Alison's update

Tuesday afternoon at Altmore Junior School (East Ham) with Nursey and Reception grups was also a real pleasure – particularly sessions with the 2 nursery...amazing guest facilitator and double bassist David Leahy was with us and the children adored having turned to play the bass, dance to bass music, play and sing with the bass and conduct the bass sounds. 

One very quiet, wide-eyed Urdu speaking boy in the Nursery turned to me during the session and exclaimed “Fantastic!”.  One of his teachers told me later that she’d asked him if he’d enjoyed the music sessions with David and he’d replied “wonderful!”.  Such eloquence, what a pleasure :D

Altmore Early Years - the insider's view!

Our practitioners have been working at Altmore Primary School on our Early Years Project for a few weeks now.  Having had a chance to settle in, here are Zoe's impressions of how the project has gone so far:

"The atmosphere at Altmore is great to work in - the school is well-resourced and it seems as though staff really value music and are committed to integrating it into all aspects of school life.  

The first few weeks working with children in the Nursery has been eye-opening. These children are leaving their parents for the first time, some seem excited and full of wide-eyed wonder whilst others are bewildered and brimming with tears.  Our initial sessions have been very simple, I usually find a space and invite children to join me making music, singing and moving.  We sing some familiar songs and play with our voices, making sounds up along with the hand chimes which have become very popular.  Some children in the group are really creative with how they play and improvise, picking up objects from the classroom and using them to copy back simple rhythmic patterns, they seem to take delight in their innovation!"

Photos and video to follow soon!