Singing and Smiles at St John's Primary School

Earlier this year, a group of Year 2 students from St John's C of E Primary School in East London took part in Mindful Music’s very first Three Day Programme. Over three Thursdays, the children sang, moved, listened, played the djembe drums and joyfully made music together.

The sessions, run by Ms Flora Benson, reflected the core principles of Mindful Music - that joyful and engaging music-making helps children develop attention, self-control and emotional regulation.

Each session began with a weather check-in, a starter activity which encourages each child to reflect on how they are feeling and describe it using the weather. The weathers reported varied tremendously, and children knew that ‘all weathers are welcome’. They then had fun learning a chant called ‘I am here!’, which was played on the djembe drums.

I am here paying attention! I am here paying attention!

Fully concentrating, fully concentrating,

But if I become distracted, but if I become distracted,

I smile and come back! I smile and come back!

However, the favourite activity was the bell, which children listened to carefully and calmly. As described by the following student quote:

I liked the bell. It made me feel really really happy. When I did the sound it made me feel calm.

The Three Day Programme culminated in a performance for the rest of the Year 2 class. The children enjoyed sharing their music learning and in follow-up interviews expressed a keen desire to do more Mindful Music!

Another successful part of the Three Day Programme was the teacher training session. Twelve teachers took part and all feedback indicated that the content and delivery were very well received, as demonstrated by the following teacher quote:

I think some of the resources that we did in the staff meeting have already started to be really useful. I’ve used the Clouds song every day since we did the session last week and it has a really lovely effect on the room.

All in all, the Mindful Music Three Day Programme was extremely well-received, and we look forward to working with more schools in the future!