Music

Welcome to the Music Curriculum page

At Linton Heights, all pupils are taught classroom music lessons by music specialist teacher, Mrs Emma Mason.

Extra-curricular music opportunities are also very popular. These include Recorder Club (a free, lunchtime club), Choir, 'pop-up' Orchestra and Fiddle Group. Parents/Carers can also arrange private instrumental music lessons (scroll down for more details).

MUSIC CURRICULUM: Purpose of Study

Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity, and as a Silver ArtsMark school we place great importance upon the role our music lessons play, for each of our pupils. A high-quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, to listen and perform to their highest potential.

Aims

Our music curriculum is taught in 3 x half term blocks to each year group, and aims to ensure that all pupils:

• perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians

• learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others,

• have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument (ocarina, glockenspiel, recorder club and classroom percussion as well as provision for extra curricular private instrumental lessons)

• use available music technology appropriately

• have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence

• understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions (elements): pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

The National Curriculum in England 2014

Linton Heights Music Curriculum

Instrumental Music Lessons

We are incredibly proud of the dedicated instrumental teachers who teach our pupils at Linton Heights on a private basis. We have a Music Room where one-to-one and small group lessons take place and our pupils are encouraged and supported with their music, whether they are hoping to take formal music exams or just play for pleasure. Parents can arrange lessons for their children to take place during the school day. Details of fees and arrangements can be found below. Our peripatetic (visiting) music teachers are:

Mrs Emma Mason ~ piano / flute / recorder

Mrs Victoria Vellacott ~ piano

Mrs Hilary Crooks ~ violin / viola

Mrs Glenis Todd ~ recorder / singing

Mr Christopher Charlesworth ~ clarinet / saxophone

Mr Gavin Bowyer ~ all brass (trumpet, horn, trombone)

Mr Gil Matthews ~ guitar

Music at Linton Heights .....

Young Voices Choir Trip to London O2: 1st February 2019

Spring Term 2019

This term it is Year 3's turn to work on their own musical performance, and the Spring Term has started with Class 1 and 2 pupils learning their songs for 'Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies'! Year 5 have been studying music by Gustav Holst, through the BBC Ten Pieces project and their half term music topic is concluding with an 'Earth Mission' project in collaboration with BBC Radio 3.

On Friday 1st February, Mrs Mason took 25 children from the school choir to the London O2, where they performed in an AMAZING Young Voices 2019 concert. Miss Davies, Mr Penfold and Mr Wilson went too, along with Mrs Gilbert and Mrs Duckett. The photographs of the event  say more than words can express, but once again the event was something beyond all belief. Wow! 

Year 4 and Year 6 pupils have music on their timetable for the second half of this term (February - March). Year 4 are learning about musical elements and how to record their compositions in Graphic Scores. Year 6 are studying a unit on Jazz, Cartoon and Film Music.

Autumn Term 2018

During the first half of the term, music was on the timetable for Years 4 and 5. Both year groups worked towards their class performances in December, and they worked on learning the songs for these. Year 4 performance used their Ancient Greeks topic and they performed 'Fleeced', a musical retelling of 'Jason and the Argonauts'. Meanwhile, Year 5 also travelled back in time, but not so far, as their musical 'Ebeneezer' took on a Victorian theme, retelling Charles Dickens' famous 'Christmas Carol'.

During the second half of the term Years 3 and 6 had music on their timetables. Year 3 learned about musical elements through 'Musical Stories' and Year 6 lessons introduced the history of music and allowed time to focus on different musical genres across the different musical eras.

The Autumn term ended with a fantastic Performance Ceilidh, when the pop-up orchestra performed alongside solo performances from some of the pupils. On the penultimate evening of the Autumn Term, we held our 'Candlelight Christmas Carol Service' at St Mary's Church. The Fiddle Group, Choir, staff Handbell Ringers and pop-up Orchestra all took part, along with singing traditional carols and readings, read by Year 6 pupils. 

