King's Junior School has a strong musical tradition due to its direct descendancy from the original 'Choir School' of Gloucester Cathedral. Today the school still has strong links with the Cathedral as the choristers are educated at King's Junior School before moving on to the Senior School. Boys can join the choir as probationers between the ages of 7 and 9 after successfully completing a voice trial.
Around 50% of all children learn one or more musical instruments. Some even start at the age of five during their Kindergarten year. A good range of instrumental tuition is catered for, from singing and violin to electric guitar and drum lessons!
The orchestra practises and performs every week, and there are ensembles for strings, woodwind and brass. There are also regular opportunities to play in front of an audience in assemblies and concerts.
Lower and Upper Shell can join the Junior Choir that performs regularly in important services such as the Harvest Festival, the Christmas Carol Service and Candlemas. The choir rehearses during one lunch time each week. The emphasis is on enjoyment, although work on tone, diction and voice production is an important part of rehearsals too.
Each class receives at least an hour per week of class music time. Activities include singing, listening and appraising, composing and performing. The children use many different percussion instruments and enjoy using the keyboards. There is also a music technology room and children have the opportunity to use various music ICT programmes to manipulate sounds and compose.
Every Monday morning there is a Junior School hymn practice when the hymns for the week are learnt. At King's we aim to sing many of the more 'traditional' hymns, something which is dying out in many schools. The children sing with gusto and it is a lovely way to be eased into a new week!