Music News

Find out what we have been up to recently

For more information speak to our Music Leader - Sarah Lloyd

• Monday 17 April 2023 Listening Curriculum - The Blues This summer we are listening to a different piece of Blues music each week.
• Monday 17 April 2023 Our Learning timeline - Summer 1
• Thursday 6 April 2023 Y5 The Beatles Y5 have enjoyed exploring structure through The Beatles songs and developing their ukulele skills to play different pieces. They created their own bands to create versions of Yellow Submarine. Check out this band version!
• Monday 20 February 2023 Listening Curriculum - Religious Songs This half term we are listening to a range of religious songs.
• Monday 20 February 2023 Our Learning Timeline - Spring 2
• Monday 2 January 2023 Listening Curriculum - Musical History This half term we will be listening to a piece each week through each period of western classical music.
• Monday 2 January 2023 Our Learning Timeline - Spring 1
• Wednesday 16 November 2022 Time for change: rap workshop Helen visited us today to share the Southampton Schools RAP challenge. We learnt that RAP stands for Rhythm and Poetry and has 3 main parts: Rhythm, Rhyme and Meaning. We explored these three during our session and loved listening to 23 Skidoo 'Gotta be me' Y6 have some potential rap artists of the future - watch this space!
• Monday 7 November 2022 Our Listening Curriculum - Autumn 2 This half term we are listening to different marches, pieces specifically written for marching! It will be interesting to see what tempo each composer would like us to march at. Most will be at 120bpm which is a lot faster than the roman marches at 60bpm!
• Thursday 20 October 2022 Y1 Sound wheels Y1 have been stopping and starting sound and exploring dynamics with untuned percussion. Using sounds from the gruffalo, they have created their own compositions using soundwheels.
• Thursday 20 October 2022 Y5 in Space!!! Delia Derbyshire was amazing, she changed how sounds were recorded and used with her Dr Who theme. Using her question 'What if....' and thinking about how other composers have described space, Y5 have created their own compositions. Using garageband for the first time means they have learnt lots of new skills as well as exploring samples, clusters and arrays. Have a listen to some of these creative explorations all about space!
• Wednesday 19 October 2022 Watermelon Sugar! Our Ukulele Jam have had worked on new chords and reading rhythmic notation too. They performed Watermelon Sugar today for all the teachers, check out the G7 chord!!!
• Wednesday 19 October 2022 6C Garageband Following the performance with RKDIA, 6B have found out about Daft Punk and used garageband to compose EDM music with structure.
• Wednesday 19 October 2022 Y4 Exploring the instruments This half term Y4 have spent time exploring and trying out the Clarinet, the Violin and the Trumpet. After trying the instrument and re-visiting the following week the children have chosen the instrument they most enjoyed and felt drawn to.
• Wednesday 19 October 2022 6B Garageband Following the performance with RKDIA, 6B have found out about Daft Punk and used garageband to compose EDM music with structure.
• Tuesday 18 October 2022 Y3 painting with sound After exploring graphic notation and instrument sound colours, Y3 learnt about the relationship between Shoenberg and Kandinsky. Using a Kandinsky picture they liked, the children composed their own piece exploring the symbols from the image in sound.
• Monday 17 October 2022 30 purple birds! Year 3 have loved exploring '30 purple birds'! They added steady beats, used tuned percussion, rhythmic and sung ostinato parts. We had a LOT of fun!
• Wednesday 12 October 2022 Our amazing orchestra! Today all our instrumentalists in Y5 and Y6 (all 68!!) met together to play as an ensemble for the first time. There were some nerves and anticipation but lots of smiles and a LOT of musical playing together. We started work on a Half-Minute waltz, playing with 3 in a bar being the additional challenge to listening to each other and reading the notation with their friends.
• Monday 10 October 2022 No place like Thornhill..... Year 2 enjoyed finding all the sounds around Thornhill and creating their own soundscapes.
• Wednesday 21 September 2022 Thank you RKDIA! In music this week Year Six reflected on the performance last week. This email is a collection of ideas from all children. Individual responses can be found in jotter books.
