At Weston Green School, we are firm believers that every child should have the opportunity to engage in a comprehensive Music education throughout their academic journey. Music not only unites and challenges, it also helps to express the abstract, fostering curiosity, and nurturing creativity in both thinking and expression.
Music enhances children’s focus, aids processing, boosts memory recall, and enhances performance in other subjects. Additionally, it fosters confidence, resilience, and academic achievement. A five-year study conducted by the University of Southern California’s Brain and Creativity Institute revealed accelerated brain development in children who learn to play instruments compared to those who do not.
Pre Prep
During early development, consistent exposure to songs, chants, and rhymes contributes to expanded vocabulary, improved comprehension, and enhanced grasp of speech rhythms and cadences.
At Weston Green, children have the opportunity to explore a range of untuned percussion instruments and to sing and make music in a group. This fosters creativity and imagination, as well as supporting their developing social skills. Learning songs encourages recall of vocabulary and rhythms. Children have the opportunity to perform to parents during the course of the academic year at harvest time, Christmas and in a summer show. This helps to build their confidence and develop early performance skills. They love sharing what they have learned with an audience. Shared experience and enjoyment of musical activities are a hugely important part of what we aim to achieve.
We also offer a Toddler Tunes music group for children prior to starting at Weston Green which is open to all local families. They can get used to taking turns, sharing and working together as well as becoming more familiar with the school.
Access to a wide variety of musical opportunities at a young age helps foster emotional intelligence and supports the development of a range of cognitive skills.
Prep
At this Prep stage, children who engage in learning instruments and participate in ensembles demonstrate improved abilities to identify and analyse patterns across various subjects, while also cultivating beneficial skills in teamwork, patience, and gradual progress.
At Weston Green School, our music provision is a vibrant tapestry of creativity, collaboration, and cultural appreciation. We offer a wide range of opportunities for students to explore their musical talents and interests. Our extra curricular activities feature two choirs and an orchestra that bring students together for dynamic performances, fostering teamwork and confidence. Our termly teatime concerts showcase the talents of soloists and ensembles, while our festivals and productions captivate audiences with their energy and skill. In class, students have hands-on experience with beginner group lessons on violins, ukuleles, recorders, tuned and untuned percussion and keyboards
Our Music IT programme, with tools like Bandlab, empowers students to create and share their own compositions. Through these experiences, students not only develop musical skills but they also build a deep appreciation for diverse cultures and traditions through our listening program, nurturing a lifelong love for music.
Studying music not only has inherent value but also acts as a catalyst for broader success. Children who engage in music education during their early years exhibit a heightened capacity to link concepts across subjects, thereby enriching their understanding. Furthermore, participation in music fosters increased self-esteem and emotional growth.
Mrs Carrel, our Director of Music explained “Having Music education in schools from a young age cultivates creativity, discipline, enhanced cognitive skills, cultural understanding and emotional intelligence, laying the foundation for a holistic development. Through our specialist music lessons, peripatetic instrumental tuition provision, choirs, orchestra and multiple performance opportunities, Weston Green School children gain invaluable skills to enhance their academic journey and cultivate a lifelong appreciation for the arts”.
This article was written with contributions from Mrs Kate Pinhey, Pre Prep Music Teacher and Ms Caddie Carrel, Director of Music at Weston Green School.