Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Engaging Sounds - Increasing engagement of learning through music

  Tue 24 May 2022 D Burgess

  The music sessions at Westfield school engage children in high quality ensemble sessions that challenge, develop and progress musical, social and personal skills for life. 

   

  Music sessions at Westfield school are broken down into 6 key areas, these include: 

  • Understanding Musical Differences (using percussive instruments and performance opportunities) 
  • Playing together tuned instruments (creating melodies using ukuleles, chime bars, hand bells etc) 
  • Movement - Exploring musical differences (using sensory props)
  • Rhythm (Simple notation (rhythm), beats and performance opportunities)
  • Songwriting (led by the children)
  • Listening (tuning in and sharing thoughts)

   

  Every two weeks we change the musical differences and use a variety of instruments to enable the children to listen, respond and feel the differences. 

   

  These include: 

  • Allegro and Lento - Fast & Slow  

  • Pitch - High and Low 

  • Dynamics - Loud (forte) & Quiet (piano) 

  • Crescendo and Decrescendo - Increasing and decreasing sound 

  • Major & Minor - Happy and Sad music 

  • Rhythm vs Beat 

   

  The children are always excited, eager to learn and fully engage with music sessions. It’s wonderful to see the progress they have made and their determination to participate as a group and independently. The children are so very supportive of their peers and always show such empathy by cheering, using encouraging words or clapping during performances. Music sessions are always adapted to support individual needs and promote social and communicative interactions. As the children have become more familiar with music sessions and activities their achievements, participation and development of new musical skills and learning has been outstanding.