If you value a rich music education, then our school is the school for you! At St Mary and St Pancras CE School, we hope to foster a lifelong love of music by exposing our pupils to diverse musical experiences and opportunities. Music is the ultimate inclusive subject-our children love music and some excel to a high standard. We hold Music Mark accreditation in recognition of our fantastic provision!
We have a thriving music offer with every class having a dedicated music lesson each week by our talented teacher, Ms Pryce.
Our visiting tutors from the Camden Music Service work in our school teaching one-to-one music lessons and helping to lead our brass bands. This means that every day at St Mary and St Pancras, you will hear music being taught, learnt and performed throughout the school.
Our Music Curriculum
Our Music Curriculum follows the National Curriculum objectives. From the EYFS up, children are taught to read music in different forms and this skill is used regularly in lessons. In KS2, every child learns to play an instrument with their class. In Years 3 and 4, this is the recorder, in Years 5 & 6, brass instruments. We encourage child- led learning in our lessons, giving space for pupils to share their own musical preferences, compositions and performances with their peers. Children choose and operate the music for daily Collective Worship.
Challenge Partners Area of Excellence
In March 2019, St Mary and St Pancras School was acknowledged nationally as having Music as an Area of Excellence in our school. We are very proud of this achievement and feel it reflects the high quality of music that happens in our school every day.
Wider Opportunities in Music
Every child in Years 5 & 6 class learns a brass instrument as part of the Camden Music Wider Opportunities in Music Programme. The children have a band lesson once a week in which they rehearse in sections and then come together to form a band. These sessions are led by Camden Music tutors and supported by class teachers and support staff. Adults and children learning together-very powerful!
Singing
We believe that singing forms the basis of good music education and so every music lesson incorporates whole class singing. As a school, singing forms an important part of our school community and Collective Worship. When we are able to, we regularly invite families in to attend our class assemblies and also to take part in our weekly singing assemblies, choir performances and plays.
Extra-curricular Music
There are many music activities children can be involved in outside of curriculum lessons at St Mary and St Pancras CE School.
Choir
We have two choirs in our school, one for our Infants and one for Juniors. Both our choirs love to perform both in and outside of school. We regularly take part in Camden Music events such as the Camden Music Festival at the Royal Albert Hall. We enjoy showcasing our choir at every major school event and we sing carols at Euston station, to raise money for the Lord Mayor’s chosen charity.
Steel Pans
We have a set of steel pans in our school and these are used when possible in our KS2 curriculum music lessons. When able to, we also welcome other Camden schools to come in and have workshops using the steel pans. Most recently, learned pieces as part of the Windrush celebrations and have had performances from professional steel pan players.
Clubs
We offer a range of clubs including our very successful Choir club.
One to One Lessons
We offer peripatetic lessons on a range of instruments at St Mary and St Pancras CE School. These lessons are taught during school time by visiting Camden Music Service tutors for pupils in years 1-6.
Instruments offered:
Percussion – Drum kit
Strings –guitar
Woodwind – recorder, flute, clarinet, saxophone
Brass – trumpet, trombone, euphonium, baritone, tenor horn, French horn
Piano/keyboard and Musicianship Theory
If you would like advice on which instrument is best for your child to learn, please call / email the school office, in the first instance.
To register for these lessons, please click here:
https://www.camden.gov.uk/camdens-music-service
Camden Music Service Partnership
We encourage our young musicians to make music outside of school by joining the Camden Music Service Ensembles. Musicians from St Mary and St Pancras CE School are members of Camden SuperBlast, SuperString, SuperStrike and SuperToot, which take place every half term.
Camden Music also run an extensive Saturday morning centre where children of all ages can take part in a range of music making activities from learning an instrument to singing in a choir or playing in an ensemble.
These ensembles are a stepping-stone into the senior bands and orchestras in Camden and provide opportunity to further ensemble playing skills. For further information regarding these, please look on the Camden Music website: https://www.camden.gov.uk/camdens-music-service
Musical Partnerships
In order to enrich our music provision even further, we partner with some fantastic local music organisations such as the Camden Music Hub, Royal Academy of Music, the CLC & the Aurora Orchestra. We greatly value these partnerships as they enable us to offer a broad music curriculum to pupils.
Camden Choir Festival 2023 in the Royal Albert Hall.
Not only did Year 6 and Year 5 choir members sing as part of the massed choir, but all of Year 6 also performed on brass instruments and steel pans on stage for the world Premiere of ‘Camden to the Carribean’
We also had Year 5 brass students play in the Wider Opportunities brass band. The 2023 Camden Choir Festival was a night to remember and one where St Mary and St Pancras fully showcased their talents! Our next festival is the Camden Primary Choir festival in March 2024 at the Somers Town Sports Centre, where our KS2 choir will sing as part of the massed choir, as well as a solo item.
