Payhembury Primary School

Composers and Singers

A photograph of children at a primary school working at artwork on tables, superimposed on a red background with a caption denoting the class and school

All images on this page courtesy of the school. This page also includes quotes from the children gathered from data collected after the project.

  • CLASS Beech Class
  • SCHOOL Payhembury Primary, Honiton, Devon, England
  • HONOURS Our choir participated in a BBC Radio Devon competition in 2020. Lots of us have music certificates for guitar, piano and ukulele.
  • MINERVA SCIENTIFICA PROJECT Mary Anning Megasongs – Sidmouth Festival 2021-22

Payhembury Primary FORT Federation logo

Scientific Connections

In our classroom we have been learning about:

  • While we were home schooling we did a big project on volcanoes and tsunamis
  • We have done big experiments
  • We did sidmouth science festival hexagon space work

On the project we learnt:

  • Jack helped us make clay squares and put them all together to create Dina the Dimorphodon!

    That Mary Anning and Dina (the dimorphodon) got struck by lightning, that was amazing

  • A coprilite is a fossilized poo, it’s amazing that it didn’t disintegrate through all the rain!
  • Dina was not a dinosaur she was a pterosaur
  • Mary Anning had a dog called Tray
  • We learnt how fossils decay over time

Compositions


Title: Mary Anning and Dina the Dimorphodon
Scientist: MARY ANNING
Composed by: Beech Class, Payhembury Primary School
Written in: 2022
Arranged by: Frances M Lynch & Herbie Clarke
For: Voices, piano and electronics
Performed by: the composers
First Performed: online, commissioned by electric voice theatre for the Voices for the Future Mary Anning project 2021-22, for the Sidmouth Science Festival

A colour photograph of a puzzle-like artwork of a dinosaur skeleton made from clay

Our completed artwork, ‘Dina the Dimorphodon’

What could happen to a Pterosaur that would cause her to become a fossil dug up by a brilliant palaeontologist at Lyme Regis millions of years later? This is the story of Dina the Dimorphodon, her life and tragic death and how she was found, and her name revealed by some budding fossil hunters and scientists.

Some of us really enjoyed the performance:

  • It makes you feel… happy, amazing, delighted, joyous, overjoyed, incredible and satisfied
  • People like to learn about Mary Anning in music in fun and exciting ways
  • We can learn lots of facts on zoom

Part of this song appears as a verse in a new song created for the unveiling of the statue of this important Victorian palaeontologist on May 21st 2022, A Song for Mary Anning…

After the project we drew pictures of Mary Anning and Tray

Title: A Song for Mary Anning
Scientist: MARY ANNING
Words and music by: Cohen Baulch age 9; Year 3, Newton Poppleford Primary School; Sarah Mirkin age 8; Mabel Slade age 11; Class 1, Hawkchurch Church of England Primary School; Beech Class, Payhembury Primary School.
Written in: October 2021
For: voices, piano, digital instruments, and funny noises
Performed by: Mrs Ethelston’s Primary Academy Choir and Cohen Baulch
Commissioned by: Frances M Lynch for the Voices for the Future – Mary Anning project
Film by: Jack Sewell
First Performance: 21st May 2022 at the unveiling of a statue of Mary Anning in Lyme Regis

A Song for Mary Anning is a compilation of the winning entries to the electric voice theatre Mary Anning Song Competition, and was created for the unveiling of a statue of Mary Anning by sculptor Denise Dutton on 21st May 2022 in Lyme Regis, commissioned by Mary Anning Rocks.

Education

Ms Matchett and Mr Bladon are our teachers. We have music lessons once a week and most of us also have private instrumental lessons. We play all sorts of instruments including the drums, guitar, ukulele and trumpet. We also participated in Sidmouth Science Festival’s ‘If I Were a Tree’ creative writing competition.

Occupations

Participating in the Mary Anning project made nearly half of us consider becoming scientists and musicians. Some of us want to be biologists, as well as footballers, environmentalists, game developers, police officers, and many other things.

Musical Highlights

Many of us participated in the school concert this year playing the piano, recorder and singing. Some of us have completed grades in piano.

Did You Know?

  • It was funny when the drawing went RAAAW! in our film
  • It was amazing that Mary survived a lightning strike
  • We loved seeing the other kids love our film, and seeing people smile

An Inspiring Woman

Mary Anning and Frances M Lynch!

Links