Do primary schools still teach recorder?

[SlugDefence]

Does your DCs state primary teach recorder?
I had a letter about a new recorder club, I assumed they'd do this as standard in KS2 like I did many years ago at the same school?

I can't decide whether it's more likely a club for budding enthusiasts (/starting early in KS1) or if it has been scrapped from the curriculum? I know a lot of the arts were.

I will ask tomorrow but curious what the norm is these days.

I don't really want to pay for the club but badly playing the recorder is a rite of passage for primary aged DC. I'll need ear plugs. 😬

At ours it was an option because a teacher gave up her lunch hour. I don't think you can take anything for granted these days.

I taught it as a lunchtime club as a volunteer, loved it. If t teach it properly there's no screeching. It's great as a way to get used to making music together. I did lots of more recent music that they picked as well as mire traditional. It really helps if they go on to do another instrument too.

It was never in the curriculum specifically. These days it's about having the money for all the children to have a recorder (two-form entry would be around £180 for each child to have one) and/or lack of staff who feel able to teach it. I've seen year 2 classes learning it recently and I have run a recorder club myself in the past but yes, I asked parents to pay for the recorders and books we used as there was no way of getting the money elsewhere. We weren't taught the recorder when I was at primary in the 80s.

It wasn't taught as standard in my dc's primary. My youngest is in Y6.

My DC have done it in year 3. They also all learn some violin in Year 4. Thank god covid meant I never had to attend that assembly…

Our old primary school didn't do it at all. The new one has it as an optional club that costs if you want to do it, but it is done within school hours.

They don't do it at my children's school.

Make the bed
Shake the bed
Turn the mattress over

Busy bee
Busy bee
Busy bee

Some of the recorder classics I remember back in my day..

Mine "played" the ocarina

Used to love playing recorder at primary

Over in the meadow etc

Sing said the mother, we sing said the three

Lunchtime club here too - ks2 do ukulele in lesson time for a term - it really depends on whether the school has a music enrichment teacher or a musician on the staff ime

No recorder for any of mine.

The local music service here is cracking though, and a lot of schools choose to buy in wider opps lessons. My eldest got a year of clarinet lessons, the middle got percussion, and the youngest has had percussion and is 2/3 of the way through a year of brass. No cost at all to parents, funded through budget and PP I suspect.

I realise how lucky they have been.

I have also paid for peripatetic lessons for all three, as music is pretty important.

My eldest 2 brought a recorder home every year when in ks2, dd is now in yr 5 and has just brought it home for the rest of the term. Was please when we had a break due to covid!

My DD is in Year 4. No sign of recorders yet. Thank goodness. I like my ear drums...want to keep them intact.

My DD is Y3 and in music they're learning the ukelele! She wants me to buy her one... This year they also did piano and xylophone/glockenspiel.

When I was at school you had to be picked to play the recorder, it was a club of sorts (maybe Y3 or 4?). I think the music teacher just picked the quiet, sensible kids, and I'm sure my DM was thrilled when I brought mine home

I sincerely hope ours doesn’t 😂

Ours teaches the drums, French horn and various others but not the recorder