At William De Yaxley, we believe that music is a unique way of communicating that can inspire and motivate children. It is a vehicle for personal expression and it can play an important part in personal development. Music reflects the culture and society we live in, and so the teaching and learning of music enables children to better understand the world they live in. Besides being a creative and enjoyable activity, music can also be a highly academic and demanding subject. It also plays an important part in helping children feel part of a community. We provide opportunities for all children to create, play, perform and enjoy music, to develop the skills to appreciate a wide variety of musical forms, and to begin to make judgements about the quality of music.

Extra-Curricular Activities

We have a school choir, with members from all Year groups, who meet on Thursday after school and perform at the annual Young Voices Concert at the O2 arena with our thousands of other children.

At the end of the school year, we host a Performing Arts evening, which allows the children who have: learnt to play musical instruments throughout the year; have participated in an after school performing arts club and the school choir, to demonstrate and receive recognition for all their hard work.

Singing

Our singing assembly takes place every Tuesday. The children are taught to sing a mixture of classic hymns, modern hymns and popular songs, focusing on rhythm, pitch and tuning.

The children have the opportunity throughout the year to perform topic based songs in year group assemblies. There are also opportunities to sing within productions: Year 4, within their Harvest production: Year 3, within their nativity production; Year 5, within their Easter production and Year 6, within their leavers’ assembly.

Instrument Tuition

At William De Yaxley, the children are taught how to play the recorder within year 3 and 4 and throughout years 5 and 6, the children are taught how to play the keyboard. There is also the opportunity for the children to learn through peripatetic music lessons, the following instruments: keyboards, drums, guitar, flute, clarinet and trumpet.