Musicians

At Shirley Heath, all children have weekly class music lessons which follows a structured and balanced programme, giving a progression of musical skills, repertoire and knowledge from Year 3 to Year 6.  The lessons focus on practical music making through listening, performing, composing and appraising.  A wide range of music from different cultures and genres provides a rich experience of music in a range of contexts.  Children are encouraged to enjoy music and gain confidence in expressing their musical ideas and feelings.  Technology is also used to support the development of musical skills, knowledge and understanding; encouraging the creative process and enabling pupils to compose record and listen to music in a variety of ways.

For children who wish to develop their musical skills further, instrumental lessons are provided from Year 4 (subject to availability and passing a musical aptitude test) by the staff from Solihull Music Service and a termly charge is made for these lessons.  The instruments taught include:  brass, woodwind, violin, classical guitar and drums.

In addition, all children in Year 4 learn a brass instrument free of charge for one term under the ‘Whole Class Ensemble Tuition’ scheme, in which the government pledges ‘over time, all pupils in primary schools, who wish to, will have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument.’