Unleashing Creativity
Creative Arts at Hoe Bridge School
Creative arts are essential to a child’s creativity, self-expression, confidence and understanding. By making them absorbing and challenging, we ensure that they fully engage our children, often spawning a lifelong interest.
An essential part of school life, music gives every child the opportunity for expression, creativity, performance, appreciation and enjoyment. It is a privilege to be able to nurture our children’s musical talents with wonderful instrumental and singing programmes, culminating in frequent performance opportunities, including at our superb 110-seat Performing Arts Centre.
Always popular and highly enjoyable, Drama provides children with a natural way to build self-confidence, imagination, teamwork, responsibility and expression. Christmas and Summer performances are eagerly anticipated, with everybody playing a vital part on stage or behind the scenes.
Art is equally important, representing an important way for children to express their thoughts, stretch their creativity and explore the use of both traditional and innovative materials in our light and airy art rooms, learning from specialist teachers.
Our highly trained specialist Design & Technology teachers, excellent facilities and our children’s imagination combine to produce impressive workpieces. New practical skills are applied to progressively complex tasks using a wide variety of materials, with traditional wood and metalworking sitting alongside sophisticated modern prototyping technologies.
Design & Technology
Our highly trained specialist teachers, excellent facilities and our children’s imagination and enthusiasm combine to produce impressive results in our Design & Technology Department. The design and practical skills learned are applied to progressively complex tasks and projects using a wide variety of materials and processes, with traditional wood and metalworking sitting alongside electronics, 3D printing and vacuum forming, and pencil sketches rubbing shoulders with computer aided design. The basics of practical mechanics are also learned, with the children dismantling and rebuilding a full-sized electric racing car which is then raced in a Green Power national competition.
Drama
Drama is a thriving department here at Hoe Bridge. With the highly anticipated annual musical, as well as dedicated productions for other years groups, we aim to foster personal growth through performance and enhance confidence for all involved. Recent successes include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and Peter Pan Presentations.
Drama plays a key role in their social and personal development offering a creative environment and safe space in which to develop skills, self-esteem and confidence. At whatever level our pupils take part in Drama at Hoe Bridge, we will give them an opportunity to develop their unique voice - refining communication and performance skills - vital for strong interpersonal relationships with friends, family and to succeed in life beyond the classroom.
Additionally, many of our children enhance their dramatic skills by availing themselves of supplementary classes in LAMDA, Musical Theatre and Dance during extra-curricular clubs, thereby enriching their overall theatrical experience.
Music
In Year 3, children try a range of different instruments as part of their weekly music lesson and all pupils are encouraged to take up a musical instrument - an ideal opportunity for pupils and parents to choose the correct instrument to develop a lifelong love of music.
Over ten instrumental peripatetic teachers provide individual tuition in over 20 different instruments to over 200 children each week. Many children work towards exams set by ABRSM, with an examiner visiting the school every term. ABRSM is the UK’s largest music education body and the world’s leading provider of music exams. We enjoy outstanding results with many children gaining full marks for one or more of their pieces, as well as scholarships being awarded as pupils move up to our senior school.
Performance opportunities are extensive in Prep with ten ensembles across choir, strings, bass, woodwind and percussion. Regular concerts throughout the year, Monday and Friday assemblies, house competitions, carol services and performances at other schools provideample opportunity to showcase their talents.
Our excellent facilities include four music rooms, several practice rooms and our superb new 110-seat Performing Arts Centre.
Visit Us
The best way to get to know Hoe Bridge is to visit us. Our regular Open Mornings and Private Tours give you a chance to meet our pupils and staff, have a look around and ask us the questions that really matter to you and your family.
Prep Sports
Sport is an intrinsic part of life at Hoe Bridge, with very child having a minimum of an hour of skill-based activities or matches daily.