Music

Our Music Curriculum

Wrenthorpe Academy offers an exciting and varied Music Curriculum. Each child receives high-quality Music lessons, which allow them to develop a wide range of skills including team-work and collaboration. Activities include: rhythm work; composition with tuned and un-tuned instruments; creating graphic score; body percussion; and writing raps among others.

In addition to the Music Scheme of Work, every child in school will be given the opportunity to learn a musical instrument (free of charge) at various points in their school career. These opportunities are: whole-class Ocarina lessons for Year 2 children, whole-class recorder lessons for our Year 3 children and whole-class African Drumming lessons (provided by Wider Opportunities) for children in Year 4. Children will also be introduced to formal notation during these lessons, which will help them if they decide to take up Peripatetic Instrumental lessons while they are at Wrenthorpe.

Peripatetic Music Lessons

There is a wide range of instrumental lessons on offer at Wrenthorpe Academy.
The instruments children can choose from include:

• Woodwind (Clarinet, Flute and Saxophone)

• Brass (Trumpet, Cornet, Tenor Horn and Trombone)

• Strings (Violin, Viola and Cello)

• Guitar (Acoustic and Electric)

• and Drums.

All of these lessons are delivered by peripatetic music teachers from Wakefield Music Service. Instrumental lessons are delivered during school time and children receive approximately 20 minutes of quality teaching, once a week, in a group situation.

Children do not need to own their own instrument in order to take lessons at school, as instrument hire is part of the service offered by Wakefield Music Service.

Learning a musical instrument is very rewarding but does take dedication and lots of practice.

Music Assembly

All children in school have access to a Music Assembly every Thursday afternoon. These assemblies are run by Mrs Parry and Miss Carter (alternately) and aim to enhance the children’s musical experiences through singing and other activities.

During Music Assemblies, children are taught the correct techniques for singing and are encouraged to perform the songs rather than just singing them. Children are regularly asked to sing in small groups which encourages them to always try their best and the element of ‘competition’ between groups always ensures that the singing is of a high quality.

In addition to singing, children also have the opportunity to take part in a number of other activities during these assemblies, such as: body percussion, chanting, singing in rounds, listening & appraising and learning about famous composers through history.

Below are some photographs taken during one of our assembly Listening and Appraising sessions. The children were put into groups ranging from Reception to Year 6 and had to work together to create a piece of artwork inspired by a piece of music they listened to. Children thoroughly enjoyed the activity and some of the pieces of art they produced were fantastic! The piece of music was ‘The Magnificent Seven’ by Elmer Bernstien.

Curriculum Enhancements 

In addition to our Curriculum Music lessons, children are also given the opportunity to join a number of Music groups throughout their time in school, which are run by our teachers.

These include:

Choir (Mrs Parry)

Samba Band (Mrs Parry),

Ukulele Club (Miss Carter) and Street Dance (Miss Berry).

Performance Opportunities

We are very proud of the amount of opportunities our children get to perform to audiences throughout the school year. Every child at Wrenthorpe gets at least one chance to perform during the course of the year, not counting their Class Assemblies.

Some of the Performance Opportunities our children receive are:

Reception: Christmas Production, Year 1: Christmas Carol Concert, Year 2: Christmas Production, Years 4 – 6: Choir performances, Year 6 – Samba performances and Years 5 and 6: Street Dance performances.

Musical Extravaganza

All the children in the Choir, Samba band and Street Dance group are given the opportunity to take part in a series of performances at Christmas for our Musical Extravaganza, which is a highly successful event involving approximately 70 children. This event is organised by Mrs Parry and has two main aims – the first is to give the children involved a fantastic opportunity to perform to a large audience (120 people) and to develop their confidence in doing so, and the second is to raise as much money as possible for Wakefield Hospice, a hugely valued local charity.

The Extravaganza combines performances by the Choir, Samba Band and Street Dancers plus a few group numbers which are quite a feat to arrange!  It has been an incredibly successful event right through from its first ever performance until now – in fact, this year’s performances raised a staggering £1012 for Wakefield Hospice over just two evenings! Every year, children say how much they loved being part of the experience and how they look forward to being able to do it again.

Here are a few photos from this year’s wonderful performances:

A Celebration of Musical Talent

We also have a summer event, which we have called ‘A celebration of musical talent’ and what a celebration it is! The idea behind this event is to provide the children who take advantage of Peripatetic instrumental lessons to be given an opportunity to show off the progress they have made throughout the year. We also include in the concert the best children from Miss Carter’s ukulele group, the Gifted and Talented Choir and any other children who have been identified as having musical talent: last year, we had two young men who played the piano beautifully and a small group who performed ‘the Cup Song’ after being identified during their African Drumming sessions.