Contact Details
- 01753521811
- enquiries@pennwood.slough.sch.uk
Penn Wood Primary and Nursery School, Penn Road, Slough, SL2 1PH
Music
“Music education can help spark a child’s imagination or ignite a lifetime of passion. When you provide a child with new worlds to explore and challenges to tackle, the possibilities are endless.” Hilary Clinton
Music at Penn Wood School
At Penn Wood School, music is a powerful and unique form of communication that joins pupils together from different cultural and religious backgrounds and serves as an important vehicle in integrating those pupils who have very little spoken English. The breadth of music making activities in and out of the classroom helps to develop pupils’ self-confidence and creativity, to forge strong relationships and to develop teamwork.
At Penn Wood, music is loved and celebrated through assemblies and performances during the year. Music plays a central role in the developing the whole child and developing pupils’ self-confidence.
Throughout their school career, pupils develop and deepen their understanding of the key skills of listening, composing and performing music. Children can be heard singing songs in early years and playing a range of pitched and non-pitched instruments in key stage 1. As they journey through Key stage 2, pupils learn to play the recorder and violin. They develop their drumming techniques in year 5; learning to play djembe drums and performing samba rhythms. In year 6, they receive keyboard lessons. Pupils also have the opportunity to enhance their musical experience by joining a range of after school clubs which include a singing and drumming club.
Music Intent, Implementation and Impact document
Penn Wood's Music Development Plan
Progression of skills in Music
Whole School Music Curriculum Years 1- 6
Sounds of Intent Framework of Musical Development document
How to support your child with listening to music
Musical Events
Nov '24: Toscana strings and ballerina performance of The Nutcracker
Violin Club's performance at Slough Music Service's Recital Concert
Slough Music Service Instrument Demonstration - Wednesday 8th January
CURRICULUM LEARNING Year 6 - Tudor Music 1 (Autumn 2024)
Having identified key characteristics of Tudor music which included lively Humpty dumpty rhythms (compound), the pupils then went on to compose their own music fit for King Henry VIII's court
Year 6- Tudor music ( Autumn term)
Having identified key characteristics of Tudor music which included lively Humpty dumpty rhythms (compound), the pupils then went on to compose their own music fit for King Henry VIII's court
Year 6 Hero music
Spring 2024: Having listened to music that expresses emotions and music specifically composed for characterisation as part of the film music project, the children chose the musical features of concords, a fast pulse ( allegro), leaping melodies and staccato playing to capture the character of a hero in their compositions.
Year 6 Hero music
Spring 2024: Having listened to music that expresses emotions and music specifically composed for characterisation as part of the film music project, the children chose the musical features of concords, a fast pulse ( allegro), leaping melodies and staccato playing to capture the character of a hero in their compositions.
SPRING '25: Year 2 pitch composition using Chrome Music Lab
SPRING '25 Year 5 Djembe drumming composition
Having learnt to play different cyclic rhythms from West Africa, the pupils had the opportunity to compose their own pieces of music. They experimented with layering different rhythms together as part of their piece of music.
SPRING 25 Year 5 Djembe drumming compositions
SPRING 2025: Having learnt to play different cyclic rhythms from West Africa, the pupils had the opportunity to compose their own pieces of music. They experimented with layering different rhythms together as part of their piece of music.
SPRING 25 Djembe Drumming compositions
SPRING 2025: Having learnt to play different cyclic rhythms from West Africa, the pupils had the opportunity to compose their own pieces of music. They experimented with layering different rhythms together as part of their piece of music.
Year 5 Samba drumming
Continuing our journey around the world exploring different musical cultures, Year 5 have been learning rhythmic patterns as part of a Samba drumming ensemble. Not only have they learnt to maintain a part within an ensemble but the children have also had the challenge of walking while performing.
Year 3 Animal compositions
SUMMER '24: Having listened to Saint Saen's Carnival of the Animals, pupils in year 3 composed their own animal compositions for a frog and elephant. When composing their ostinati patterns, they considered whether they should use leaps, steps or slides to show the animal movement and whether high pitch or low pitch sounds were more suitable. They then selected non pitched instruments to accompany the patterns.
SPRING '25 Year 2 Weather compositions - rain
Having explored pitch in a previous unit, pupils have used this knowledge to compose melodic patterns with non pitch accompaniment to capture different types of weather.
SPRING '25 Weather compositions- sunshine
Having explored pitch in a previous unit, pupils have used this knowledge to compose melodic patterns with non pitch accompaniment to capture different types of weather.
Year 3 frog composition.MOV
Year 5 space compositions
SUMMER '24: Having listened to music by Gustav Holst, Eric Whitacre, Richard Strauss and John Williams, the children in year 5 composed their own pieces of music on the theme of space. For the beauty of space, they conjured up the sheer size of space by using huge leaping melodies and using concord accompaniments. .
Unfriendly alien music.MOV
SUMMER '24: For their unfriendly alien music, they managed to create unease in the mind of the listener by using discords and chromatic melodies.
Dates for your diary
Spring term 25
Violin club- years 4, 5 and 6 - every Monday 3:20 - 4:20. By invitation only
World drumming club-years 3, 4, 5 and 6 - every Tuesday 3:20 - 4:00
Singing club- years 3, 4, 5 and 6 - every Wednesday lunchtime
Music assembly- Friday 14th February
Summer term 25
Violin club- years 4, 5 and 6 - every Monday 3:20 - 4:20. By invitation only
Singing club for years 1 and 2 - every Tuesday 3:20 - 4:00
Singing club- years 3, 4, 5 and 6 - every Wednesday lunchtime
Year 6 Production- 16/7/25 and 17/7/25
