Music
“If children hear fine music … and learn to play it, they develop sensitivity, discipline and endurance. They get a beautiful heart.” Shinichi Suzuki
Music is a keen part of Princess Frederica. It is not just about the weekly music lesson but about how music creates a love of learning and a development of confidence in all children. Music is celebrated through assembly, through singing for parents and in competitions and in church. Other areas of music are focused on through our own specialist music teacher, Mr Tang, as well as our music team (from Brent Music Services as well as other private organisations) who work with whole classes, half-classes, small groups and individuals. We are proud of the number of children who learn instruments. Children are also encouraged to apply their musical knowledge in real life situations – for example, children play instruments in church and in Year 6, children play instruments as part of the Summer Production. We are also aware of the benefit of music for SEND pupils, and are proud of the number of these children who are learning instruments.
Music Overview
Children learn singing, solfege, claves, glockenspiel, violin, trumpet, African drumming and dancing, ukulele, composition and steel pans in their class music lessons. Children also have the option of learning violin, viola, cello, guitar, drumkit, flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, French Horn, baritone horn, tuba and singing as part of a small group.
The school is proud of how many children learn musical instruments on a small group basis and has one of the highest percentages of children learning instruments in Brent. please contact Mr Tang to find out more information about this. The document below gives guidance on prices but always best to speak to Mr Tang about your child and opportunities that might suit them best.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should children start learning music?
Music education can start before children are born, as they can listen to music from within the womb. At school, children are given free whole class music lessons from when they start at school. For paid, individual lessons, children as young as 3 years old can thrive in music lessons, provided that they have an appropriately trained teacher, and a supportive home environment. At school, we currently only offer group lessons to children from year 2 upwards. We suggest that younger children learn outside of school if time and finances allow.
Brass and woodwind lessons are not recommended for children before they lose their milk teeth (roughly at 8 years of age).
What about other curriculum subjects? Will my child be negatively effected if they are taken out of other lessons in order to take music lessons?
Our current policy dictates that children can only start 1 instrument during school hours. Therefore, they will miss only 30 minutes of another subject per week. Where possible, we try to rotate lessons around on a half-termly basis, so they don’t always miss the same subject. Furthermore, if class teachers notice that a child is falling behind in a particular subject, we endeavour to ensure that the child does not miss those lessons.
Also, in many ways music can be highly beneficial to the cognitive development of children. The fine motor skills, discipline, team work, auditory skills and focus that are developed within music lessons can be transferred to other subjects. Much research has been done in this area.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2018.00074/full
Hyde (2009) showed that the “children in the music group had structural changes in their frontal, temporal, and parieto-occipital brain areas. Moreover, they also showed that these changes correlated significantly with improvements in auditory and motor tasks.”
Morenzo (2011) found that “music intervention improved the verbal abilities of the children and that this was paralleled with the facilitation of the neural indices of executive functions.”
Putkinen (2013), suggests that “music activities may help children focus their attention on a given task and inhibit distractors.”
Kirschner and Tomasello (2010) found that “Music activities have been also shown to affect children’s behavior. Even short sessions of joint singing and playing musical instruments seem to make children behave in a prosocial manner and increase their social skills.”
Palubinski (2019) found that “While reading assessment scores increased for the entire population, there was a greater increase among ELL students that were enrolled in a music education course.”
For further reading:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2018.00074/full