Expressive Arts in Lower School

The excitement of making music with others is available to all students through choirs and instrumental ensembles, and a very full performance programme, including staged productions.

Music lessons take place in the Lower School Music Room: a wonderfully bright space to learn in with over 20 keyboards, a smartboard, drum kit, and an array of percussion instruments. The students are taught listening, performing and composing, through the study of a vast array of musical styles.

A strong focus is placed on keyboarding skills and the exploration of the musical elements through music appraisal. Students learn to read and write basic musical notation and to play the keyboards with correct fingerings.

Co-curricular music ensembles include Lower School Orchestra, Choir, Flute Group, Off the Scale (traditional music), Rock Band, Musical Club and more!

Individual music lessons are available on all orchestral and band instruments as well as voice, piano, theory and pipes, fiddle and drums, taught by a large team of outstanding specialist teachers.

Practical skills are built on from Junior School and students begin to analyse and evaluate their own and others’ practical work as well as continue to explore and question the world of the characters they play. 

Co-curricular activities include an Acting Club and a Lower School Musical, which takes place every other year.

Lower School pupils use The Art Department on the main school campus work where they work with a wider range of materials and media: acrylic paint, ceramics, textiles, printmaking, construction materials, etc.

In Design and Technology, for most Lower School students it is their first experience of a workshop and so the emphasis is on skills-based, practical learning. They learn to safely use workshop tools and equipment and are introduced to bench tools.