Music at St. James’ 2024-2025 

Curriculum Music 

At St. James’ we offer our children a broad music education. Our curriculum is informed by the model music curriculum and we use a scheme called Charanga to meet the expectations of the National Curriculum. We also work closely with the Kent Music hub to keep our curriculum up-to-date and to help us align with the latest guidance.  

Children at St. James’ receive an hour of music learning each week, in which they learn to sing, listen to a range of music, compose and improvise their own music and perform (usually within their own class). 

At St. James’ we all sing in Collective Worship every day and we have a Collective Worship dedicated to singing every week, where our children and staff learn and practise singing from a repertoire of Christian songs.  

Each year group in Key Stage 1 and 2 also receives whole class instrument learning in the following instruments: 

• Year 1 – ocarina 

• Year 2 – recorder 

• Year 3 – glockenspiel 

• Year 4 – keyboard 

• Year 5 – djembe drum 

• Year 6 – ukulele 

Co-curricular music 

There are many opportunities for children at St. James’ to learn music outside of curriculum time.  

We have two choirs in school, one for Key Stage 1 and one for Key Stage 2 which are both open for anyone to join. These both take place during a lunch time. 

We also have an orchestra open to children in Year 4 and above who can play the first three notes or chords on their instrument. This is run by Yvonne Smith on a Wednesday lunch time and has a charge of £5 per week. This runs on a first come first served basis. There is always a waiting list open for our orchestra so please email Yvonne on yvonne@mylittleorchestra.co.uk if you are interested stating your child’s name, school, age, instrument and level.  

There are opportunities for children to learn musical instruments through private tuition in school. These lessons take place in our dedicated music room. At the moment, tutors in school offer lessons in the following instruments: 

• Kent Music: piano, drums, guitar 

• Rachael Mattheopoulos (private tutor): flute 

• Nikki Martin (private tutor): harp 

Please use these contact details if you would like to enquire further about private instrument tuition: 

Kent Music: customerservices@kent-music.com  

Rachael Mattheopoulos: rachaelmattheopoulos@gmail.com  

Nikki Martin plinkplonk@hotmail.co.uk  

If you are in a low-income household and are eligible for Pupil Premium and Free School Meals, we may be able to offer support to help you with the costs of lessons or instrument hire. Kent Music may also be able to offer assistance, with information available on their website: http://www.kent-music.com/  

Musical experiences 

Children at St. James’ have the opportunity to see and take part in a range of musical performances. The Key Stage 2 choir regularly takes part in the Tunbridge Wells Primary Schools’ Singing Festival at the Assembly Hall Theatre and has also travelled to the O2 in London to take part in the Young Voices concert.  

The school orchestra have performed to the school in Collective Worship. They have also had the opportunity to take part in workshops with the Royal Tunbridge Wells Symphony Orchestra and the Skinners School that have culminated in performances to parents, teachers and pupils at other schools.  

A group of Year 3 recorder players take part in the Tunbridge Wells Primary School Recorder Festival where they have the opportunity to play a range of rehearsed musical pieces with children from other schools in a massed ensemble.  

At Christmas Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 come together to create a Nativity performance for parents and siblings. In Key Stage 2, Year 4 do a Christmas play which is performed to the rest of Key Stage 2 as well as evening performances for parents.  

Year 6 also perform a play at the end of the school year, which is, again performed to other children in the school as well as to parents in evening performances.  

Years 1-6 each plan and perform a church service throughout the year (one year group per term) to help us tell stories from the Bible, show what they have been learning in class and to come together as a school to sing.  

The future 

In the future, we would like to broaden children’s experiences of music from a range of genres, composers and eras by inviting orchestras and music groups into school to perform for the school. We would also like to develop our relationships with local secondary schools to further develop our expertise and to create more opportunities for children at St. James’ to experience music.