Letham Primary School

Composers and Singers

Victoria’s Ships Verse 2 – Sailing away on the high seas

  • CLASS Primary 5
  • SCHOOL Letham Primary, Perth, Scotland
  • HONOURS Glee is about spreading cheer to the world and having fun.  In 2018 we won a glee trophy in a singing competition – we are entering again this year.  We have won other singing contests, and a music star.
  • MINERVA SCIENTIFICA PROJECT Echoes from Perthshire, September – November 2019

Scientific Connections

In our classroom we have been learning about the senses and we are going to be learning about floating and sinking. The skin has three layers called Dermis, Epidermis and Subcutaneous fat – we have been learning about sun safety.
Did you know the ear has the 3 smallest bones in it?
The eye: we learned about the parts of the eye and what they do. Lens helps us focus. Pupil lets in light.
On the Minerva Scientifica project we learnt:-

  • about the life of Williamina Fleming through the song that Frances sung
  • the Marion Ross song
  • the life of Victoria Drummond
  • seeing if boats can float with Jordan
  • the song about physics also sound moves slow in gases, it moves fast in liquids and much faster in solid wood
  • Mycology means you study mushrooms. Beatrix Potter was a mycologist
  • Ecology is about the environment
  • galaxies are made of stars

electric voice theatre at Letham Primary School


We learnt how to float boats with Jordan

Compositions


Title:  Victoria’s Ships
Scientist: VICTORIA DRUMMOND
Composed by: Letham Primary
Written in: November 2019
Arranged by: Frances M Lynch & Herbie Clarke
For: voices & guitar
Performed by: the composers & Herbie Clarke (guitar)
First Performed:  Soutar Theatre, AK Bell Library, Perth, Scotland November 11th 2019 as part of “ECHOES FROM PERTHSHIRE” by ELECTRIC VOICE THEATRE

Victoria Drummond was a marine engineer, she built ships and sailed them – we have a song about her Letham Pupil

The song tells the extraordinary story of Marine Engineer Victoria Drummond who was brought up in Megginch Castle near Perth. She built ships before sailing them herself and eventually becoming a WW2 hero as a result of her uncanny ability to make engines go faster than they should! You can read more about her on her page here 
We split into 3 groups to make verses and helped with ideas for the chorus. We are singing, speaking, acting and making the sounds of the story.

You can find the words of the song on a PDF here

Victoria’s Ships Verse 1 – Building Ships


Victoria’s Ships Verse 3 – Saving the Ship and the Crew

Education

As a school we made a song called “One day in my Life”. It’s our Letham song we sing every week at assembly.
A lot of the class play instruments like guitar, piano and recorder.

Letham Composers at work creating their verse of the Victoria Drummond Song

Occupations

Most of the class would like to be scientist and singers…..

  • I would like to be a scientist because I loved the singing
  • I like singing because of Minerva Scientifica

….but it’s a problem because we don’t think you can be both! AND quite a few want to be composers too, and then I think we’d all like to be ENGINEERS!!!

Concentrating on our actions for the song

Musical Highlights

We performed Echoes from Perthshire at AK Bell Library in Perth. The show had its own song, and we sang it!

Echoes from Perthshire
Engineers, doctors, scientists, composers
So many lived here, Some very near hear
We can be just like them
We hear their Echoes from Perthshire

Performing their song at the School Assembly on Nov 8th 2019

Did You Know?

  • Beatrix Potter was funny doing the English version of Minerva Scientifica actions
  • Williamina polishing and cleaning people – funny and strange
  • Being a light switch for Jean Valentine was strange!
  • Frances was turning a baby into an apron
  • Bea signed everything we said in the show for the deaf people to understand

Group 1 – sounds


Group 1 – words


Group 3 – words


Group 3 – pictures

An Inspiring Woman

Music:
MARJORY KENNEDY FRASER from Perth – we liked her song, it was one of our favourites.
HELEN HOPEKIRK & LADY CAROLINA NAIRNE – they wrote one of our favourite songs to listen to.

Science:

  • WILLIAMINA FLEMING – she had a tough life and she turned her life around to become a top astronomer
  • VICTORIA DRUMMOND – she saved her ship from bombs in WW2 – a WW2 hero – One woman in three thousand men.
  • MARY SOMERVILLE because she was wild and we liked singing the song
  • BEATRIX POTTER because she liked writing and animals

Our Echoes – Minerva Scientifica Learning Display


We wrote letters to electric voice theatre – click on the picture to read them

Links