From the movies to the monarch

From the movies to the monarch.

What a glorious musical celebration for the Coronation of King Charles III. Our Copthill garden was transformed into Hyde Park and a Proms style ‘Party in the Park’ complete with Pimms, cakes stall and Union Jack bunting to set the scene.

Our fantastic staff band played easy listening classics followed by our Year 6 Rock Band while parents, grandparents and friends arrived and set their chairs and blankets ready for the afternoon. The thunder struck, the lightning flashed and the rain poured in typical English fashion! But miraculously the sun appeared just as the performance was to begin, the tarpaulin came off the stage area and proceedings began.

From Nursery to Year 6, every child took part in an afternoon of celebration with dancing and singing. Our orchestra began with a ‘Procession for the King’ and we ended our celebration with a community ‘Sing for the King’ led by our massed children’s and staff choirs with orchestra and drummers for the National Anthem and Land of Hope and Glory and much flag waving.

A moment after the concert ended the heavens opened again leaving us marvelling at the perfect timing, allowing us to enjoy the wonderful performances of all of our Copthill children shared by a special outdoor gathering of our multi-generational Copthill family. A very special occasion that I for one shan’t forget.

We have enjoyed two more informal concerts this term where our performers have played and sang to our lovely supportive audiences and have launched their performing careers. These are special concerts where our children are able to experience solo performing in an intimate and friendly environment.

Being part of a community lunchtime recital at Uffington Church along with Uffington Village Primary School was a lovely occasion. Our Chamber Instrumental Trio and Chamber Choir gave performances to a full church. We enjoyed listening to Uffington School’s woodwind and vocal performances before all singing together to end the recital. We hope this is the first of many more community events.

As a result of their hard work and effort through their individual instrumental and singing lessons, many of our young musicians took part in our ABRSM exam day this term which was a positive experience for all.

Two of our very talented pianists enjoyed a day full of piano magic at Oakham School, participating in masterclasses, improvisation and composition workshops before ending the day performing in a concert in the Chapel.

The musical talent of our Year 6 children has shone through in their performances of ‘Mary Poppins’. So much commitment, effort and dedication is needed to create such performances and our Year 6 children really have risen to the challenge to produce such a wonderful production this year.

Our playground has been buzzing with singing activity at playtimes this term as our singing playground project leaders have donned their special vests and taken their singing games out to the Lower School children each playtime. Traditional games such as ‘Oranges & Lemons’ mixed with modern ‘Step Back Baby’ and Polish ‘Tańczymy labada’ create varied and fun playtimes.

This term has seen the launch of the Year 4 Strings Project. Each child has enjoyed a ten week session learning how to play the violin, viola or cello as their class music lesson. The year group has made phenomenal progress and finished their string project in style with a fabulous performance to the rest of the school. The opportunity for these children to continue their string studies in small groups is available for another ten week block as their next step and then who knows…The Philharmonic?

Our Year 3 recorder players treated us all to their final performance of the year with a super rendition of ‘Indian Warrior’ showing what great progress they have made over the year. I look forward to seeing many of these children create recorder ensembles next term to continue their success story and move on to learning treble, tenor and even bass recorder.

Our Year 6 children have been busy writing a song for Copthill. This is their musical legacy to the school. In our final music assemblies this term our Year 6 children have shared their special ‘Colours of Copthill’ song with the rest of the school and I am so looking forward to using this as our school anthem next year.

The end of year Music Department concert ‘Copthill at the Movies’ was a real celebration. We ended our year in style with over 70 children staying after school for a special Music Department celebration tea and then performing in the concert.

Our fabulous Music Parents enjoyed an evening of film music from the haunting Welsh lullaby from Empire of the Sun sung by our Chamber Choir to the raucous and fun Muppets theme tune by our Jazz Band, with ‘Star Wars’, ‘Sound of Music’, ‘Shrek’ and many more delights from our vocal groups, bands, and orchestra and a special devout performance form our Staff Choir with their ‘Sister Act’ rendition!

Thank you to all of our brilliantly talented music staff who enable your children to create these musical performances and treat us to such fantastic concerts. I have thoroughly enjoyed my first year of leading the Music at Copthill. It is a privilege to work with such an inspirational Copthill team that enthusiastically support the musical life of the school which enriches us all.

Mrs Over

Head of Music