Music

Music is playful, fun, creative and exciting at Monmouth Prep School and embraces every child regardless of their musical background. Our children’s first musical instruments are their voices and bodies; they encounter music on a daily basis as part of an immersive and dynamic curriculum.

We use enjoyable and inclusive singing games to build a child’s confidence in a supportive environment and we spark their musical imaginations during four designated music lessons a week.

We also provide wonderful opportunities for our boys and girls to improvise, create and develop their own musical ideas.

We work alongside leading composers, such as Russell Hepplewhite, to improve our children’s musical compositions further; often in the lead-up to a big summer concert for parents and families to enjoy.

We believe in giving our children a chance to shine on stage and, in addition to a summer concert, we also produce bi-annual musical productions that embrace acting, singing and dancing and our latest show, Matilda, was an overwhelming success.

Choir

As part of our Choir, children at Monmouth Prep School have an opportunity to perform live on stage at national and regional festivals and events.

Our Choir has shone at the National Festival of Music at Symphony Hall in Birmingham and celebrated the life and work of the composer, Zoltan Kodály, by performing at St Johns’ Smith Square in London.

In addition to these two wonderful events, our Choir was selected to star in the world premiere of Everything, a brilliant song cycle for children by author Michael Rosen and composer Russell Hepplewhite’s song-cycle.

Instruments

We introduce instruments to our pupils in a logical and meaningful manner; starting with the whole-class learning strings and recorders in Year 3.

Our inclusive approach from Year 3 gives children a foundation from which they can continue to learn strings in Year 4 or choose to move towards woodwind and brass instruments.

We recognise the importance of our pupils learning from our professional tutors, many of whom still perform in orchestras and bands themselves. Indeed, children learning an instrument receive a weekly ensemble lesson timetabled into their school curriculum all the way through to Year 6.

We also offer musically-minded children further enrichment through our weekly lunchtime orchestra and band ensembles.

Musicianship

We are delighted to be recognised as the first school in the UK that offers a progression to ABRSM Grade 5 Kodály Musicianship, using the Go for Gold scheme developed by the National Youth Choir of Scotland.

During her latest visit to Monmouth, Lucinda Geoghegan, the Education Director of National Youth Choir of Scotland, described our children as “having achieved such a high level of musicianship at such a young age”.

Such recognition makes parents and staff justifiably proud of our Music programme and all the benefits and rewards that it gives to our wonderful children.

We are excited that our pupil-centred approach can take our pre-school children on a magical journey – from beginner to an outstanding level of musicianship – during their time at Haberdashers’ Monmouth Schools.