Music
We enjoy developing our children’s musical awareness through the use of the fantastic Kapow Music scheme.
Our music curriculum supports all requirements of the National Curriculum and the new Model Music Curriculum as children learn to develop their skills in listening, performing, composing, history of music and the interrelated dimensions of music.
We enjoy displaying our musical talents at every opportunity - and we integrate songs, hymns and our instrumental talents into our talent shows, Class Assemblies, Harvest services, Remembrance services, Easter services, Christmas services and productions, end-of year productions and of course, our daily Assemblies.
Music Curriculum at Ellwood Community Primary School
As musicians we listen, compose, appraise and perform music from around the world.
Ellwood is a Music Mark School!
We have been nominated by the Gloucestershire Music Hub again this year to become a Music Mark School.
Music Mark is the UK Association for Music Education who champion and support access to music for all children and young people.
Willow class have been learning about music wishing the film industry. They have been experimenting with musical instruments used within the making of film music. They have also been finding out lots of interesting facts about music witching this industry too.
Since the new introduction of music tuition at Ellwood school, we have two new musicians and they are two of the youngest members of school learning to play an instrument. It is so exciting to see such young budding musicians, in school, learning to play the guitar and the piano.
Willow Class
Children in y5 and 6 have been learning to sing songs from South and West Africa. One song was sung in a Capella. They then learnt to play percussion instruments to fit the song.
Autumn term 1 2023 - Oak Class
In Oak Class we have enjoyed finding the beat and exploring high and low sounds. We have also enjoyed learning, singing and creating actions to different Nursery Rhymes.
Chestnut Music Summer 1
This term we have been learning how to keep a steady pulse, use instruments to make animal noises and performing songs!
Beech Class Spring Term
This term we have enjoyed taking part in the 'Musical Me' unit of work, experimenting with our voices, we learnt about rhythm, dynamics and beat.
Choir Club Spring Term
Choir have had fun learning a range of different songs and experimenting with our voices.
Autumn 2021 - Beech
We would like to share with you some fantastic work that Beech Class have been working hard on.
Over the past couple of weeks, we have been looking at ballads. We listened and discussed different ballads and then we were challenged to write our own ballad as a class based on a short video.
We created the lyrics and then learnt to sing them to the tune of a popular song.
Willow Class - Autumn Term 2022
Willow class have been learning about the celebration of colour ‘Hoki’. They have been thinking about music as different colours.
Summer Term 2021
We were very fortunate to have had the concert pianist Clare Hammond visit our school. Clare Hammond is a British concert pianist, who in 2016, was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society's Young Artist award. She performed a recital for the KS1 and KS2 children in their classrooms. The children thoroughly enjoyed the experience and for some children this was the first time they had heard a live classical piano recital. What a treat!
Spring Term 2021
Beech, Sycamore and Willow classes attended a live streamed concert from the London Sinfonietta. The children enjoyed joining in with the sign language and learning about the pentatonic scale.
Willow took part in one of the challenges set by the London Sinfonietta and created their own compositions on postcards. The children thought creatively about how they could express different elements of music in their own way. Well done Willow. These postcard compositions are brilliant!
Sycamore - Autumn Term 2020
We have been listening and appraising Christmas songs! We discussed the different genres, the various instruments we could hear, structures of the songs and the lyrics.
We looked at notation and rhythms. We arranged some basic rhythms to create our own composition and we performed it on an untuned instrument.
We learnt about traditional notation. Soon, we are going to be composing our own Christmas songs and performing them in front of the class.
Young Voices Concert 2019
'Singing and Performing' is so much fun!
Our School choir travelled to Birmingham on Friday 25th January 2019 to take part in a national singing concert with a difference for a second year running! Pupils from Years 4, 5 and 6 had learnt a host of songs and showed great enthusiasm and engagement during their rehearsals.
Another year on and it certainly didn’t disappoint. The atmosphere throughout the day was fantastic and the children had a lot of fun, whilst working hard to practise the songs and dance moves.
