The Creative Arts Curriculum At West Jesmond
Performance and visual arts play a central part within our West Jesmond Curriculum.
Our school ethos says that 'every child should feel clever every day'. For many children the creative arts allow them to express themselves in different ways, to explore new talents, to build up their confidence and develop skills that will bring them enjoyment throughout their lives.
Our Artistic Community
We seek to draw upon our rich and varied regional culture and the exciting international backgrounds of our children and families and we actively welcome in visitors to help enhance our Arts curriculum.
In recent years we have hosted international artists, a wide range of musicians, dancers storytellers, artisans, choirs and creatives. We work closely with our families, local museums, galleries, theatres, dance and music venues to help develop our children's understanding and enjoyment of the many opportunities available to them.
Opportunities For All
We strive to provide the very widest range of high quality experiences for our children. We are determined that every child will be able to access the opportunities in and out of the classroom and we challenge ourselves to identify and remove any barriers. Any costs for clubs, visits or experiences are fully paid for children who receive Pupil Premium.
Music At West Jesmond
Curriculum music is taught throughout the school, with a strong emphasis on singing and rhythm games throughout the Early Years and Key Stage 1, to develop language, co-ordination and social skills, as well as an understanding of pitch, rhythm and harmonies.
Throughout Key Stage 2, our pupils are taught composition-based curriculum music, in our purpose built music studio. The studio is well equipped with a range of percussion instruments and keyboards. During Key Stage 2, all children are also taught to play a range of instruments and to read conventional music notation.
We offer a range of extra-curricular music groups. These include a School Choirs, School Band, Djembe Club , Ukulele Club, Indian Music Club as well as groups and individual lessons for guitar, keyboard, violin, cello, viola and drums. The School of Rock project has given opportunities for Year 6 children who may or may not already play an instrument, to rehearse and perform as part of a rock band.
Our children are offered a wide variety of opportunities to perform. Each year, the choir tours venues across our city as well taking part in a collaborative concerts with other primary schools. We regularly hold ‘Musical Showcase’ events, which include performances from soloists, ensembles and larger groups.
Our school has been awarded Music Mark Status, ‘in recognition of our commitment to providing a high-quality music education for all children and young people.’
Drama, Dance & Opera
Children perform in plays and musicals throughout their time at West Jesmond. Our Year 4 children traditionally take part in a term long opera project, supported by a team of professional musicians and choreographers from Scottish Opera, culminating in a performance either in school, or in a local venue. We also enhance musical provision with our links with Opera North musicians, who run workshops and rehearsals with the children on a regular basis.
Shakespeare
Every year we perform a Shakespeare play at the Northern Stage Theatre. In 2024 we were every proud to be awarded the award of Gold Shakespeare School by the Shakespeare Schools Foundation.
Dance
Dance plays a key part in our PE curriculum and is enhanced through dance clubs, festivals and competitions. We work with our friends at Dance City to run workshops for children in Year 5 and Year 6 to inspire them to develop their talents in dance and audition for the CAT advanced training programme.
Art and Design At West Jesmond
As well as our rich and varied art curriculum, we offer out of school art clubs, special art development sessions, whole school art theme weeks and many opportunities for our children to share and celebrate their creation in local venues and through local and national art competitions. We work closely with local museums and galleries and artists to enrich our curriculum. This year we were especially proud to host the Turkish artist Kübra Müjde Braun to lead a workshop with our children. On a walk around the corridors of our school you can see the wealth and variety of visual artwork on display, created throughout the course of the school year.