leave us having had an enjoyable experience of music and a wish to continue as they get older.

Each class has carefully planned music lesson each week where children have the opportunity to listen, perform, play instruments and sing. We want music to be an enjoyable and up lifting experience and to inspire children to pursue music as they get older.

It is through music, and in particular singing club that we can get out into the community and share music with a wide variety of groups in our town. We wear bright yellow tops with our logo on (sponsored by Southerndown) which makes us quite distinctive. These visits are beneficial to both our children and those we meet and allows us to feel very involved in our community.

As well as our thriving singing club, we promote singing throughout the school using “Sing Up” and we have their silver award for school singing. This means singing ideas are readily accessible to all classes and can be used as a part of our daily teaching. A highlight of our end of terms is “the Sing Up” Assembly where each class shares a song with the school. This has become a great source of excitement and fun performing to each other. The staff get involved too and we often have a staff song, which of course the children love! Our year six show at the theatre always showcases the children’s confidence to perform in front of an audience and we are always proud of what they achieve.

We see the importance of specialist teaching as our children get older and we invest in music lessons for year 5/6 from the Oxfordshire Music Service. This allows all our children to have the opportunity to learn an orchestral instrument for their final two years with us. This is a wonderful opportunity and allows the children to develop new skills and perform together. It is exciting to see children inspired and then continue learning an instrument at their secondary schools.

In addition, children are able to have private individual lessons in school time.

Carol English (Music Lead at S. Mary’s C of E(A) Primary School)