Yorkmead Primary School is an oversubscribed two form entry junior and infant school in Birmingham. Please use this website to keep up to date with happenings at the school. Should the information you require not be here then please feel free to email or phone the school. The contact numbers can be found on this website.
Year 4’s Spring Topic is Kenya and Fairtrade. To begin our topic in style the whole of Year 4 took part in an exciting Drumming Workshop on Tuesday 17th January, led by Sarah Westwood from Drum Voice.
Each class started with a short introduction to the drums – where they are from, what they are made of, and their cultural importance. There were different types of drums which all had wonderful African names like the djembe (pronounced jem-bay), the djun djun (bass drums) and the talking drums, which were played with a stick. The rest of the time was a fully hands-on experience where the children learnt the techniques of playing the various instruments, basic conducting signals, a traditional rhythm, call and response sequences and how to work together as a band.
After rehearsing, the classes then performed in front of the rest of Key Stage 2. All of the children were introduced to the fun of songs from across Africa, in languages such as Zulu and Congolese. It was great fun to sing together.
We all thoroughly enjoyed the experience, both in terms of what we discovered about African drumming, as well as the enjoyment of playing as part of a band.
Here’s a taste of what we felt about the day…
“It was fun learning the different African rhythms.”
“I enjoyed playing the instruments because I’d never played them before.”
“It was a fun experience because it was like a little part of Africa coming to visit us.”
“We played the instruments in turn so that it sounded like a wave of sound going around the hall.”
The pictures show the culmination of the Year 5 project “My Charming World”. Many thanks to the children and parents who gave up the first day of the holidays to help sell the jewellery at the IKON gallery in Brindley Place. There is still merchandise that can be purchased. The sale raised £220, well done everybody!
Here at Yorkmead we take our recycling seriously!
The children in every class save scrap paper in their recycling bag. Every Friday this is then collected by the Pawan Bhamra, who is the Yorkmead Re-cycling Liason Officer, and with the help from members of the School Council it is organised and made ready for collection by the city council.
As part of highlighting the importance of re-cycling we held a competition to see who could make the most impressive model from recycled items. I’m sure you will agree that the results are amazing! The models were judged by Tamara Bolger and prizes were awarded for each category.
Our next competition will be to see which class can raise the most money during the week of the Yorkmead January Sale. After that there will, of course, many competitions related to the Yorkmead Garden.
This week was Art Week at Yorkmead. Here’s a selection of the childrens work.
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