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Music at
Mellis.
Mellis Primary is very
fortunate to have a considerable amount of expertise with regard to
music.
Jaqui Luckett (our in-house music
instructor) has an impressive musical resume, being proficient in
five(!) instruments, and having travelled and worked with international standard
Orchestras and Choirs. Here she explains music provision at Mellis.
Each class has one hour of music a week and all
lessons are taught by our music coordinator Jaqui Luckett. At KS1
children learn about the musical elements including pitch, tempo,
dynamics and duration. They also learn to explore different sounds and
rhythms and to play accompaniments to a steady beat. At KS2 the
emphasis is more on using notation and performing with an awareness of
other parts, as well as composition where children learn how to combine
the musical elements expressively.
In addition to class music, all year four pupils
learn to play the recorder on a Wednesday morning and we also run SEN
and Gifted and Talented music groups once a week which are taught by our
peripatetic music teacher Lindsey Moye.
ORCHESTRA
Our orchestra meets weekly at 8.30am on a Friday
morning. We currently have 9 members and instruments include Saxophone,
flute, cornet, guitar and percussion. The orchestra performs three
times a year; at our Christmas and Easter church services and at our
Midsummer Concert in June. Pieces we have performed in the past are
English Country Gardens, Scarborough Fair and various Christmas carols.
This year we are rehearsing Greensleeves and Summertime by George
Gershwin.
CHOIR
Choir rehearsals are on a Friday lunchtime at
12.30pm. KS1 choir meet in the first half term and KS2 in the second
half term. We sing a variety of music but the main aim is to have fun
and for the children to enjoy singing. The choir also perform at all
our church services and our Midsummer Concert. There is a big emphasis
on singing throughout the school and in December the whole school made a
CD recording of their favourite Christmas songs.
RECORDER GROUPS.
Thanks to parental help we currently have three
recorder groups ranging from beginner to advanced. Children are able to
learn the recorder from year 2 and the children who continue through to
the advanced group usually achieve a high standard.
MUSIC WORKSHOPS.
We try to organise at least one musical outing or
workshop a year. Previous outings have been trips to Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Lion King and we have arranged
workshops in African Drumming, Gamalan, Tudor Music and Aboriginal music
and dance.
SUMMER CONCERT
Our annual
summer concert is a chance for our solo instrumentalists, as well as our
music groups, to show what they have achieved during the year and to
experience performing in public. This is a very relaxed informal
occasion which the children enjoy and which usually rounds off a
successful musical year.
RECENT EVENTS.
This year,
Mellis years 5 and 6 participated in the prestigious Snape Festival, a
yearly exposition of music at the Old Maltings, one of Europe's premier
concert halls. Jaqui orchestrated a twenty two strong ensemble to
develop and play for a capacity crowd of nearly 2OOO!
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