Autumn Term
Year 1 have been looking at some songs following their theme 'All About Me'. We have been learning how to find the pulse and play some un-tuned percussion. We have even begun to play at certain points in the music, this has required control and good listening.
Year 2 have been learning songs all about the Great Fire of London. We have learned how to sing London's burning in a round and pupils have begun to use tuned instruments to learn how to play the simple melody. This will lead the way to being able to compose our own simple 2 or 3 note melody.
Year 3 Have been learning some songs about the stone-age. We have used these songs to help us learn about how symbols can help us make music. Children have been able to read and play simple rhythms and in turn compose their own. They have also been working hard with their recorder teacher, Miss Hayden.
Year 4 have been continuing their Strings and Things lessons and have recently introduced using the bow. We have recently performed to parents at the end of October and will be invited to play at the Winter Concert in December.
Year 5 have been learning to play the ukulele. They were also learning some songs to sing at the abbey but unfortunately the service has been cancelled due to current concerns with covid. They are very excited to learn Feliz Navidad and hope to be able to perform it at the winter concert on 9th December.
Year 6 have been discovering how music has evolved over time. First exploring and then composing their own medieval song using keyboards, laptops and formal notation. They have moved on to the 1600's in line with their British Empire topic and have been learning an arrangement of Pachebel's Canon using a mixture of tuned classroom instruments and their own.
Spring Term
Year 1 This term year 1 have been exploring the musical pulse. They have used a song called 'In the Groove' to play rhythm games and begin to explore pitch. They have even played a 2 note melody on some tuned classroom percussion.
Year 2 This term year 2 explored their Mr Men topic in music. They created sounds which represented different characters and began to sequence these. They then used their own Mr Men stories to create a song. After half term we have shifted our focus to Castles and we have used songs about knights and towers to explore rhythm and melody.
Year 3 This term we have used a series of Jack and the Beanstalk songs to explore lots of musical elements such as timbre and pitch. Children have used both tuned and untuned instruments and have begun to explore what music looks like when it is written down. Year 3 have also made tremendous progress with their recorder playing with Mrs Salway and have learned some lovely new songs.
Year 4 This term the children have continued to develop their musical knowledge through 'Strings and Things'. This term, in particular they have been able to work on developing their bowing and children finished off the term with a wonderful performance to their parents and the year 3's who will be starting Strings and Things in the Summer Term.
Year 5 This term year 5 have used a series of Songs from the BBC Viking Sagas series. These have formed the starting point for children to explore musical structure and has resulted in some fantastic songwriting about their Viking Topic using both a melody and an accompaniment.
Year 6 A number of weeks were spent dedicated to learning the songs for the Year 6's to perform at the Alban Arena. However, they also managed to explore some songs from the WWII era. They have used these lessons to explore how songs make them feel but have also explored the correlation between the sound of music and what this looks like on the page. Pupils have enjoyed finding out about, playing by ear and writing down songs by artists such as Vera Lynn, Glenn Miller and Flanagan & Allen.