I am no musician. So, when I first arrived at Newlands Spring Primary School, in Chelmsford, a small part of me died inside when I heard that my class of 30 four- to five-year-olds would have a 30-minute violin lesson every Monday morning.
Why, I wondered, would any senior leadership team put me through this? And what use was a violin lesson to a four-year-old? Most of these children couldn’t read and write their own name, never mind read musical notation or create their own.
Like most early years practitioners, I had read, and been told, about the importance of music to early learning. So, I had always tried to embed music in my practice, singing lots of nursery rhymes and giving children regular access to musical instruments.
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