CREATIVE ARTS WEEK 11th-15th June 2018

It has been a fantastic week of creative arts opportunities. Take a look at the Creative Arts Newsletter at the end of term for more information. Here are some of the musical highlights:

* Year 10 LVC GCSE musicians performing 'Mozart's Clarinet Concerto' to our whole school in Monday's assembly

* Orchestra rehearsal with Year 10 GCSE musicians as tutors

* Djembe drumming for each class with Mrs Mason

* Year 6 visiting Linton Village College for a music lesson with Mrs Juckes, Director of Music

* Summer Music Concert: Orchestra, Fiddle Club, Brass Group, Choir and soloists across all 4 year groups. A FANTASTIC MUSICAL EVENING! Thursday 14th June 6.30pm

* Choir performing at Linton Infant Summer Fair on Friday 15th June 5.30pm

Summer Term 2018

As Year 3 musicians we will be learning how to play the ocarina - a small, four holed, wind instrument made out of plastic. We plan to perform a whole year group piece in Performance Ceilidh on 13th July. In Year 4 we are learning about orchestral instruments and the different families they are grouped into. We have learnt about the orchestra through John Williams' score to the Harry Potter films, and you can see from the photographs below that we have had a lot of fun finding out about how to play the different instruments! In Year 5 we have been composing and performing digital music using Garage Band. Listen to some of our work: what do you think? Finally, in Year 6, we will be working on our final, end of year musical performance: What a Knight!

CAMBRIDGESHIRE LIVE MUSIC: The Goldfield Ensemble

On Wednesday 21st March, the Goldfield Ensemble String Quartet came to visit our school, with Kate Romano. They performed to Years 4, 5 & 6 LIVE, on their 2 violins, 1 viola and 1 cello, whilst telling us 'Three Stories About Home'. We loved seeing the shadow puppetry on the screen and listening to traditional folk music from Romania and Afghanistan arranged for the strings.

Spring Term 2018

As Year 3 Musicians we are learning about musical 'pulse' and 'rhythm'. We are using classroom percussion instruments from the music trolley to explore the pulse of different songs. We have been learning the names of the instruments, including tambours, indian bells and claves.

Year 4 are practising hard for their performance of the amazing musical 'Darwin Rocks'. It's going to be awesome! We've also had some fun creating our own music with the theme of 'Rainforests' that we have been learning about in class - listen to the mp3 link below!

As Year 5 musicians we are learning to read formal musical notation for pitch and rhythm. We are having lots of fun playing tunes like 'Mardi Gras Groovin' and 'Mamma Mia' on tuned and untuned percussion, and have also been listening and appraising music from the BBC Ten Pieces Project.

As year 6 musicians we have been revising our understanding of musical elements and ensemble performance skills, with opportunities to perform and improvise simple Jazz tunes in the style of Burt Bacharach. We have also been learning about how music can be composed to create an effect or a musical story, by looking at cartoon music and film music.

The School Choir and Linton Heights School 'Pop-Up- Orchestra, December 2017

Our orchestra performed at the end of term Performance Ceilidh, and the school's 'Carols and Candlelight' Church Service at St Mary's Church. With repertoire of traditional Christmas Carols for everyone to sing along with, and Tchaikovsky's 'Russian Dance' from the Nutcracker Suite - we finished for Christmas with a seasonal, sparkling performance! The School Choir also performed at the Church Carols and Candlelight Service, singing a song called 'Why We Sing' from our 'Young Voices 2018' repertoire, ahead of our visit to London O2, where we will be going in January.

Autumn Term 2017

Year 3 have been practising for their end of term Christmas play: Hosanna Rocks! We think the audience will LOVE IT - look out for a report in the Autumn Term Creative Arts Newsletter. Year 4 have been singing pentatonic songs and exploring different ways of singing and performing them with classroom percussion instruments. Year 5 have taken up the challenge of performing 'OLIVIA' - a musical story about a Victorian workhouse. It's going to be amazing. Year 6 started their final year at Linton Heights by learning about some of the main musical eras in the History of Music. We have been listening to different musical styles including African Bhangra, Blues and Classical Waltz. Class 7 and Class 8 then improvised their own untuned percussion parts to: Take Five Styles.

Brass Quintet Visit Linton Heights - October 2017

We were so lucky to listen to a professional quintet (5) musicians who visited us today, paid for by Linton Youth Music.

