Cultural Capital

We are firmly committed to all children having the chance to tread the boards! We know how much children enjoy performing on stage or in a public setting, and the confidence they gain from this experience is pronounced. So children from all year groups have a chance to address an audience throughout the year on occasions such as:

• Harvest Festival
• Christmas carolconcerts
• Nativity plays
• Easter concerts
• Class assemblies
• End of year productions and more!

We aim for this to be the case for children from EYFS all the way through to our year 6 class. And of course this is a fantastic opportunity for parents to come and celebrate their child with us. 

At Putney we believe that music is an important part of every child’s development and an essential part of their education. Music brings us all together as a community and enriches our lives.

Music at Oasis Academy Putney is taught with a sense of fun and enjoyment, at the same time as ensuring that the lessons are challenging and achievable.

Learning music is a discipline, where repetition is key. Children very quickly learn that with time and patience they can achieve what they set out to do. It teaches a sense of perseverance with a joyful outcome for all to hear.

Learning music helps to increase a child’s self-reliance, confidence, self-esteem, sense of achievement and an ability to relate to others. It also has the potential to help children improve their ability in other areas of the curriculum.

What we do

Children have weekly class music lessons and Singing Assembly, with a specialist music teacher.

We teach a varied range of short tasks which build upon previous knowledge and introduce new skills. Children will sing; play tuned and untuned percussion instruments; learn about the elements of music; improvise, explore and compose; listen, reflect, respond to a variety of music from different genres; use symbols, notation and record; perform.                                                                                                                           Children will make music as a whole class, in small and large groups, as individuals and across the wider school.                                                                                                    

During class music lessons children will be taught how to play a variety of tuned and untuned percussion. They will learn to play the Xylophone/Glockenspiel, Boomwhackers, Ocarina, Djembe drums, and Recorder.

In Y4 children have whole class clarinet tuition delivered by Wandsworth Music Service. This progresses nicely from the Ocarina in Y3, giving children a taster of a wind instrument which they can then choose to continue with either individual or small group lessons in Y5.

Saxophone and keyboard are also offered as individual and small group tuition by Wandsworth Music Service. There will be a fee for these lessons. These lessons are taught during school hours.

For more information and to book your child extra music tuition please click this link to take you the Wandsworth Music Service Website http://www.wandsworthmusic.co.uk/lessons

 

Wider provision

Throughout the year children will be involved in various music events both internally and externally. For example, this year children have participated in Young Voices at the O2 Arena, Wandsworth Music Clarinet Concert, Wandsworth Summer Singing Programme and All Saints Church Community Singing Day as well as performing in school in The Nativity, The Winter Concert, Class Clarinet Performance, Class Assemblies and the Summer Music Assembly.

 

Extra Curricular

Children have the opportunity to join Choir, Guitar and Little Voices after school clubs.

At the heart of our curriculum offering at Putney is a determination to empower all pupils to use their voices effectively. One of the key ways in which we develop these characteristics is through teaching debating in Upper Key Stage 2. Debating is when teams of students compose and deliver arguments around important policy issues, such as climate change or how the country should be run. By doing this, the children are learning more about the world they live in and their place in it as local, national and global citizens. While the language, techniques and rigour of debating is woven throughout our teachers' classroom practice, we also offer a number of extra-curricular and enrichment opportunities to supplement this.

Why do we do it?

There are many benefits to be gained from debating, but we believe they can be grouped into three main areas:

a) Confidence

Students who are taught how to debate learn to value their voice more highly and use it more effectively. This ability to speak up and make themselves heard is a huge boost in confidence and sees them engage far more easily and purposefully in class discussions and their wider life.  

b) Soft-skills

Survey after survey has found that employers most value communication skills within prospective employees, as well as characteristics such as resilience, independence and critical thinking. These are exactly the skills and attributes that debating, both within the classroom and beyond, develops. Therefore, by giving our children the opportunity to debate, we are setting them up with the best chance to succeed in later study and in their working life.

c) Academic achievement

Research now proves the positive classroom impacts that come from children learning how to debate. A major study by the Education Endowment Foundation in 2015 found that students who learn through debating made an additional two months’ progress in English and science, and one additional month’s progress in maths, compared with those not taught this way. Separate research has shown that children both enjoy their lessons more and remember a greater amount of what they have learned when taught in ways that use their debating skills.