Music in Le Chéile
We in Le Chéile value the musical education of our children and wish to expose them to a variety of musical experiences during their primary school years.
With a conscious focus on fostering music within the school this year, the first term in Le Chéile has seen a medley of musical activities having taken place.
Following on from the success of Little Music Makers with the Junior classes last year the school decided to continue on with the programme for 1st class. This will give the children a solid musical basis and enable them to learn the recorder in 2nd class with much of the ground work done.
2nd class began learning the recorder earlier in the first term under the expert tuition of Maria Sheil. With plenty of practice the children will be well prepared for their RIAM Cara Awards event in May.
In November, 3rd, 5th and 6th classes had a wonderful day out at Musical Adventures in the National Concert Hall. The children were introduced to individual instruments and instrument families. They were treated to a number of classical compositions performed by the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Gavin Maloney. Isa Kheireddine, a boy from 5th class, was the lucky child picked to conduct the orchestra by himself from the many schools that attended on the day. He did a fantastic job. Check out the video link below.
At the moment the two 4th classes are rehearsing songs in preparation for their performance early in February in the RDS when they will be part of a musical extravaganza accompanied by the Cross Border orchestra and many other primary schools from both the north and south of Ireland.
Song singing and performance is a major strand in the Music curriculum and the children from Junior Infants to Sixth class did themselves proud as they performed so confidently for the school community at the Christmas concerts recently.
Also at the Christmas concert this year the school community was treated to the first public performance by the school’s newly formed orchestra conducted by Ailbhe Kirkan from the Julianstown Junior Orchestra. The orchestra comprises of 11 children currently, who play a variety of instruments including violin cello, flute, clarinet, viola, coronet and recorder. It is hoped that the orchestra will go from strength to strength in the coming years and include many more musicians.
Another hugely popular musical activity which the children really enjoy is the school choir. Nicola Kelly currently teaching sixth class has taken a big number of children into the choir again this year due to its popularity. Nicola takes the choir for weekly practice and due to the dedication and commitment of all involved they are indeed a credit to the school.
At the school’s recent open night in November the school community got an opportunity to visit the school and hopefully those that attended enjoyed listening to the choir perform in the hall. Monica and Kim in 3rd class had the musical resources on display in the classroom and the school was happy to be able to show off the huge variety of musical equipment that we possess.
More musical activities are planned for terms 2 and 3 for all classes and we will keep you updated.
