Love of Music
Music is an integral part of the Junior School curriculum with weekly classroom lessons led by a music specialist. Throughout the Junior School, the use of singing to aid with memory and language, develops our pupils as performers.
Get in touch
Contact the School’s Admissions Registrar, Jane Morris, to learn more about the extra and co-curricular activities on offer in the Junior School.
A love of music is further encouraged through extra-curricular trips and events throughout the school year. Recent highlights include taking Year 5 and 6 pupils to participate in the Young Voices Choir at the NEC, a Year 3 and 4 trip to Birmingham’s Symphony Hall to see the 80-strong City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and a visit by the Toscana Strings Quintet to WGJS, to inspire the children with a music, dance and storytelling workshop.
There are a wide variety of ensembles on offer to Junior School pupils including: Composers Collective, Dhol Club, Flute Club, Recorder Ensemble, Shake, Rattle and Roll (Infants), String Orchestra, Orchestra, Young Voices Choir.
Classroom Music lessons for Reception to Year 4 are led by our Head, Mr Peters, who as well as being Head also holds 4 music diplomas! Ms Guidotti is our Head of Junior Music and she teaches Years 5-6, leading on the Junior School concerts and a wide offering of music ensembles and choirs.
At Key Stage 1 (Reception to Year 2) music is explored through performance with singing being a key feature of all lessons. Music is also used to support the wider curriculum including songs introducing conversational vocabulary in Modern Foreign Languages.
All children from Year 2 upwards experience recorder lessons and they thoroughly enjoy working towards one of our coveted in-house recorder medals. This foundation on the recorder often leads to learning a woodwind or brass instrument in Years 5 and 6.
At Key Stage 2 (Years 4 to 6), there is a broad musical curriculum, introducing pupils to music from a diverse variety of cultures and genres. Musical styles are explored through performance, composition, listening and theoretical understanding. Music is again used to support the curriculum, often linking to Humanities topics such as Ancient Egypt (Year 3) and The Tudors (Year 4).
Concerts
Termly Teatime Concerts for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 provide all pupils with the opportunity to perform both as a soloist and part of an ensemble in front of a highly supportive audience of family and friends.
The Christmas Carol Concert is a particular highlight, with our older Junior School pupils all joining together in Big School for a celebration of seasonal cheer.
Music takes centre stage in the Spring Term with the annual House Music competition. Each house provides a varied programme of singers, instrumentalists and the all-important themed House Song.
In the Summer term, Junior School pupils join the Senior School in their annual Summer picnic concert on Morton’s Piece. The House Piano competition also takes place in this term.
Instrumental Lessons
Whole class String teaching is offered to pupils in Years 4 – 6 and all pupils experience learning the recorder. Additionally many children choose to take up individual instrumental lessons with our team of Visiting Music Teachers. We recommend starting with Piano or Violin as these are great foundation instruments for musical development. To find out more about the instrumental lessons on offer please contact Elaine Marsden.
Love of Sport
WGJS pupils benefit from outstanding sporting facilities on our 25-acre site. We are extremely well resourced with playing fields on Moreton’s Piece and in the Valley, as well as netball courts and a purpose-built Sports Hall and Dance Studio.
Get in touch
Contact the School’s Admissions Registrar, Jane Morris, to learn more about the extra and co-curricular activities on offer in the Junior School.
All children have a weekly PE lesson and in addition Reception have daily yoga and Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 swim weekly at Wolverhampton Swimming and Fitness Centre.
The children love that they can choose the sport that interests them. We have mixed-gender football, cricket, rounders and netball during our weekly Games lessons. In addition, our extra-curricular clubs give our children the opportunity to try hockey, tag rugby, dance and tennis.
With additional Fitness lessons for Years 1 to 6, this amounts to over three hours of timetabled physical activity a week by the time the children are in Year 3. We believe that nurturing a love of sport and encouraging an active life is a major contributing factor to our children’s happiness and wellbeing.
Opportunities beyond the curriculum
Any child in Year 3 upwards that expresses an interest, will be chosen to represent WGJS in fixtures against other schools. WGJS has achieved many successes in Sport.
We are currently the reigning Wolverhampton City Indoor Athletics Champions, U9 and UII Boys’ City Cricket Champions, UII Girls’ City Cricket Champions, UII Boys’ City Football Champions and UII ISFA Midlands Football Champions , UII City Rounders Champions and UII City Netball Runners-up.
As the children move up the Junior School they are taught PE by the senior specialist games staff and on Fridays, Year 6 play sport with Year 7 as part of their Enrichment time; this further enhances the transition to our Senior School.
Parents are invited to spectate at our fixtures, and further details can be found on the Parent Portal. In addition, the annual Junior School Sports Day is a much-anticipated event in which all children from Reception to Year 6 are involved. The House Sports Cup is a coveted trophy as House points all count towards the end of year total and the overall House Winner.