• Thursday 15 September 2022 RKDIA @ Turner Sims Year Six had the most amazing afternoon enjoying a live performance by RKDIA at the Turner Sims Concert Hall in Southampton. For many pupils, this was their first live music enrichment outside of school as Covid prevented so many of our plans. Some children were nervous, most were excited and then we saw the concert hall. The lights set the mood ready for the performance. We were excited by the instrumental set up and keen to see how music tech was used to change and enhance the performance ready to magpie good ideas in our own compositions.
• Thursday 8 September 2022 Music Tech Children in Y5 and Y6 have started exploring sound palettes using garageband.
• Wednesday 7 September 2022 In2music project starts in Y4 Mr Hanchett, Mrs Porter, Mr Farrendon and Mrs Lloyd performed today for Y4. They performed as an ensemble and shared their clarinet, trumpet and violin with the children and parents. We are all very excited about trying out the instruments over the next few weeks to decide which one we would like to learn in Y4! Thank you to all our parents who joined us to find out more about the project.
• Tuesday 6 September 2022 Our Learning timeline Autumn 1 We have started this week with our new composers on our timeline ready to look at how all the composers link over the year.
• Tuesday 6 September 2022 Painting with sound Year 3 have been listening carefully to contrasting pieces of music and thinking about what colours they can hear and words that the music evokes. Come into the music room and all their fantastic artwork.
• Tuesday 6 September 2022 Come and find out more! Check out the reading area in the music room. There are lots of books about musicians, music history and stories with music in. Ask Mrs Lloyd if you would like to borrow them. Mr Moss has lots more in the library that you can read if you like!
• Monday 5 September 2022 Listening Curriculum - Autumn 1 This half term we are listening to lots of different woodwind instruments and listening carefully to their sound. There are pieces from different genres and from different times including Havana by the Breaking Winds Bassoon Quartet and 'Adagio' from the Clarinet Concerto by Mozart.
• Thursday 1 September 2022 Music Mark School 2022-23 We are delighted to have been awarded a Music Mark again this year to acknowledge our high-quality music education for ALL our pupils.
• Thursday 21 July 2022 Y1 Emotions Year 1 have been exploring how their emotions feel and what they might sound like with the help of 'Big Emotions' by Laura Loft. They have been working so hard this half term and on Tuesday had hoped to be performing for their families at Itchen College along with lots and lots of other Y1 children.
• Wednesday 20 July 2022 Ukulele Jamming with Y3 Y3 have loved learning the Ukulele this term. We have been so impressed with their resilient attitudes as it's been tricky in places but they have learnt so much.... names of parts of the ukulele, string names and sounds, how to play together, how to play on the beat, how to pluck and strum strings, how to read chord charts and how to compose chord loops and strumming patterns.... WOW!
• Tuesday 19 July 2022 Y5 Blues Y5 did NOT have the blues this morning! They worked superbly as an ensemble to perform their own class blues. Well done to our amazing musicians who played chords (with three beaters - Mrs Lloyd is so pleased with you all!), sang their own blues lyrics and improvised..... What a brilliant end to our Blues learning.
• Monday 11 July 2022 Y2 Fanfares Y2 played their final fanfares today and were brilliant at using three lines to record their high, middle & low musical ideas.
• Wednesday 6 July 2022 Y6 Minimalism Having chosen their expanding ostinato rhythm Y6 choose a 4 note chord to use for composing their phrases. They challenged themselves to write on staff notation for their final composition of Y6. Have a look at these amazing results! Well done Y6 for managing to play them too - simply brilliant.
• Wednesday 29 June 2022 Y4 Summer Concert This morning our Y4 children played their final concert together to a packed hall of family and friends. They performed as a whole ensemble as well as playing individual group pieces. Hannah wowed us with her piano performance of an Argentine Tango as well.
• Wednesday 29 June 2022 Y5/6 Instrumentalist Concert What a morning!! We are so proud of all our children for performing their final pieces today and how far they have come with their learning. Well done to everyone. Thank you to our parents who joined us to share in the fantastic performances, we really appreciate your support at home.
• Friday 10 June 2022 Platinum Jubilee Celebrations
• Monday 6 June 2022 Our Learning Timeline Wow! Look at all the musicians and composers across time and around the world we've studied this year.
