At Westonbirt Prep, we strive to develop well-rounded musicians, who can move on from Year 6 with a love of music-making, confidence in their ability and the fundamental skills upon which they can build in senior school. Prep pupils begin their week with a rousing chapel service and children from Reception to Year 6 enjoy whole-class music lessons, taught by music specialist teachers, throughout the week. Within class music lessons, the children explore a broad range of genres such as baroque, blues, reggae and popular music. This enables them to develop their listening skills as well as their compositional and improvisational techniques and differentiate between musical styles which may inspire them. The children spend much of the Autumn term developing their vocal techniques which are then showcased in our harvest, nativity and carol service performances.

Pupils progress from learning how to use their voices confidently chanting and singing simple songs in Reception to engaging in rhythm and phrasing and developing vocal independence in Year 6. In the Spring term, the children work on developing their instrumental and notation skills. These range from participating in whole-class recorder tuition and performing graphic scores in the Pre-Prep to performing using staff notation on the keyboard and tab notation on ukulele by the time they reach Year 6.

Prep Music
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Children continue to refine their vocal skills in preparation for their Easter service performances at the end of the Spring term. In the Summer term, all year groups focus on creating music collaboratively, whether in preparation for the Year 6 Summer musical production and speech day performances, or as part of a class band unit. Our class bands enable the children to utilise their individual instrumental or vocal learning in a supportive environment, and enjoy creating music with their peers. Every child has the opportunity to perform as part of our whole-school events throughout the academic year, as well as informally in class every half-term to build their confidence and showcase their talents.

We offer a variety of auditioned and non-auditioned music clubs at Westonbirt Prep within the school day to cater for all ages, abilities and interests. Children in Reception to Year 2 have the option to attend Pre-Prep Music Club on a Wednesday lunchtime; an exciting and fun introduction to making music as part of an ensemble. All children in Years 3-6 can then opt to attend one of two lunchtime choir sessions which focus on fostering a love of singing. For the more advanced performers, we run an auditioned Chamber Choir for Years 5 and 6 and a selective instrumental ensemble for children in Years 3-6, who explore a more complex repertoire. We also have a dedicated team of peripatetic musicians who teach individual music lessons throughout the week. Their expertise ensures that our students have access to a wide selection of individual instrumental and vocal lessons and the option to take music exams.

Music is at the very heart of the school here at Westonbirt Prep, and aims to inspire creativity, encourage curiosity and nurture courage in every child!

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