West Hill Park School

All pupils, from Nursery to Uppers (Year 8), study music as a timetabled academic subject. The syllabus covers theory and aural requirements of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music exams, Tonic Sol-fa singing (an eleventh century teaching method re-invented by Kodaly and popularised by Julie Andrews) and elements of music history.

This may sound a little dry and academic, but in practice music lessons are full of singing, clapping, team games, worksheets, colouring, listening to famous tunes and demonstrations of instruments. Removes and Uppers have many of their lessons in the Music/ICT suite. Here they learn to use Sibelius and Sonar and they work on individual research projects.

The Music Department is housed in a purpose-built suite comprising a classroom, a music technology room, 10 practice rooms and plenty of storage space. The main teaching classroom has a suite of keyboards that are networked to enable close monitoring and recording of pupil and group work. We also have a separate Music/ICT suite equipped with MIDI instruments and PCs running Sibelius 4 (music publishing), Sonar LE (audio editing and sequencing) and Musition (interactive theory training)

The Director of Music, a specialist class teacher for the nursery and pre-prep and fifteen visiting instrumental teachers staff the Music Department. Most children take individual lessons either in singing or orchestral instruments. The range of extra-curricular activities is extensive: Chamber Choir, Orchestra, Jazz Band, String Ensemble, Junior Strings, Wind Band, Brass Band, Recorder Club, Year-group Choirs, Music Technology Club. All pupils are in at least one of the school choirs and many are in as many ensembles as they can fit in to their week.