Music plays an important part in the life of Chepstow House and is taught by a specialist teacher as a classroom subject to every child from Reception through to Year 6.
The music curriculum is designed to focus on the three main areas of music: listening and appraising, performing and composing. Each child will have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills in these areas as well as the key elements of music, such as pitch, rhythm and notation. This enables pupils to develop an understanding of music theory as well as practice.
In addition to classroom music, we have a comprehensive instrumental programme and encourage our pupils to display their musical skills, both vocal and instrumental, through school assemblies, concerts, end of term productions and class performances.
Ms Darkins is an experienced musician, performer, and teacher. her first love is the flute, and she has also studied piano, oboe, conducting and music theory. she studied for her BA music and French at Southampton university and later completed her PGCE at Roehampton. as a flautist, she studied with several leaders in the field including Trevor wye and Paul Edmund Davies (lso). she has extensive performance experience and has won many competitions and prizes. Ms Darkins is an experienced conductor and music leader, with experience of teaching in both primary and secondary schools. she is passionate about engaging children in a lifelong love of music. she has designed a curriculum that is accessible, meaningful, and fun, building the children’s confidence through performance and preparing them for the opportunities of the modern music industry by introducing them not only to Mozart and Beethoven but also film music, garage band and the diversity of musical traditions from around the world.
The school offers the following choirs and instrumental ensembles:
Chepstow House provides pupils from year 1 with the opportunity to take lessons with instrumental and vocal specialists, who are all experienced teachers and performers. Additional charges are made for these lessons. These lessons are offered during the school day but are on a rotation to avoid children missing the same lesson week to week. Children can have lessons in: singing, piano, violin, cello, flute, clarinet, saxophone, guitar, ukulele, drums and brass instruments.
