The universal language of music strikes the right note with children at St Nicholas at Wade CE Primary.
The school works hard to ensure pupils are in harmony with a range of music activities and lessons.
And these enthusiastic efforts have earned a Music Mark Award in recognition of providing high quality music education for all ages and all abilities.
Head Teacher Taralee Kennedy said: “The award is well-deserved recognition for the pride we take in delivering these opportunities – we want to ensure that every child gets the chance to learn to play an instrument, compose music and appreciate music.”
Every term has a focus for music as children enter for daily worship so that they build their cultural experience and the range of music that they are exposed to.
The featured artist to start the year was the acclaimed composer John Williams whose dramatic and evocative soundtracks to iconic movies include Star Wars, Jurassic Park, ET and Indiana Jones.
The school’s current theme is musical theatre and in the coming weeks it will switch to Teachers’ Favourites when the music of Motown will fill the school hall.
The range of music at St Nicholas is diverse, with Music Lead Collette Palmer arranging and organising the curriculum and the educational trips. It ranges from the choir performing at Canterbury Cathedral and timetabled music lessons in the well-resourced music room to peripatetic teaching of guitar, drums and keyboard by the Rock On Music Academy musicians.
Mrs Kennedy highlighted the big role music plays in pupils’ lives. She explained: “Music can be so influential – it can change our mood, bring us hope or console us, restore us, invigorate us, or bring us to tears.
“I want our children to have a deep connection to music, not just listening to it but having the opportunity to compose and perform it.”
The school underpins the ethos of Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini who stated: “The language of music is common to all generations and nations; it is understood by everybody, since it is understood with the heart.”
Mrs Kennedy added: “We feel that music plays a significant role in every aspect of our lives and this belief is at the heart of our curriculum.”