A Very Queensbridge Christmas 2021

Happy Christmas from all of our wonderful children and staff here at Queensbridge. Because of to Covid cases rising😷we were not able to perform a full concert as planned, but we had a mix of live singing in the playground, and all classes have made a little film of their song. 

We hope you enjoy it and can share it with your families. 💖💖💖😍

Have a good holiday and see you in 2022 for more marvellous music-making!

Music for Youth Prom at the Royal Albert Hall

On Wednesday 3rd November, 24 hard-working musicians from Years 5 and 6 were invited to the Remix Prom at the Royal Albert Hall, run by Music for Youth. This was a really exciting day out! We were entertained by some amazing musical ensembles - bands, orchestras and choirs - from around the UK. We also took part in music and soundscapes by Tim Steiner. Musical groups were placed all around the hall, which made for interesting and exciting effects when we all joined in, as you can see in the photos and video below. Here are plenty of pictures and a brief write-up of the event by some of our musicians in Y5.
Would you like to go to a prom one day?

It was a long journey by public transport. We had to carry all of our instruments!

 

Lunch by the Albert memorial in Hyde Park, and then into the enormous Royal Albert Hall!

As you can see, we were very high up in the Upper Circle.
It was exciting, but quite difficult to see the conductor.
These videos show how we had to be ready fr anything...

The size was amazing and the colours from all of the lights were hypnotising!

Here we are - right at the top!

 

 

These balloons and party poppers ended a wonderful celebration of music and young people!

Hackney Loves Music....and so does Queensbridge!

It's autumn term, and we have started the term by thinking about the music and musicians we love, and the music we don't like! 

Back in June we celebrated Hackney Loves Music day for the first time! We've had the chance to celebrate different types of music and our favourite musicians, instruments, songs and pieces. We have loved hearing about the music lots of you listen to at home. Whether it's music to make you feel calm, or get up and dance, or that challenges you, this world is full of wonderful music for everyone. 

We hope to make this special day a yearly tradition to rival World Book Day! In the meantime, you can enjoy lots of music recommendations from our Queensbridge superstars. 

Ariana, Abba and Ava Max are some top choices, plus anything with amplifiers 💪 (Great costume, James😁)

Beyonce, Billie Eilish, BTS, Bowie and Bob Marley all made an appearance in school:

1980s star Cyndi Lauper and a top conductor popped in for the party, a wonderful drum, Lead singer from The Cure - Robert Smith - and English singer songwriter Dua Lipa!

   

Next up, British singer songwriters Ed Sheeran and Elton John, Freddie Mercury (lead singer with Queen, featured here in their amazing Live Aid show in 1985) and The Greatest Showman, from the popular musical. 

Next up we have a big up for hip hop, and a recommendation for Jake Bugg:

Kasalla's Karneval song 'Pirate' from a special parade in Germany is brilliant fun, and Katy Perry proves popular.  

How do you describe Lizzo? Loud, fun, talented... this American singer, rapper, songwriter and flautist (she plays the flute) sometimes uses a few words that I can't share here in her songs, but here's a clean version of her hit Good As Hell, a recommendation from Y3:

Next up, treat yourself to the legends that are the tremendous Tina Turner and terrific Tupac

Guitarist Slash, from Guns n Roses and 90s girl band The Spice Girls will make you want to dance in this energetic performance from Top of the Pops (it's a show that your teachers and parents watched when they were younger).

Dexter recommends a huge and unexpected hit of 2021 - the Wellerman sea shanty. You know you love it :-) Mrs Woolfenden loves to sing sea shanties with her choir.

Finally, here are a few more general recommendations of genres, styles, musicians, Year 1 having a good old dance to Ghostbusters, plus some wonderful dressing up 👏

East Side Story

We were amazed and overwhelmed by Year 6's end of year performance: East Side Story. Well done year 6! We are immensely proud of you to have produced a slick and important show in a year full of interruptions. You can watch the whole production below - kindly filmed and edited by Jake Goodwin-Roberts.

East Side Story

This is our own local version of the classic musical by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, West Side Story. The children worked with Osnat and their teachers to devise characters, write dialogue and rap lyrics, and to put together some impressive dance moves inspired by TikTok. They set the whole play outside, using the school play equipment for the setting, and creating props and costumes. With the action outdoors, we were able to host a socially distanced audience of parents and carers, and school bubbles of younger children caught the dress rehearsals throughout show day. We hope you enjoy it. We certainly did!

Here are some lovely pictures from rehearsals:

Blocking positions

Dance crazy...

Dress rehearsals - with an audience!

The cruelty of social media...

The after-show dance with parents and carers!