World Music Day 2026

World Music Day Celebration

On Friday 19th June 2026, we celebrated World Music Day – a day to celebrate music that takes place around the world, every year, on 21st June. It encourages people to enjoy, share and create music — and that is exactly what we did.

We were lucky enough to welcome Mike and Fred from Inspire Works, who delivered two amazing musical workshops for our children. KS2 enjoyed exploring steel pans, while Reception, KS1 and Year 3 took part in an exciting dhol drumming workshop.

Steel Pans

Mike led the steel pan workshop by introducing the children to this instrument by sharing some interesting facts about where steel pans come from. The children learnt that steel pans originate from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. They are made from metal drums that are carefully shaped and tuned to create different musical notes.

Steel pans are played by tapping the surface with special sticks, creating bright and melodic sounds. They are often used in calypso and Caribbean music.

The children explored how different notes are created by looking inside the drums, where coloured dots represented different sounds — red and blue notes. They learnt two different rhythms called “Red Calypso” and “Blue Calypso”, while experimenting with high and low pitch sounds.

The children worked together in different groups, including high-pitched steel pans, low-pitched steel pans, maracas and two bass steel pans. The bass steel pans had different roles, with one playing the red notes and the other playing the blue notes. The children rotated between the instruments, giving everyone the opportunity to experience and play each one.

Once the children had practised their rhythms, they performed a final piece to showcase what they had learnt, with Mike joining in on the drums.

Dhol Drums

Fred led the dhol drumming sessions, where the children discovered that dhol drums come from India and are traditionally used in Bhangra music.

To begin with, the children explored the drums through a fun call-and-response activity. They experimented with playing loudly and quietly and followed Fred’s instructions as a conductor to control the rhythm and volume. Some children even had the opportunity to take on the role of conductor themselves.

The children learnt that some dhol drums have a black skin, which creates a higher-pitched sound, while others have a white skin, which creates a lower-pitched sound.

They also discovered that dhol drums are played using two different sticks: a tilly and a dagga. The children learnt two rhythms called “Tilly Tilly Stop” and “123 Dagga”. After practising these together as a class, Fred introduced a third rhythm called “Bhangra Bhangra Dance”.

The children were then split into two groups. Those playing the black-skinned drums performed the “Tilly Tilly Stop” rhythm, while those playing the white-skinned drums performed “123 Dagga”. The two rhythms were then combined and played together three times before everyone finished with the exciting “Bhangra Bhangra Dance” rhythm.

After lots of practice, the children confidently performed their new rhythms to showcase what they had learnt, with Fred joining in and demonstrating both rhythms on his own drum.

It was such an amazing day, celebrating cultures from around the world and bringing people together through music. The staff were incredibly impressed by what the children achieved in such a short amount of time and how they embraced these new musical experiences. The children showed fantastic teamwork, confidence and enthusiasm - and we think the staff had just as much fun as the children! 

Mrs Stylianou