Our school brass teacher, Mr Bowyer, plus 4 other brass players came and played for us, as well as tell us about the instruments. 60 children from Linton Infants came as well, and we all squeezed into the school hall to listen to music including the Pink Panther Theme, James Bond and even Handel's 'Water Music' played on two hosepipes!

It really brought our music curriculum to life, and enabled all the 250+ children hear high quality music, performed live.

SUMMER TERM MUSIC CONCERT 25TH MAY 2017

On a very warm Thursday evening, 37 of our pupils performed at our annual Summer Music Concert. Parents, grandparents and teachers in the audience were treated to 90 minutes of inspirational solo, duet and ensemble performances from the children: from a Kabelevsky piano solo, to the Pink Panther theme on flute, right through to a guitar and vocal rendition of John Denver's Country Roads.

Our pupils' make us very proud, and the resilience, talent and encouragement on show in the school throughout the evening was a delight to see. Well done EVERYONE!

Exploring Orchestral Instruments April 2017

This half term, Year 4 are learning about Orchestral Instruments, and have explored instruments from the four different instrument families. We are going to perform as part of our own 'Percussion Orchestra' by playing John Williams' 'Hedwig's Theme' from Harry Potter.

OUTDOOR LEARNING: COMPOSING WITH NATURAL RESOURCES OCTOBER 2016

The freedom to compose a group rhythmic piece of music, in Year 5. Pupils selected their own 'instruments' from our outdoor learning environment

* snappy twigs

* crunchy leaves

* conkers

* gravel buckets .....

We had great fun! Listen to some of our work. What do you think?

SING FOR YOUR SCHOOL OCTOBER 2016

Today we have submitted our entry for Cambridgeshire's 'Sing for School' competition, 2016. The children are very excited to know the recording of our song will be going live and entering into the online live Chart. 

Click the link below to listen - we hope you like our song about our school V-A-L-U-Es

ARTS MERIT AWARDS at Linton Heights Junior School September 2016

The creative arts matter in education, and at Linton Heights we value the enrichment all arts subjects bring to our pupils' success.

From September 2016 we will be awarding new 'Arts Merit' certificates to recognise achievement and talent within creative arts: music, drama, art and dance. Pupils who are awarded this merit will receive their certificates in our Friday Ceilidh celebration assembly!

'New' for the Autumn Term 2016

Do you follow Linton Heights on Twitter or Facebook? You can now find weekly updates about #performanceTuesday, a new weekly chance for pupils to perform to the whole school, as part of our Tuesday Music Assembly. The Autumn term is being offered to pupils in the Upper school to put themselves forward. 

Any pupils keen to perform, please just speak to Mrs Mason when you see her in school.

Summer Music Concert, 28th April 2016

43 pupils performed to a school hall full of proud parents and staff tonight, in our annual Summer Term Music Concert. The choir and singing club both performed as part of the programme, which also included the String Group, Brass Group and individual instrumental performaces.

The full programme can be found here:

A Musical Start to the Day ~ Tuesday 26th April 2016

Mr Christopher Charlesworth visited our singing assembly to perform on his clarinet and saxophone today. The children heard both instruments performed live: including a classical clarinet concerto and a toe-tapping saxophone Tango! We all enjoyed the variety.

Mr Charlesworth will be joining our team of music peripatetic teachers from this term, so Linton Heights will now proudly offer private tuition on piano, violin/viola, flute, clarinet, saxophone, recorder, brass and guitar.

Djembe Drumming in Year 3 - Rhythmic Compositions December 2015

In Year 3 we have been learning about djembe drums. We watched a drummer performing, on the interactive whiteboard, and then improvised our own group compositions. It was very loud ~ but great fun! Have you seen our work on display in the hall?

Composing in Classes 3 and 4 ~ November 2015

Year 4 have been busy composing pentatonic tunes on their pitched percussion instruments: glockenspiels.

These compositions have been inspired by one of the Christmas Play songs, "Decorate the Tree of Life"....

.... and we learnt how to play that, too!

23rd October 2015 - Brass Day

Years 4 and 6 have enjoyed live music performed in their classrooms today, after a visit from our brass teacher, Mr Bowyer, who came into school with his colleague Ms Minchin. We would like to thank Linton Youth Music for providing the musical experience for the 4 classes to enjoy.