The aim of Young Voices is to inspire a love of music and create memories for the children that will last a lifetime. The music is specially selected to create a diverse musical repertoire that introduces children to the widest possible spectrum of music. By providing a diverse range of musical styles, our children learnt and enjoyed a fuller understanding of music - and what it means to sing together.
We would like to thank the parents and families of our pupils for allowing their children to experience such a memorable event - and also for travelling to the arena to be a part of the vast audience. We hope that it will remain in the memories of our children and their families forever!
Well done!
'Listening and Appraising' at St Briavels School
As part of our 'Listening and Appraising' in Music lessons, pupils in Year 5 and Year 6 were invited to St Briavels school to enjoy a performance by an incredible string quartet. The musicians provided an inspirational show that included many pieces of modern music that we recognised, intertwined with many pieces that were new to us.
They explained how their instruments were used and answered our many questions about their impressive performance. The string musicians were extremely talented and they held our attention brilliantly. They even invited Harriet from Willow Class and Jayden from Sycamore Class to join them in their demonstrations! We were told that we made a fantastic audience and we were complimented on our wonderful behaviour.
We are very grateful that we had the opportunity to watch such an engaging production and we loved discussing our favourite pieces that the quartet had played later in the day when we returned to school.
Sycamore class are very fortunate to be having clarinet music tuition this term. They are working on how mouth position changes the way the instrument sounds. They are also working on hand position when using the clarinet.
It has been very exciting to see and hear the sound of music through the school during our new addition of piano and guitar lessons. We have recently introduced music lessons due to the high numbers of interest from children wanting to learn an instrument. Parents have spoken highly of the lessons so far with one parents explaining “ my daughter is thoroughly enjoying the lessons and we have signed up for more lessons for the summer term. Thank you so much for organising them”. If your child would like to get involved with music lesson please get in touch with the office.
Autumn term 1 - 2023 - Sycamore class
Sycamore Class have been enjoying Gamelan music. They have had the opportunity to experience a number of different instruments. If you didn't already know, Gamelan is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese people of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. The most common instruments used are metallophones played by mallets and a set of hand-played drums called kendang, which register the beat. The children have taken part in these sessions over a number of weeks and have really enjoyed learning about music from another culture.
Summer Term 1 2022
Year 1 are having great fun learning how music can represent the environment. We have been using instruments to represent seaside sounds and making simple songs.
Oak Autumn 2022
We have been busy learning about the beat and tempo within our music lessons.
The children have enjoyed action rhymes and movement within their lessons.
Autumn 1 2022-2023
Chestnut Class
Through fairy tales, children were introduced to the concept of timbre; learning that different sounds can represent characters and key moments in a story. They explored clapping along to the syllables of words and phrases before creating rhythmic patterns to tell a familiar fairy tale.
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Sycamore Autumn 1 2022
Sycamore have been learning about graphic notation and learning to play an instrument with the right notes.
Spring Term 2021 - Sycamore
Sycamore have been enjoying listening and appraising music in different ways. They had to listen to a classical song and doodle ideas about how the song made them feel, the dimensions of the music and what story the music might be telling. In groups, they then had to act out the story they thought the music was telling. We had some lovely creative ideas. We found out that everyone interprets music in different ways.
Year 4 Brass Lessons - Autumn Term 2020
Year 4 loved learning how to play the trumpet this year. Each week, the children were enjoying musical games, reading music and learning new notes. Their favourite part was learning how to play 'I Feel Good' by James Brown.
Gloucestershire Academy of Music: Play it - Sing it - Love it
Throughout Spring Term 2019, children from Years 4 and 5 have had the opportunity to learn how to play brass and woodwind instruments on Monday afternoons. We are very fortunate and thankful that we have the opportunity for music specialists from Gloucestershire Academy of music to come in to teach them - Mrs Ford and Mr Gibbons.
They are thoroughly enjoying the experience of learning how to read and write music and are having lots of fun - well done!
Chestnut Class - Spring Term 2019
In Chestnut Class (Year 2 and 3) we have been learning how to read music and play glockenspiels. We have had fun learning with Mrs Wright and can't wait to play more instruments!