Memorandum submitted by Mount Pleasant Primary School

 

At Mount Pleasant we aim to foster each pupil's understanding and enjoyment of the Arts through active involvement in composing, experimenting, creating, performing, evaluating and exhibiting.

 

The Creative and Performing Arts Curriculum is a right for all pupils at Mount Pleasant, regardless of age, culture, gender or background, including those with special needs and we aim to foster, nurture and develop creativity in each and every child.

 

 

1. At Mount Pleasant we wanted to re-awaken and stimulate staff, parents and children's interest in music, by embedding a love of music across the curriculum and also into extra-curricular activities. Music had a low profile within the curriculum. No children were interested in taking up a musical instrument. Although we often had visiting involvement with music and performance, they were one off activities and did not fully embed anywhere within the school, mainly due to staff's lack of ownership and confidence. We wanted to give staff ownership of music experiences and opportunities, in order to establish a sustainable music ethos throughout the school. We wanted to raise parents' profile and perceptions of music, as an integrally important part of developing their children's emotional literacy, and of being able to transfer a love of music across the curriculum. We wanted our community to celebrate and enjoy the showcasing of our school's achievements.

 

2. By achieving an award in the Black Country Creative Partnership we were able to buy in a professional musician who has worked alongside staff, delivering INSET Sessions and inspiring them into having the confidence to teach music. Mr. Iain Masson has worked with staff across the school and has helped them to deliver a refreshing and enjoyable new music curriculum. He has worked with children across all ages and taught them new skills, given them confidence and stimulated their enthusiasm for music and performance. Every child at Mount Pleasant will now say that music is one of their favourite subjects and many have learned new skills in both performing and composing their own music.

 

3. As a result of the Creative Partnership award we now have many children taking up musical instruments, so much so, that we are starting up our own band/orchestra next term. We have an enlarged choir, called Pleasant Sounds, who regularly perform within the community and for parents in school. An offshoot of this is the boy band, Kiss the Ceiling, which has also performed regularly. There is now a queue of boys wanting to join the boy band, whereas before it was thought of as un-cool. The Dance group has expanded and there is also going to be a boy group next term. This was after a link with our secondary school dance group which has stimulated children at Mount Pleasant to dance. We have had Bhangra Dancers in school and drumming with a Samba band. We are going to start our own Samba Band in the Autumn term with some of the money we have left over, and we are having our own Samba drums. The Bhangra dancers are coming back to do some workshops with children as they were quite inspiring. The story goes on and on....

 

4 The children in Year 5 have made their own power point presentation to show the many things that we have been able to do because of the Creative Partnership in the Black Country and they wanted to tell everyone about the wonderful experiences they have had and the new skills they have learned. Many children have been changed this year because of the music in their lives now and many new talents have been discovered. Wouldn't it be a shame to say that this could no~ happen any more? The Black Country is not as bad as Queen Victoria said it was. It was once the power house of Britain and now the Creative Partnership scheme has made it into the Creative Heart of Britain. Let's keep that creativity beating for the next generation so that the rich culture we have inherited can go on. The children of Mount Pleasant will always certainly keep creativity alive.

 

July 2007