Music develops a wide range of skills as well as promoting creativity, teamwork, confidence and a sense of community. At Primrose Lane, music is an integral part of school life and we are very proud of the range and quality of music making in our school. Every child from Reception through to Year 6 has a weekly class music lesson delivered by a specialist music teacher, in which the key skills of singing, performing, composing and listening are developed.

In addition to this, we have weekly whole school singing sessions and regular song sharing assemblies. We also provide the opportunity for any child in school to perform for the rest of the school in our live music spot. We have achieved the Gold Sing Up Award and both children and staff enjoy singing with and for each other. Each year we stage several musical performances for parents including a Harvest Festival, KS1 Nativity, Christmas Carol Service, KS2 Spring Concert and the KS2 Production (recent performances have included Mary Poppins, Aladdin, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Oliver and Joseph).

As part of our music provision, every child in Year 2 learns to play the recorder and from Year 4 they have the option of having woodwind or percussion lessons - we currently have over fifty pupils taking lessons. There are lots of opportunities for instrumentalists to perform for an audience and they can also take ABRSM exams. We also have a school choir, wind band and recorder ensemble. 

We are always keen to take part in musical activities outside school; many of our children have attended a range of different workshops run by Leeds ArtForms and we have a number of children who have performed in Leeds Town Hall in various concerts. 

We have a wide range of percussion instruments which are used in class music lessons and a purpose built room for instrumental lessons.
 

Visit of Kakatsitsi Master Drummers of Ghana



We thoroughly enjoyed an exciting and inspiring music-filled day with a visit from the Kakatsitsi Master Drummers of Ghana. They are a group of extremely talented and skilled traditional drummers, dancers and singers from Ghana who spent the day at our school during their UK tour.

The day began with a performance and introduction to the different drums and techniques for the whole school; this was followed by high-energy drumming and dancing workshops for individual classes which we all enjoyed immensely. It was a great experience for our pupils to work with professional musicians.



Here are some comments from Year 2 and Year 5:

Brandon: ‘I liked joining in with the singing and trying the dancing.’ 
Callum: ‘I liked trying some of the drumming, it was exciting.’
Ava: ‘I enjoyed doing the dancing and clapping and stamping our feet.’
Immogen: ‘I really enjoyed having the African drummers come into our school. I most enjoyed the African dance. The more I danced, the more fun I had.'
Jess B: 'I enjoyed the African dancing because it was very creative and fun. I also enjoyed it when we took turns on the djembe drums.'
Lucas: 'I really enjoyed the workshop, it was very enjoyable and I hope they come back!'
Florence: 'I think that the African Day was very exciting when we listened to the songs and tried doing the drumming ourselves. The dancing was really interesting and it was a great opportunity for School Council to show the workers around school and have lunch with them - they were extremely talented.'

We are delighted to announce that, once again, Primrose Lane School are the winners of the Leeds Singing Challenge which was held by Leeds Music Education Partnership and Out of the Ark Music!

Schools throughout Leeds competed to become the best singing school and our song, which involved the whole of KS2 singing ‘A Healthy Life’ accompanied by our own djembe drummers and woodwind players, was the winning entry! The feedback from the judges praised the high standard of singing and instrumental playing and the colourful costumes and props we included to reflect a healthy lifestyle.

We are extremely proud to have won the Leeds Singing Challenge competition once again!