Musician of the Term – Kate Bush

4th September 2023ajennings

Kate Bush was the first female to get a number one on   the U.K. charts with a song that she had written herself (Wuthering Heights – 1978). Her album ‘Never for Ever’
also made her the first-ever woman to enter the UK album chart at the number one spot.

Key songs:

Wuthering Heights

Cloudbusting

Babooshka

Running Up That Hill

Hounds of Love

Rubberband Girl

Lyra

Interesting facts:

In 1978 Kate’s debut single Wuthering Heights topped the UK charts for four weeks.

Kate has dueted with Elton John, Prince and Stephen Fry.

Kate Bush’s dramatic vocals and exploration of the ‘art-pop’ genre has influenced many
popstars performing today such as Billy Eilish, Florence and the Machine, Bjork and Adele.

Kate is a devoted vegetarian and animal rights supporter. She was pictured wearing fur on her 2011 album Words For Snow and rushed to write an open letter to fans reassuring them the material was fake. She had previously said of fur coats “I don’t believe in wearing them.”

Kate Bush has always kept her personal life private.  There are often years/decades between musical releases, and she is very rarely spotted at events, choosing to live a quiet life in South Devon instead.

Kate also studied karate in her youth and was given the nickname ‘Ee-ee’ because of the squeaky sound she made when practicing.

Listen to some of Kate Bush’s music!

Art Workshop in Year 6

30th June 2023D Fawkes

Year 6 were lucky enough to have an another visit from a fantastic artist, Jane Lee McCracken.

Jane is a very talented Artist; Designer & Founder/CEO of ‘Drawing for the Planet’. She worked with our children on their drawings of Ugandan animals and discussed how a lot of the animals are either endangered or extinct.

Using coloured Biros only, the children selected an image and drew their own version of the animal.

The work the children produced was AMAZING and Jane is in the process of scanning and returning their pieces. Some of their work will even be displayed in Jane’s collection.

Podcasts in 5F (literacy group)

21st June 2023L Forster

The children have used their non-chronological report about the Ancient Maya to create a podcast – demonstrating their speaking skills to show expression.

Working in groups, they decided on their roles (hosts, experts, professors, priests) and came up with a podcast name to suit the style of show.

After spending a lesson editing out (most of) their mistakes; adding music and sound effects; and altering the volume of different tracks of audio; the children completed their podcasts.

So please listen and enjoy.

Fantastic Facts – Jaycob H, Jack P, India F, Theo R and Riley H

History’s Mysteries – Ruben B, Ben W, Holly B, Sienna D and Eve R

Maya Disappear – Ava M, Scarlett B, Nathan P, Lillie Mae C and Eoghan C

Mysterious History Show – Sapphire M, Isla H, Ava P, Alfie J and Harrison H

Art in Year 2

16th June 2023Rachel Wright

This half term, we will be painting a piece of artwork inspired by the paintings of The Great fire of London. Before we paint our artwork, we need to learn about and understand colour. We looked at paintings of The Great Fire of London and the different colours used. We saw that lots of orange, yellow and red were used for the fire and blue, green and purple were used for the buildings, river and people. We learnt the difference between warm colours (red, orange and yellow) and cool colours (green, blue and purple). We then found out about primary colours and how we could mix two primary colours to make secondary colours. Now, we know and understand which colours to use and how to make them ready for our painting.

Year 3 African Drumming Workshop

9th June 2023C Whitehead

Today we had a special visitor all the way from the South of Africa. He told us all about the culture of music in Africa and how important it is in his country- Zimbabwe. It is a part of religious ceremonies, festivals, and rituals. Songs are used for the important events in a person’s life, for example when they are born. We all played a beat together and the powerful force of sound was amazing! We then played a game to help us practise our rhythm and beat.

Musician of the Term- Stevie Wonder

5th June 2023Miss A Samuels

Stevie Wonder has been one of the most successful musicians of all time. He wrote, played and recorded most of the instruments on his songs himself. He has influenced other musicians in the fields of pop, rhythm and blues, soul, funk and rock, selling over 100 million records all over the world.

Stevie Wonder - Wikipedia

Stevie Wonder’s Music:

  1. 1963- Fingertips- His first number 1 single at just the age of 13.
  2. 1970- Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours- Spent 6 weeks at number 1 and features
    a sitar at the start of the song.
  3. 1972- Superstition- He enjoyed experimenting with synthesizers (electronic musical instrument) and this song became one of his most famous.
  4. 1976- Isn’t She Lovely- A song celebrating his daughter Aisha’s birth. She now performs with her father as a backing singer.
  5. 1984- I Just Called to Say I Love You- Wonder’s best-selling single, reaching
    number 1 in 19 countries around the world.

Interesting Facts!

  • For environmental and health reasons, Stevie Wonder became a vegan in 2016 and now travels with his very own chef!
  • He has performed at the funerals of many famous musicians such as Witney Houston, Michael Jackson and Aretha Franklin.
  • When he signed with Motown Records, the record producer gave him the stage name ‘Little Stevie Wonder’ due to his young age and because of how talented he was. He later dropped the ‘Little’ and simply became known as Stevie Wonder.

Listen to some of Stevie Wonder’s Music!

Y3 Warm and Cool Colours

26th May 2023jpowell

Over this half term, Y3 have been looking at warm and cold colours using the colour wheel. We have created a new piece of artwork each week. We created pieces of artwork using primary, secondary, complimentary and harmonious colours before finally completing a masterpiece using all techniques of colour mixing we have learned to produce a landscape water colour painting of both warm and cool colours.

Take a look at our masterpieces we have created – we are very proud of our achievements!

Marvellous music in year 4!

19th May 2023ajennings

4E and 4J have been learning about soul music this term. They have been singing Lean on Me by Bill Withers and improvising rhythms using glockenspiels.

 

They have listened to different artists including Beyoncé and Walter Williams, Mary Mary and Elvis Presley who have all recorded a variety of soul and gospel songs. The children loved listening to the music and comparing these songs to Lean on Me.

We have some fantastic and talented singers in Year 4!

Here are 4J practising on the glockenspiels and singing Lean on Me: