Music and Performance Opportunities

At Somerfield Te Kura Wairepo we offer several opportunities for our tamariki to perform to live audiences. These include the Waka Tētē Choir and the Ukelele Orchestra performing at the Kahukura Music Festival at Cashmere High School, our ukelele students performing alongside children from across Canterbury at the Strum Strike and Blow Festival, and the Waka Tētē choir performing at the Christchurch Schools’ Music Festival at the Christchurch Town Hall at the end of the year. In addition to this, we also take time to perform at local community events such as Matariki celebrations, in formal assemblies and events, and at local ECE centres and rest homes. Our school assemblies also provide a wonderful opportunity for us to come together as a kura and sing as one.

Itinerant Music Lessons

Keyboard and Ukelele itinerant music lessons are available to all tamariki at our kura. It has been wonderful to see growth in this area, and in 2023 the Somerfield Ukelele Orchestra and junior classes saw the largest number of children taking part on record! This is exciting for the future of our music programme as we anticipate that many of our younger children will develop their skills over time and that the talent and experience within the school will grow over the coming years.

Creative Arts Programme

At Somerfield Te Kura Wairepo we have a Drama and Creative Arts Programme led by Sam Bates, our Specialty Performing Arts Teacher. Throughout the year, Sam teaches across the school, working with each year group to develop an integrated Drama Creatives programme. She works alongside the classroom teachers to develop their knowledge around ways to use Drama to inspire Literacy and ways to explore Deep Learning topics through the Arts. Through this programme, the children develop a greater understanding of performing arts and as kaiako we love seeing how children grow, take risks, and flourish in this area.

Our performing arts programme is also supported during the year by inviting Live Performances to our kura and allowing tamariki to experience professional live theatre.

Visual Arts

Visual Art is also a curriculum area that is integrated across the school as part of our classroom learning. Tamariki are provided with opportunities to engage in a wide range of art techniques and use a variety of mediums to produce meaningful artwork. We also have a biannual Art Exhibition which provides our students with a chance to share their creativity with our school community.