Music | Co-Curricular Life | Pre-Prep and Junior School | King Edward's School, Bath

Music at the Pre-Prep and Junior School

Music is a vibrant and integral part of life at KES, built on a clear belief: we are all musicians! From the earliest years, children are encouraged to explore, perform and enjoy music, developing confidence, creativity and a lifelong appreciation of the subject. 

In the Pre-Prep, our focus is engagement and enjoyment! Children sing together and explore a range of percussion instruments to develop control. They learn to keep time, copy rhythms, compose their own music and to see how sound can be represented through graphic scores in addition to listening to a range of music from different traditions and cultures. We later look at notation of simple rhythms. 

Regular class assemblies and whole-school productions provide early opportunities to perform and build confidence, and the Year 2 choir is very popular! An instrumental programme for all Year 2 children involves learning to play the violin and the dood or toot; similar instruments to the clarinet and flute. This allows children to start to read from notation, extending their learning from using graphic notation to traditional notation and encourages them to consider learning an orchestral instrument.  

This journey develops further in the later years through a distinctive programme of hands-on musical experiences. Pupils learn class strings in Year 3, brass and wind in Year 4, and explore world music in Year 5 through gamelan, African djembe and Brazilian samba. In Year 6, pupils perform on a full set of steel pans, with every child performing a piece with their class from memory in the Prom concert.  This breadth of experience is a defining feature of music at KES, and it is no surprise that over 60% of pupils elect to learn an instrument. 

Ensembles, performances and musical life Music is woven into the fabric of school life. Three choirs and five ensembles rehearse weekly, including orchestra, wind band and string ensembles, and pupils perform regularly in assemblies, concerts, services and recitals. Highlights of the year include the Summer Prom Concert, Year 3, 4 and 5 concerts, evening recitals, carol services at St Mary’s Bathwick, a biennial whole-school musical and playing alongside Senior School pupils in our side-by-side programme. We feel strongly that music is for all and each child will perform on an instrument at least once in the school year and sing as a year group to the parents each term.   Events such as Music Week bring the entire school together in celebration, from workshops and visiting artists to pupil-led performances, recent highlights including work with internationally renowned beatboxer SK Shlomo. Pupils also benefit from links across the wider musical community, including Bath Abbey Choristers, with some going on to achieve places in prestigious national ensembles such as the National Youth Choir and National Children’s Orchestra. We also really enjoy our link with the Senior School, where Senior musicians come and play to the Junior School pupils and perform with the Junior School Orchestra in a collaborative rehearsal in Music Week.