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Back to News ArchiveMusical Workout in Cantref’s Gymnasium - The Music of the Road
Teaching Road Safety in an already burgeoned curriculum, especially when it’s with something seemingly unrelated, may previously have been avoided at all costs. If, for instance, a music and road safety partnership failed to strike a chord, or was something to be staved off in the past, then read on.
Teachers and Year 2 pupils were put through their paces when they took part in the Road Safety Music Inset Course devised by Mr Bob Young (retired teacher). Mrs Bolster, Headteacher at Cantref Primary School, kindly provided the facilities for this course.
Rhythm was explored using cut out vehicles laid out as a musical phrase as children clapped time to “red lorry yellow lorry”.
Recorded traffic sounds tested listening skills, and children used every vocal chord known (and unknown) to man to imitate sirens and revving engines. Songs were sung and words substituted with percussion instruments.
Warning signs became an exercise in pitch lending themselves to a form of musical notation with gradient and bridge signs representing scales of high and low notes.
Cantref children proved themselves more than equal to this unique interpretation of music which was augmented with robust road safety messages.
“The booklet of lesson plans and seeing the lesson undertaken with children. Everything was useful. Thank you. I thoroughly enjoyed the course.” Helen Sansom, Llanfoist Fawr.
