Music

At Drapers’ Maylands Primary School, music has always been an important part of our learning. From Reception to Year 6,  children explore and control dynamics, duration, and timbre with tuned and un-tuned instruments as well as using instruments to expressively respond to visual stimuli. As part of the Music lessons  we get the children in the mood for music by starting with vocal warm ups, physical warm ups and focus builders followed by a learning programme which includes short exercises, divided into Rhythm, Beat and Pitch.

From Year 3, children learn to play repeated patterns on the recorder, control short and loud sounds on the ukulele and play keyboards with growing confidence from graphic scores with note names.

We have a Performing Arts teacher in school each week and children are able to learn a range of dance, drama and singing.

At Drapers’ Maylands Primary School, we excel at Performing Arts which is led by a specialist teacher. The three disciplines are singing, dancing and acting.

In singing, we focus on technique, using our voice properly to sing with emphasis, rhythm, pitch, resonance and tone. We sing from a variety of musical genres including musical theatre and modern day favourites.

Children have the opportunity to join The Maylands’ Singers who perform at hospitals, care homes, special assemblies and The Queen’s Theatre. Annually, The Maylands’ Singers compete in a Eurovision style competition against schools from other countries. In 2023, The Maylands’ Singers won the inaugural event. We also have an excellent pass rate for the singing examinations.

In dance we cover a range of techniques, working on core muscles for balancing skills and coordination. In dance club, the children learn choreography culminating in a performance at the end of term. With acting, we focus on confidence skills and developing our range of speaking clearly and audibly. As well as reading from scripts, we work on improvisation, reacting to situations and responses. In addition to Christmas performances, children in Reception, Year three and Year six perform musical theatre to an audience.

At Drapers’ Maylands Primary School, children work with The London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA). Children perform a number of monologues to an examiner and so far we have a 100% pass rate, most with Distinction or Merit.