Music

Click the image above to hear two of our very talented Year 6 pupils singing a duet.

At Hunters Hall, children experience music in a variety of ways. Watch and listen to our recent Music Recital Click here

Music is taught by our specialist music teacher, Mrs Bright, and sometimes with support from other teachers who have musical knowledge and interest. Nursery children follow a scheme of work designed specifically for the early years and other year groups have music lessons (focusing on listening composition, performance and technical skills), normally on a termly rotational basis.In year 5, every child learns an instrument and some choose to continue this in Year 6. All children take part in weekly singing assemblies and concerts throughout the year and those who want to can join choirs and recorder groups.

Here’s a sample of our choirs performing:

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

The Charanga Musical School Scheme provides teachers with week-by-week lessons for each year group in the school from ages 5-11. It is ideal for specialist and non-specialist teachers and provides lesson plans, assessment, clear progression, and engaging and exciting whiteboard resources for every lesson. The Scheme supports all the requirements of the national curriculum and is absolutely in line with published Ofsted guidance.

To support their learning, children can view the London Symphony Orchestra’s interactive website where they can learn about orchestral instruments in more detail and see how orchestras are conducted and set out.

Alternatively, The BBC Ten Pieces website gives children the opportunity to listen to classical music in a fun and engaging way and offers resources and activities for children to enjoy. It is a fantastic way to familiarise children with some of the most famous pieces of music and for them to get composing their own music. It can be found here.

Choirs

Singing is a huge part of life here at Hunters Hall and as well as weekly singing assemblies; children who are interested can join a choir. As part of a choir, our pupils enjoy performing at local events, such as the Barking and Dagenham Music Festival, entertaining members of the public at charity events and, a highlight of the year for many, singing Christmas carols to residents of local care homes. The choir sessions themselves are fun and engaging and teach children a range of techniques and songs.

Choirs meet once a week and are run by Mrs Bright with support from another member of staff.

Concerts

Each year group performs a concert for parents and the rest of the school at some point throughout the school year. These concerts combine singing, acting, dancing and music and are normally an entire musical packed into half an hour – hard work but great fun for everyone involved!

Rehearsals take place within school time and the productions are a great chance for children to experience performing to large audiences.

Concerts take place at the end of each term, or as near as possible, depending on other commitments of the year group performing.

A real highlight of the Year is the Senior Citizens’ concert held at school and hosted by our Year 6 children at Christmas. The children provide the entertainment and serve tea, coffee and mince pies to our guests.

As every Year 5 child learns an instrument as part of the Widening Opportunities Scheme, we also hold regular concerts showcasing what they have been learning. These are run in conjunction with the Community Music Service tutors who teach our pupils on the scheme. Year 6 children who continue to learn an instrument through this service may also be involved in these concerts.

The Wider Opportunities Programme is run by the borough’s Community Music Service and enables every Year 5 pupil in our school to learn an instrument. Each year 5 class (including the class teacher!) will learn a different musical instrument (in the past these have included cello, violin, trombone and clarinet) and will have weekly lessons taught by a borough music teacher. This is paid for by the school. If your child should choose to continue to learn their instrument in year 6, you will be charged a fee for the lessons although some funding is available to those deemed gifted and talented. A music teacher will inform you if this is the case.

You can access the Barking and Dagenham Community Music Service website, which has information on the scheme, here.

Our school song; Believe highlights the characteristics and attitudes which we as a school feel are essential to achieving greatness.

Click below to hear our song.