• Monday 6 June 2022 Music from Africa This half term we are listening to the rich variety of music from across Africa as our listening curriculum in class each morning.
• Wednesday 25 May 2022 Musical Patterns Y1 have been exploring musical patterns using all the inter-related dimensions. There has been lots of listening, responding and playing!
• Tuesday 24 May 2022 Secrets and Codes Y5 found out all about Grazyna Bacewicz this half term and how she hid messages in her music during WW2. We were sad to learn that female composers were still unusual at this time and there was a lot of discussion around this.
• Tuesday 17 May 2022 Y3 Ukulele Jam This half term Y3 were very excited to start learning the ukulele. They have worked really hard on the skills of plucking and strumming and learning chords. Despite this being really tricky everyone has been really resilient and can already play C major, F major and A minor. We're going to tackle tricky G7 next! Watch this space for our own jamming loops....
• Monday 16 May 2022 Minibeast Rhythms Y2 have been discovering all about Evelyn Glennie and reading rhythmic notation. They have really impressed us with how well they have read the rhythms and how hard they are trying to remember the technical terms 'crotchet' and 'quaver'. Well done Y2!
• Thursday 5 May 2022 Young Voices! What an amazing day! Today, 55 children from our Young Voices choir joined with the biggest choir in the world at the O2 Arena, London to sing in the 25th Anniversary concert, Young Voices 2022!!!
• Wednesday 27 April 2022 Singing for the Platinum Jubilee Today in school Nia Collins from Southampton Music Hub joined us in our singing assemblies. She taught us all a brand new song, written by a local composer, to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee. In Southampton there will be 'The Big Platinum Festival' on Sunday 5th June at Mayflower Park as part of the city celebrations.
• Wednesday 27 April 2022 Y4 reading Y4 started the term in their instrumental groups and were sounding fantastic! The trumpets were reading a piece in 6/8 from staff notation jumping between notes and getting faster and faster while the clarinets started with an arrangement in parts of hot cross buns before starting to sight-read their new piece. Mrs Porter was really proud of her violin group who read and played this whole piece! Well done.
• Monday 25 April 2022 Our Learning Timeline Summer 1
• Sunday 24 April 2022 Listening Curriculum This half term we will be listening to music from across musical history. We will start with a medieval piece of music until we hear a piece from more recent times. It will be great to hear how the music has changed.
• Thursday 7 April 2022 Y1 Space rhythms Y1 have been responding to music by listening to the tempo. They composed musical sentences using rhythm patterns from astronaut names and wrote these using musical blobs. Finally they explored silence with an astronaut asleep and trying to play their astronaut musical sentence at the same time as another group played the steady beat.
• Wednesday 6 April 2022 Y4 Arranging Scurvy Pirate Y4 enjoyed an exciting end to the half term learning about different types of folk songs. They warmed up as an ensemble with Dance Monkey before creating a final arrangement of scurvy pirate including singing and playing (as well as a lot of dancing and smiling!)
• Wednesday 6 April 2022 West African Djembe drumming Year 6 have been exploring syncopated rhythm layering using Djembe drums from West Africa. They explored some as a class group adding the Gankogui and trying call and response before composing some of their own pieces.
• Wednesday 6 April 2022 Y5 & 6 Instrument Concert Today we were wowed by our instrumentalists from Year 5 and Year 6. They were incredibly brave performing for the first time to an audience full of family and friends. There were lots of smiles and they sounded amazing. Thank you to all our families for joining us to celebrate the incredible progress the children have made.
• Tuesday 5 April 2022 Yellow Submarine Band Covers Y5 have loved finding out all about The Beatles this half term. We formed our own 'Fab Four' and created a cover of Yellow Submarine. Check out this band, they created their own intro, chorus and outro using drums, bass bars, ukuleles and their own voices!
• Tuesday 5 April 2022 Roman rhythm layers Year 3 used crotchets, quavers and rests to compose their roman rhythm sentences. As part of their final piece each group layered three rhythms together. Have a listen to each group playing their rhythms before they composed their final piece. Well done Jellyfish class!
