Skip to content ↓

Our Wider Offer

Deansfield provides a range of sports and clubs throughout the year for Keystage 1 and Keystage 2. Children are encouraged to be active and participate in activities inside school at lunchtimes and after school clubs and outside school through club links. The Sports Premium funding has enabled us to extend our provisio

Children in Years 3 and 4 have swimming lessons weekly at Eltham Pools.

Sports fixtures are arranged to encourage children's involvement in team competition. The school enters teams for inter-school tournaments, festivals and leagues in soccer, rugby, cricket and basketball. These event introduce children to competition at a higher level where they are competing and testing their skills against talented sportsmen. Strong sporting links are also made with local secondary schools.

Sport and physical activity is used to encourage children's leadership, individual initiative, social skills and team building skills. The sports programs go some way to promoting this but in addition children are encouraged to participate in outdoor adventure.

Both Year 5 and Year 6 take part in school journeys. These activity weeks are designed to develop children's independence and team building skills as well as to broaden their experiences.

Music

Music enriches our lives: it brings joy both as a listener and a participant; it can comfort and make us feel secure; it can challenge us and confront us. All human societies and ages engage with music. Rarely does a day go by without music influencing and affecting us.

At Deansfield Primary School we strive to provide the best music education for all children. We are committed to developing excellence in both provision and outcomes. We want all our children to learn to be active participators in music and not just listeners.

Experiencing and learning music systematically provides many benefits to children. Research demonstrates that it can enhance learning in other areas of the curriculum.

By providing all children at Deansfield with regular music lessons we are helping to develop the following skills and attributes:

  • Pride and enjoyment in acquiring musical skills and sharing them with others.
  • Discipline - starting and then finishing a task, even when it takes weeks or months.
  • Co-operation with others in a shared experience.
  • Resilience - not giving up when a task is hard or when you don't succeed as much as you had hoped for.
  • Perseverance - it takes years of playing to master an instrument. You need to dedicate ten years of practise to become fully accomplished.
  • Commitment - most of the music your child will do takes place in groups. The success of the learning depends on each child being committed to each other and persevering to produce a performance after many months of preparation.

The music curriculum for all year groups is made up of 6 strands:

  • Exploring and controlling pulse, rhythm, pitch, speed, loudness and sound quality through body sounds (e.g. clapping) and percussion instruments.
  • Singing
  • Learning to play melodic instruments
  • Performing music to a wide variety of audiences
  • Composing and inventing new music
  • Listening and responding to a wide variety of musical performances both live and recorded

At Deansfield we have a strong tradition of singing which goes back more than ten years. In that time children have had the opportunity to sing at some amazing venues including the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall. Our proudest achievement is to have competed at the world-famous International Eisteddfod in Wales on four occasions since 2014. In 2017 we gained third prize.

We believe that all children can enjoy singing and become good at it. Children learn how to sing in a healthy and unforced manner, gradually extending their pitch range and eventually learning to sing in harmony.

All children have the opportunity to sing in their weekly class music lesson and in a weekly singing assembly. There is also the opportunity to enjoy and learn how to sing in a choir.

All children at Deansfield learn to play musical instruments.

The process begins by all children learning the Descant Recorder in Year 2. Children continue to play this in every subsequent year within their class music lesson.

Once children reach Year 3, they can choose to learn one of the following instruments:

  • Violin
  • Cello
  • Guitar
  • Drum-kit
  • Piano

Weekly lessons on instruments are given by visiting tutors, all of whom are professional musicians who both teach and perform. Lessons are given either individually or in small groups, generally lasting half an hour. The lessons take place during the school day. During COVID restrictions, peripatetic lessons have taken place through Google Meet.

Once a child begins learning an instrument we expect them to persevere and continue to learn it right through to Year 6. We ensure full support and encouragement is given at school. But parents have a vital role in supporting children at home (especially when they feel like giving up). All children need to understand that there are 'ups and downs' and times when you don't feel like you are getting anywhere. But, by persevering year after year, there are great rewards and a sense of great achievement.

 

 

Forest School

In Year 1 and 2 the children have the opportunity to go to Forest School in Oxleas Woods. 

Forest School is a child-centred inspirational learning process, that offers opportunities for holistic growth through regular sessions. It is a long-term program that supports play, exploration and supported risk taking. It develops confidence and self-esteem through learner inspired, hands-on experiences in a natural setting.