Music Matters at Charles Darwin Primary

Inspiration Trust strongly believes in the power of music to enhance lives, both through the sheer pleasure of listening to and enjoying music, and through the discipline of individual and group playing and singing. As part of our extended Arts and Culture Programme, pupils have the opportunity to take part in a variety of plays, concerts and music competitions.

As part of our commitment to music education, we also offer our students a range of peripatetic lessons with our highlyskilled and experienced team of Visiting

Music Teachers - these include piano, singing and recorder lessons. Learning to play an instrument helps students to develop cognitive and social skills, expand language and motor skills, as well as help build determination and patience. Plus, it is fun!

Our pupils are encouraged to participate in numerous Trust-wide music competitions and Inspiration Trust has made a pledge to have a full orchestra or musical ensemble in every one of its schools by 2027.

Every year our students get to take part in our Trust-wide Carol Service.

An annual tradition, the Carol Service sees pupils from all across our sister schools - primaries, secondaries and sixth forms - join forces to perform a series of traditional carols and hymns in the Winter Term.

Always a big calendar event, the Carol Service is a fantastic opportunity for our students and staff to showcase their brilliant musical capabilities, whether through playing instruments or singing, while getting to perform in an iconic location.

The Carol Service is a fun Christmas event that always makes for a lovely family evening.

School Meals

At Charles Darwin Primary, all pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are entitled to a free school lunch.

We still ask that parents complete the free school meals application form if in receipt of benefits as this adds several thousand pounds funding per child to the money we have to spend on your child’s education.

Our school canteen provides a healthy, balanced menu, or parents can send their child with a balanced, healthy packed lunch.

Facilities

Science Laboratory

We are very lucky to have our own science lab, offering a space for practical experiments, where pupils can feel like a scientist. This space is used for pupils’ weekly science lesson, as well as our science elective, inspiring the budding scientists of the future.

We also utilise our science labs for our collaboration sessions with Sir Isaac Newton Sixth Form. Teachers and sixth form students come to visit our pupils to deliver engaging sessions based on Science and Computer Science. This has included sessions during Space Week and entering the Bebras Oxford University Computer Science competition.

Library

Our library offers an inviting, warm space, filled with a wide range of books for children. We believe in cultivating a love of reading, and so ensure our library is well-stocked and regularly updated.

We work in partnership with the independent bookshop - BookBugs and Dragon Tales, to ensure our library is audited and our Y5 student librarians are professionally trained.

Classes utilise this space on a weekly basis, alongside teachers reading for pleasure daily in class with our children.

Gates open at 8:30am for a soft entry to school and close at 8:50am. We offer learning from 8:30am and lessons start from 8:50am. The school day finishes between 3:00pm and 3:15pm depending on the year group.

We then offer electives after school on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for our pupils until 4:00pm with the option of parents and carers booking after school club until 6:00pm.