• Tuesday 5 April 2022 Little Voices in Concert! Little Voices shared their singing with their families today and they were AMAZING! Lots of children led the song 'John Kanakanaka' singing solos, they sang in rounds and with ostinatos! Ask to hear our version of 'Blue Brother Jake'. We loved singing the body percussion version too :)
• Monday 4 April 2022 Y2 Heroes and Villains Y2 have had a very exciting half term. It all started with a visit to the MAST studios to experience 'Heroes and Villains' live performed by Southampton Young Concert Sinfonia, Y2 helped solve the clues in the music to find the hero.
• Thursday 17 March 2022 Y4 sea shanties Y4 are finding out all about music for movement. Starting with sea shanties and the 'scurvy pirate' we sang the melody with some ostinato harmony lines before we worked out how the rhythm was notated and started to compose our own on our instruments.
• Thursday 17 March 2022 Y3 Marching Year 3 have been exploring rhythm patterns using crotchets, quavers and rests with some help from John Philip Sousa, the marching King! They are using facts they know about the romans to compose a roman piece for marching with themselves... come back to check out our compositions!
• Thursday 17 March 2022 Amazing instrumentalists Since February some of our instrumentalists have been playing to welcome KS1 into singing assembly each week. It's been so exciting for the children to hear live music and we have been totally wowed by our children. Thank you so much to all those who have played so far - you were simply amazing!
• Thursday 10 March 2022 Y2 Recorder Club Today was very exciting in Y2. Following from their recorder learning in class we have started up a lunch time recorder club for those who would like to continue. Mrs Lloyd was very impressed by how well they played and how much they had remembered! Well done Year 2, Mrs Purdy and Miss Wiles.
• Tuesday 8 March 2022 Y2 Meet the Orchestra Y2 met the Orchestra today! They had a fantastic morning at the 'Heroes and Villains' Concert by Southampton Youth Concert Sinfonia. Back in school they will now be finding out how John Williams used the musical elements to compose themes for heroes and villains and composing their own.
• Monday 28 February 2022 Jazz listening focus This half term we are listening to the genre: jazz. Each week there will be a focus piece which will be played throughout the week. Each piece will feature a different instrument predominantly used in jazz. Jazz musicians are from a diverse background.
• Monday 21 February 2022 Our Learning TImeline
• Wednesday 16 February 2022 What an afternoon! This afternoon a group of Year 4 pupils and their families worked with musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The RPO are composing the theme for Women's Euros and wanted our ideas! The children were fantastic and we can't wait to hear the piece full of our musical themes. Watch this space for the summer term when the RPO will be back with the piece for us to learn to play!
• Wednesday 16 February 2022 Y4 In2music Concert Thank you so much to all our families who joined us for our first In2music Concert this morning. We are so proud of the children and how well they performed. Thank you for all your support at home and encouragement.
• Monday 14 February 2022 Rockin' Recorders This half term Y2 have been learning to play the recorder. Check out how amazing they sound! Well done to fantastic Y2 and their amazing teachers.
• Thursday 10 February 2022 Y1 get whacking Y1 have been exploring pitch this half term thinking about Jack climbing his Beanstalk. They have found which instruments from the orchestra make high and low pitched sounds and composed their own sentences with boomwhackers. Look at how they've written their final sentences! Well done Year 1.
• Wednesday 9 February 2022 Partner songs We've had so much fun singing partner songs this half term! Key Stage Two have loved the gospel medley and fruit medley. KS1 have enjoyed using nursery rhymes and singing them together. They have been moving lots singing 'My dog' and internalising parts of songs with Tony Chestnut.
• Wednesday 9 February 2022 Five note fizz! Check out our amazing Y6 pupils performing their own arrangements of Five Note Fizz. Explore jazz and improvising this half term has been so much fun but challenging for all our pupils. We've been learning about syncopated rhythms and playing lots of these but the highlight was playing together with our own instruments as a massive ensemble. It was so much fun!
• Tuesday 1 February 2022 Celebrating Chinese New Year Y3 have been exploring pentatonic scales this half term and listening to music from China. Using glockenspiels,xylophones and bass bars we have been reading and writing our own ideas with brick walls. We also arranged our own version of 'Gung Hay Fat Choy'. Have a listen!
