Group Music Lessons
Currently, the children in the Junior Department are given the opportunity to learn either the guitar, flute, clarinet, Saxophone or keyboard in small group lessons. Our year 2 children have had the opportunity to learn the recorder this year. The lessons are taught by visiting peripatetic Music staff from the Music Service in Stockport.
If your child is interested in taking up musical tuition please contact Stockport Music Service.
Junior Choir ( Years 3-6)
We love to sing at St. Thomas’! It’s fun, healthy and makes us feel better about ourselves. It stimulates our brains and turbo charges our memories. We don’t just sing in Assemblies- singing happens in the classroom all the time too. It helps us to learn things ……in Mathematics, French, phonics, reading, the list goes on.
For those children who really enjoy singing, we have a Junior Choir. Any children from Years 3-6 are welcome to join – there are no auditions! We take part in lots of events and perform in various concerts throughout the school year; the Young Voices concert at the Manchester Arena, carol singing at the McVities factory and the Showcase Concerts at the Royal Northern College of Music to name a few. Rehearsals are led by Ms. Loynes, our Headteacher, and take place in the school hall.
Young Voices 2022
After the cancellation of this year’s Young Voices, we have decided to put up this year’s songs. The songs will be the same next year, due it being the 25th anniversary still.
Click YVmusicroom for dance videos. Passcode: YV2021
Music Curriculum
Our school is part of the Greater Manchester hub of Musical Schools and we follow schemes of work from Charanga, an online digital music resource that meets the new statutory curriculum for 2014. In each year group, we aim to link music units to the topic theme for each term where possible.
Foundation Stage
We teach music in nursery and reception classes as an integral part of the topic work covered during the year. As the reception classes are part of the Foundation Stage of the National Curriculum, we relate the musical aspects of the children’s work to the objectives set out in the Early Learning Goals (ELGs) from the Foundation Stage Profile, which underpin the curriculum planning for children aged three to five. Music contributes to a child’s personal and social development. Counting songs foster a child’s mathematical ability and songs from different cultures increase a child’s knowledge and understanding of the world.
Key stage 1
Pupils are taught to:
- use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes linked to a variety of topics.
- play tuned and untuned instruments individually, in small groups and as a class.
- listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music.
- experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.
Key stage 2
Pupils are taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They should develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory. Pupils should be taught to:
- play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, singing songs in several parts, playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression.
- improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music
- listen with attention to detail, identifying instruments, patterns and compositional rhythms, and recall sounds with increasing aural memory.
- use and understand staff and other musical notations.
- appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians.
- develop an understanding of the history of music.
