Schools Programme

Every year, Little Missenden Festival runs music workshops with year 2 pupils from Hyde Heath and Little Missenden Infant Schools, and Great Missenden Combined School. Professional musicians visit the schools and introduce the children to a variety of instruments. They encourage the children to develop musical ideas and create original songs, which are then performed to parents at a combined concert. A different theme is chosen every year, based on topic work within school. The latest theme was ‘We are Explorers’.

The programme is led by composer and animateur, John Webb, who uses the workshops to inspire children's creativity. Musicians from Buckinghamshire Music Trust work alongside John and the children throughout, using a wide range of instruments to bring the compositions alive.

Learn more about BMT here and John Webb's work here

Each school participates in four workshops plus the final concert performance which takes place at the Parish Church of Great Missenden, in front of an audience of around 100 parents and carers. Each school performs their own song and a song composed by John which all the schools perform together. 

As well as enjoying the Programme enormously, the children benefit from the musical experience, gain confidence, work together in teams, develop creativity and exercise valuable skills - including concentration, communication, and literacy. This unique activity encourages the children to take an active role in developing an idea that is entirely their own.

The workshops and concert are financed almost entirely from the Festival’s own budget. We feel it is more important than ever to do this at a time when the need for and benefits from musical education seemingly go unrecognized in official circles. How are our future performers and audiences to be created, unless they are fostered from the earliest days?