Well, last Friday certainly went with a bang! The children loved having a jammed packed day of celebrating music with their teachers and peers as well as our fabulous parents at the end of the day.
World Music Day is an annual celebration of music-making that takes place in communities across the world on the 21st of June. It builds on a concept started in France in 1982 – that a day each year should be dedicated to music, with no barriers to people playing and enjoying live performances. It has now spread to more than 125 countries.
On Friday, our children performed to their peers in a musical assembly. The performances were of a range of different songs they had learnt over the last academic year as well as the musical instruments they have learnt through specialist teaching through the Swindon Music Service. The Grange Infant Singing Club also had the chance to perform a couple of the songs, including The World In Union and Welcome To New York, that they are currently preparing for the Swindon Infant Voice Festival.
We were also joined by local musicians from Grange Junior School and Kingsdown Secondary School who performed a range of instruments, including the guitar, violin, and trumpet, for our children. We can’t thank both the pupils and teachers from these schools enough for performing for our children. They certainly were very talented musicians and the children loved hearing them play.
At the end of the day, all children performed for their parents in joint performances from each class. Our Reception children performed a range of songs learnt in lessons and through the voice training received from the Swindon Music Service. This included the song Che Che Kule, an African call and response song, which the children learnt in the singing assembly. They did a great job working in two teams – the callers and the responders – when performing the song.
Year 1 children performed a range of different songs they have learnt over the course of the year. They started their performance with a rap song called Hey You! And followed this with an unaccompanied call and response song called Zenwa Da Dende – this is a traditional Ghanaian call and response song they have learnt during our Friday singing assemblies. Finally, the children performed Imagination, accompanied by the glockenspiels. This is a particularly tricky piece because of the three different parts running parallel to each other. We think everyone would agree that the children smashed it.
Year 2 children performed what they had learnt during their Ukulele teaching from the Swindon Music service, as well as songs, learnt through lessons. Their favourite song was Ho Hey where they showed off their knowledge of the different ukelele chords they have learnt this year. They also sang along to the instruments. We were particularly proud of how well the children worked together as a team, joining in at the same moments and keeping a steady pulse.
We are all extremely proud of our children throughout their performances. They all did so incredibly well to ensure that they truly captured what avid musicians they really are.
World Music Day
