Music
Children at Norwood Green Infants enjoy all forms of music making. They are free to explore, play and extend their thinking and ideas.
At Norwood Green Infant School, music and the arts are valued. Staff work hard to engage and inspire the children with a variety of experiences which develop the children’s love of music and increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement.
In the Early Years children sing everyday with greeting songs, songs for tidy up time, lining up and home time as well as favourite songs that we sing in class. The children are given the chance to explore a variety of percussion instruments and experiment with the different sounds they make. The children also have a lesson each week with a specialist music teacher where they have a chance to develop musical skills such as rhythm, volume and tempo using musical games and songs.
In Key Stage 1 all children receive a weekly music lesson from a music specialist. During these lessons, the children are given the chance to learn about duration, volume, tempo, pitch, beat and rhythm, as well as sing a variety of songs, play percussion instruments and Boomwhackers.
We also explore sound making using junk instruments, stones, newspaper and body percussion!
Singing
Alongside singing in class for a variety of reasons, there are weekly singing assemblies. All children learn a variety of songs of different genres. There are also opportunities for children to add their own verses to some of our favourite songs ‘A Cat sat on a mat’ and ‘Who stole my chicken and my hen?’' These are always inventive and popular with the children.
Instrumental Teaching
All children in Year 2 learn the recorder. They have a set of 7 lessons which take place weekly in each class and are taught by our music specialist. There is no charge to the children for the lessons. The children are given a recorder for the duration of the lessons which they can take home to practice. The children learn 3 notes: B, A, G, which enables them to perform a short musical piece to the rest of the school in assembly.
Recorder lessons give them an introduction to reading music notation as well as an opportunity to experience performing to an audience.
Violin Lessons
We also offer violin lessons in Key stage 1. These are taught by a specialist violin teacher from Hounslow Music Service who teaches small groups of up to 5 children. We charge £50 per term for these lessons and the school provides the children with a school violin which they borrow from us at no charge.
Signing Choir
Children in Year 1 & 2 have the chance to participate in a choir that meets weekly. Here the children learn songs and the BSL signs to go with them. The children perform in assemblies and at special times of the year.
Shows & Performances
There are many opportunities for the children to perform in a musical capacity throughout the year. Two of our biggest events are the Key Stage 1 Christmas show and the Early Years Nativity where children perform, sing and dance to an audience of parents, governors and guests. The children also have an opportunity to perform in class assemblies to the school and parents. We take advantage of any opportunities for informal performances within our year groups.
