Music

Music is the life-blood of Meadlands: our joy, our peace, our sanctuary and our passion. We love nothing more than filling our school hall or indeed our bespoke brand new music room, known as 'The Music Factory' with parents and carers, to share our music learning.

We go beyond our school to make music, too – we sing every year in a massed concert at the O2 Arena, London and The Rose Theatre, Kingston. Singing and music-making begins in the early years, foundation stage, where pupils are free to express themselves in sound, with the outdoor music areas being a firm favourite. In Key Stage One, pupils begin their mastery of instrumental playing using our vast array of hand percussion and in Year 2, begin to learn the recorder. This is further developed in Year 3 with the aim of passing our Meadlands Music Maestros Grade 1. As they progress in Key Stage 2, pupils learn the ukulele through whole class teaching – taking home their instrument to practise. Our final year pupils perform a play or musical – most recently, 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'The Lion King'. We have even staged an outdoor production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream’ with additional songs – I am sure Shakespeare would have heartily approved, for sooth, t‘ was, most excellent. Have a look at our Music Policy in the Policy section here.

We look forward to sharing our musical successes with you soon – check out the latest newsletter for our next musical moment.

Having pressed our first ever CD in October 2017, we can now call ourselves ‘recording artistes’: 'Now That’s What I call Meadlands, Vol.1', was a sell-out! We held our third Christmas Mini Concert at Ham House, in December and this summer, look forward to holding a join concert with our local partners ‘RUILS’.

School Development Plan: What part will music play in our vision?

Music is always moving forward, ever changing and innovating. We are currently working with The Kingston Academy on a digital music project, to develop an IT thread to our curriculum, using a platform for Chrome books: Soundation. This project is very exciting and the pupils in Year 4, Rose Parakeet Class, are writing a soundtrack to play and perform against an animation they have designed. Their work will culminate in a red carpet performance in the summer term and will help me to design a digital music curriculum across the school.

Below are the lyrics for Richmond Music Festival