Music is at the heart of our school community.
All pupils access a wide range of musical experiences in order to develop their love and appreciation for music. We foster musical excellence in all areas, for all children, through our well-designed curriculum, access to specialist instruction and numerous extra-curricular opportunities.
In Autumn 2024, we were chosen by Lewisham Music to be awarded the Music Mark accreditation in recognition of the value that we place on music in our school.
How we celebrate Music at John Stainer Primary
Weekly Specialist Music Lessons
Children from Early Years to Year 6 have a weekly music lesson with a specialist music teacher, developing key music skills and creativity.
Reception / Year 1 – Children enjoy weekly sessions with Joe, who runs a specialist music club called Little Keys, whilst developing an understanding of the musical beat, rhythm and pitch hidden in each song. The children use percussion and movement to enhance these sessions and progress to writing musical notes and symbols.
Year 2 and 3 – Children are very fortunate to have the opportunity to learn with Lucy, a professional soprano, who works with Grange Park Opera as part of their Primary Robbins programme. Each term, the children learn new songs and have access to their own songbook which helps them to become familiar with musical notation.
Learn more here https://grangeparkopera.co.uk/primaryrobins/
Year 4 – Children love their weekly recorder sessions with Lluís, a professional woodwind musician, who works with us via our partnership with the Lewisham Music Services.
Year 5 – Children have the opportunity to learn a string instrument in their weekly ukulele lessons with Aidan, another professional musical tutor from Lewisham Music. The children work towards an end of year performance and impress us all with the range of songs they can play as the year progresses.
Year 6 – Children are taught by Mr King who, some of you may already know, is a professional musician as well as teacher in our school.
This Autumn term they joined a project with the English National Opera
https://www.eno.org/discover-opera/learning/finish-this/ and even go to spend a day behind the scenes at The Coliseum. The children develop their composition skills through the Charanga Programme and compose their own original music in the spring and summer terms.
Music Development Plan
music development plan john stainer final.pdf
Creating Digital Music
In an increasing technological world, we create opportunities for our children to use technology across the breadth of our curriculum. Children use a range of software programmes to create their own digital music with a focus on information technology in the Making Music unit in Year 2 and a focus on computer science in the Sequencing Music unit in Year 3. This allows our children to use their computing skills to communicate and express themselves creatively.
Weekly Music Lessons
Music in the playground and the wider community:
We are lucky enough to be able to perform and share the space at our local church St Catherine's Hatcham. Each year our amazing choir and orchestra come together to curate an evening concert as part of the local Telegraph Hill Festival where we get to showcase our talents with the wider community.
Coming together to share, sing and perform is at the heart of our school community. Each week all of our children join in a weekly singing assembly where we sing songs (new and old) together. We are proud to be a Sing Up school and each term children learn new songs from a wide range of genres.
Throughout the year, all children are given the opportunity to perform for audiences for different purposes. This includes whole school assemblies for special events, class assemblies, Christmas performances and end of year shows. We take incredible pride in the standard of these performances which are an important opportunity for our children to showcase their enormous talent in singing, dancing and acting
School Orchestra:
We are extremely fortunate to have an amazing school orchestra where over 60 children learn alongside 20 parents/carers who give up their time voluntarily every Friday morning. The orchestra is led by David and Mary, a very talented family team, who set it up many years ago while they were parents at our school. Their children have now moved on to secondary school and beyond but David and Mary continue to lead the orchestra. Many of the children who play in orchestra have no prior instrumental lessons but are skilfully and tirelessly coached by the adult volunteers. At the end of each term, we see the amazing results of their efforts when the orchestra perform for the whole school and never fail to impress us all with how incredible they sound when they play together.
Learn more about our very talented orchestra leader here
https://www.davidschweitzer.net/
School Choir:
We have a highly talented and thriving school choir led by Mrs Power, Ms Roberts and some of our highly dedicated parent volunteers as part of our Extra-Curricular Club offer. The choir perform at a number of high profile events each year which includes The Turning of the Year concert at Blackheath Halls and the annual Telegragh Hill Festival. They also go to St Christopher’s Hospice each Christmas to sing choirs for the residents and staff and provide entertainment at a number of school events.
Read more here about the Hope 4 Justice project where our amazing talent was recognised. We were chosen, out of 27 school choirs, to record an album in a professional recording studio.
https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/story/hope-4-justice/
https://transpont.blogspot.com/2024/03/music-monday-hope-4-justice-with-eska.html
Rehearsal for Turning of the Year
Each year, our talented choir attends the Turning of The Year concert at Blackheath Concert Halls. They join other local schools to become a wonderful massed choir, performing songs together, including harmonies and actions. They were conducted by Clare Caddick, the Head of Lewisham Music. Each school then performed their own piece of music.
Experiencing Live Music – Our Educational Visits
We are highly committed to giving the children the opportunity to experience the joy of live musical performance in some of London’s most iconic venues. Each year, we organised for all children from Year 1-6 to attend a live performance. In the past this has included The Barbican, Royal Festival Hall, Wilton’s Music Hall, Blackheath Halls, Royal Albert Hall. We also work closely with Trinity Laban Music Conservatoire who visit and perform for us in school.
Blackheath Goes Gospel
At John Stainer, Music extends beyond the national curriculum through a wide range of community events. Here below, the children's Musical ability came to life as they celebrate the joys of gospel singing and performed with Blackheath Goes Gospel Choir.
Blackheath Goes Gospel
Christmas
At Christmas the EYFS performs a musical version of The Nativity to both the whole school and the parents.
KS1 perform their own musical for Christmas which involves many songs and acting opportunities. KS2 walk up to St. Catherine’s Church, and perform a themed Christmas Concert, with each class performing a high class item to a packed church – often with children leading the music by playing their own instruments.
Intent
Implementation
At John Stainer, our Music curriculum is delivered through:
- A programme of lessons taught for progression and depth and appropriate challenge opportunities.
- Charanga Musical School units of work to enable children to understand musical concepts through a repetition-based approach to learning which enables a more secure, deeper learning and mastery of musical skills.
- Weekly singing assemblies.
- Extra-curricular activities and clubs, including choir.
- Access to well organised and well-resourced instruments.
- Groups which perform at a local events and other performance opportunities
- Watching and taking part in concerts.
- Assemblies and productions.
- Educational Visits to the Barbican
- Performances by Educational Visitors who visit our school for demo concerts and workshops.
- A rich, vibrant and talented parent-led orchestra which consists of over 50 children.
Impact
We know that our Music Curriculum has the desired impact when:
- Children show that they have an embedded understanding of musical skills and concepts.
- Children are enthused about music.
- Children develop new musical skills and concepts, and re-visit established musical skills and concepts.
- Speak and perform with confidence.
- Have the confidence to perform and evaluate performances.
Music Beyond the Classroom
As you will see from above, Music permeates beyond the classroom into all areas of school life.