Music and the arts play a huge part in the life of Dickens Heath Community Primary School and we are proud to have been awarded the Arts Council of Great Britain’s Arts Mark Award in 2019.  We are fortunate that arts activity takes place every week of the year in our school and continued throughout the COVID pandemic.

All children are frequently exposed to a broad range of music in class (music is taught using ‘Charanga’ on-line) as well as having a weekly music assembly (which many children take part in) and lots of extra-curricular musical activities. 

We run three school choirs, with over 80 children taking part in one or more of them.  Our longest-standing choir is our Key Stage 2 Choir drawing on children from years 3 to 6 and open to all.  This choir performs regularly within school and in the wider community.  It has performed at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, Warwick Arts Centre and the Resorts World Arena as well as at Dickens Heath’s Festival on the Green and several local schools.  Our Key Stage 1 Singing Group welcomes any child from years 1 and 2.  This choir also performs regularly in school concerts and has visited Sunrise Residential home on a number of occasions.  It takes part in Touchwood’s annual Christmas Choir Competition and has performed in Symphony Hall and at The Core Theatre in Solihull.  Our Boys Only Choir was set up in 2015 with the support of the Armonico Consort from Warwick.  It made its performance debut at the Royal Albert Hall in London in June 2016 and returned there for a second concert in April 2018 (with a third cancelled in June 2020 due to the Covid pandemic).  The BOC has also taken part in school concerts and in a Primary School Singing project at Tudor Grange Academy.

Over 40 children in Key Stage 2 have weekly instrumental lessons in school, delivered by instrumental specialists from Solihull Music Services.  Instruments currently taught in school are guitar, violin, keyboard and brass as well as singing.  All children in Year 4 have the chance to learn a brass instrument.  We also run a school rock band, a guitar group, a string group and recorder groups.  All children who learn an instrument both in school and out of school are given regular opportunities to perform in a variety of concerts in school and outside including rock and pop evenings, piano and keyboard evenings, school concerts, talent shows and orchestral concerts at local secondary schools.

All children are given the opportunity to take part in productions.  Every year the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 put on their own nativity plays.  Other performances take place within year groups and our end of year productions for Years 5 and 6 at Alderbrook School have been highly acclaimed.  Productions have included The Lion King, Jungle Book, School of Rock, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and, most recently, The Wizard of Oz. 

These productions have all been praised by their audiences and have been

a highlight of their time at Dickens Heath for many of the children involved.  A number of children have found new talent through these productions which they have taken on to their secondary schools and beyond.

In Year 5 children have the chance to go on a four-day residential trip to Dunfield House where they work together to put on a show (the most recent being Matilda).

Children throughout school have the chance to take part in dance activities and have taken part in Alderbrook School’s dance festival and the Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire Schools Talent Competition.

Children’s Artwork is evident in displays throughout the school and children from all age groups work together on whole school art projects, such as ‘Lost Words’. Collaborative artwork is also produced for the school’s theatrical productions. Pupils work with the local community to produce artwork and to take part in competitions; such as providing our local National Trust property with paintings for a communal gallery area on a regular basis. 

For more information for Music please contact Mrs Maddock and Miss Parsons:

s63kmaddock@dickens-heath.solihull.sch.uk, s63eparsons@dickens-heath.solihull.sch.uk and for Art and Design contact Mrs Atkinson on: s63jatkinson@dickens-heath.solihull.sch.uk