• Thursday 27 January 2022 Y4 enjoy the Children's Concert Y4 had an amazing morning listening to Southern Pro Musica perform this morning. It was fantastic to watch how the musicians behaved and listen to how they played together ready for our own concert in a few weeks.
• Thursday 20 January 2022 New Young Voices date! We are so pleased to announce we have the new date for our Young Voices concert - Thursday 5th May 2022.
• Friday 17 December 2021 Christmas video audio We were so sad not to be able to invite parents into school as planned.
• Friday 17 December 2021 Christmas lunch concert We are so proud of all the instrumentalists in Year Five and Year Six who played for Year One today during their Christmas lunch. It was amazing to see so many of you playing and to hear how well you have been getting on this term. A special well done to our Year Five children for their first ever individual performances!
• Wednesday 15 December 2021 Proud to be me in Y6 Y6 have been finding out all about RAP. Listening to lots of different pieces we discovered that rappers are keen to share their stories. Children have been borrowing 'Sci Fu' by Yehudi Mercado and listening to the playlist at home to find out more about the origins of RAP music in the 1970s. We've had rap battles with rhyming words and had a go at writing our own raps too!
• Wednesday 15 December 2021 A cappella timeline This half term our listening curriculum has been all about a cappella music. Starting with Gregorian chants in medieval times, children have spent a week listening to a cappella music as it changed through time. This included gospel music in the 1800s, Barbershop Quartets in the 1930s to Doo-wap in the 1940s. Now we've reached groups listened to today, the children are enjoying Pentatonix and are amazed that all these pieces are performed with no musical accompaniment!
• Tuesday 7 December 2021 Y5 tuned in 5C have been working really hard this half term reading musical blobs showing pitch and how to write these on staff notation. They have been exploring pitch patterns, reading and writing pitched blob notation and finally having a go at reading and playing pieces.
• Wednesday 1 December 2021 Down in the jungle Y4 got together with their instruments this morning to put together their own version of 'down in the jungle'. Can you spot which animals they are describing and think about how they have managed this.
• Tuesday 30 November 2021 Little Voices Children from Little Voices have enjoyed singing this fun Father Christmas song. We are really proud of the Y3 children who were the leaders of each group. Well done Little Voices!
• Wednesday 10 November 2021 Y4 start learning their chosen instruments today! Today was very exciting for our Y4 children. Have tried out all three instruments the children chose the one that they would like to learn for the rest of the year and today was their first lesson!
• Friday 22 October 2021 Y5 Space compositions Y5 were really proud of their final compositions about 'Space' today when they listened to their own piece as well as helping other children identify what went well in their piece and giving questions and suggestions for improvements. The children have loved our M:tech unit and it was lovely to see evaluation comments not only about musical learning but also getting on better with other children and improving listening skills. Well done Y5!
• Tuesday 19 October 2021 Y3 Kandinsky Y3 have really enjoyed exploring Kandinskys artwork and playing the picture. They thought all about colour and shape and composed their own pieces. Finally, using chrome music lab they explored shape and colour using music tech for sounds. It was interesting watching their ideas develop and listening to why they chose the colours for performance.
• Tuesday 19 October 2021 Y2 Soundscape celebration Y2 shared the learning from their topic 'Thornhill' with their families today. The hall was absolutely packed! As well as performing their own soundscapes inspired by Kerry Andrew 'No place like' the children also shared their knowledge of continents and oceans by singing the songs they have used in class to support their learning. It was a fantastic afternoon and so wonderful to have parents back in school. We hope all the parents enjoyed the performances and talking with their child about their learning in class afterwards.
• Monday 18 October 2021 Hares Garageband compositions This half term in music Y6 have been learning about EDM music and focusing on Daft Punk. The children have been looking at how artists have structured their music. Using live loops in garageband Y6 composed their own piece considering the structure of each section.
• Monday 18 October 2021 Bees garageband compositions This half term in music Y6 have been learning about EDM music and focusing on Daft Punk. The children have been looking at how artists have structured their music. Using live loops in garageband, Y6 composed their own piece carefully considering their own structure.
• Thursday 14 October 2021 Y1 Gruffalo soundwheels Check out these soundwheels composed by Y1! Can you spot the gruffalo and the mouse? The children loved composing and playing their own pieces. We were really impressed when they used quiet and loud dynamics for the gruffalo and mouse and showed these on their soundwheels too.
• Thursday 23 September 2021 Y2 Thornhill Soundwalk Today Y2 explored all the sounds they could hear around Thornhill inspired by Kerry Andrew 'No place like'. It was a fantastic morning and we heard a lot more than the children thought they might!
• Tuesday 21 September 2021 Little Voices After school today our Little Voices choir met for the first time. There were a lot of smiles and a LOT of singing too!
• Friday 17 September 2021 Music tech Y5 and Y6 have had an exciting start to the year exploring garageband on ipads.
• Friday 17 September 2021 Finding the gruffalo Y1 have been using the musical instruments this week to help the mouse find the gruffalo. By playing with control and changing dynamics the children helped the mouse to find the gruffalo when he was hidden in the music room.
• Wednesday 15 September 2021 Power in me Singing assemblies started again today!!!!!!!!!!
• Wednesday 15 September 2021 Young Voices Choir This Wednesday 60 children stayed after school to start learning the songs and dances needed for the concert at The O2 Arena in January 2022.
• Wednesday 8 September 2021 Y4 In2music project Y4 and their parents had a great start to their first access project this morning. Mr Hanchett, Mr Lloyd and Mrs Porter introduced the instruments that the children will be learning this year. The children had the chance to ask lots of questions and hear each of the instruments played alone as well as in an ensemble. We were so impressed with how well the children listened and would like to thank all the parents who joined us for the session.
• Wednesday 8 September 2021 We love playing instruments! We had a busy start to the school year getting ready all the clarinets, trumpets and violins for Y5 & Y6. We are so excited that 89 children in Y5 & Y6 will be learning instruments this year!!! We can't wait to hear their progress over the term and for our first orchestra session together.
• Tuesday 7 September 2021 What colour is the sound? Y3 started the year thinking about colour in sound. Using water colours they listened carefully and thought about the colours and shapes the music evoked for them.
• Monday 6 September 2021 Music Mark School 2021-22 We are delighted to have been nominated as a music mark school again this year to acknowledge our high quality music provision for ALL our pupils.
• Wednesday 14 July 2021 Y4 Instrumental fun! This morning was very exciting as our Y4 children were trying out lots of different instruments ready for Y5.  Sadly, our first access provision was not able to go ahead as normal this year but all the children have explored the violin.  They have now tried trumpet, clarinet and flute to decide if they would like to have free small group lessons in Y5.  Thank you so much to Mr Hanchett, Mr Lloyd and Mrs Porter for supporting and guiding all our children this morning - you were all amazing! 
• Monday 12 July 2021 Let's Get Loud Let's Get Loud performed by Y4, Y5 & Y6 instrumentalists - we are so very proud of you all.  Well done!  https://youtu.be/9FHOdvnZl-4
• Tuesday 6 July 2021 Congratulations! Massive congratulations to Amelia and Ellie in Y5 who have both passed their Grade 1 Clarinet exams!  What an incredible achievement.  Amelia and Ellie began Clarinet as part of our First Access project in Year 4 but their lessons were interrupted when school locked down.  They persevered with their playing at home and carried on in a small group in Y5.  Once again they swapped to online learning when school closed and worked towards their Grade 1 exam at home. 
• Monday 5 July 2021 iPad Band Today 10 children from Y6 who will be attending Woodlands in September used their iPad skills to work with Ricky Tart.   They had a fantastic day and created their own iPad Band.  All the children involved are invited to join the iPad Band after school in September at Woodlands with Ricky.  We can't wait to hear what their band sounds like in the future! 
• Friday 2 July 2021 Arts Week - Storms! We have had a fantastic week in school this week.  As a school we took the theme 'Storm' and listened to Benjamin Britten's "Storm Interlude" and Vanessa Mae's "Storm".  Children responded physically and discussed their personal responses before creating an art response using skills they have already practised so far this year. 

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