Am considering for my dd and know that they do 2 years of Kodaly and eurythmics - has anyone's dc done these classes and how were they?

Not had a child do these classes but I am a huge fan of Kodaly and Dalcroze and have seen fantastic results with slightly older children.

IoS can you share your experience of these results - how have they helped these children?

A singing teacher at our drama school was a Dalcrose trained teacher. She taught the Kodaly handsigns and over the course of a term I noticed a huge improvement in the children's intonation (singing in tune), their ear and their ability to learn songs and sing in parts/hold harmonies. She worked with children aged 6 and above.

Over a week long summer school I assisted her in a 4-6 year old class and saw how the children got immense enjoyment from singing, they used movements to help them keep the rhythm and compliment the music. It was huge fun for them and considering that most of them had no previous experience at the end of the week they performed a couple of lovely little children's songs.

Obviously the classes I saw were concerned with singing, her work in schools covers the whole musical curriculum and she was so succesful in local school that she was promoted to a job where she was training other classroom and music teachers.

My dd does the Guildhall Kindergarten -- she's just started. She loves it, and the staff seem great. They explain the reasoning behind the work they do at an initial meeting, and ask parents not to do instrumental lessons outside the sessions.

It is pushy music parent central, though, so you either have to buy into that or just let it wash over you. They weed the children out at Y1, as there aren't nearly as many places on the string training programme proper as there are on the kindergarten, so be prepared to be hoofed out unceremoniously if your child isn't deemed to make the grade.

You have to apply ludicrously early -- can't remember when I put dd's name down, but it was early (a friend's child was doing it at the time and recommended it) and dd still only got in off the waiting list. It also involves turning up at the Barbican at 9am on a Saturday morning, and they get sniffy about absences too.

In summary -- great, but pretty full-on.

That's been helpful IoS and Frogs. DD1 did not get in although we applied after she turned 2. She now goes to someone who teaches Kodaly and we think it's been helpful as she says that she hears the music that she reads - so great for aural development.
I will still apply for dd2 for Guilldhall altho it's unlikely that we'll get a place from what Frogs says. Think her temperament may not be suited to dd1's teacher
Frogs can you fill me in a bit about the reasoning behind the work so that I can have a clearer picture?

Both are about developing musical skills before learning instrumental ones. Kodaly about using the voice to learn about pitch, tone etc, eurthymics more about using the body to learn similar things. From the kids point of view it's just singing and fun activities.

I'm not really enough of a pushy music parent to have got much more info, tbh, and we only do it because dd seems to enjoy it and be quite musical.

Sounds similar to what dd1 does at the moment altho kids at guildhall have a shot at the strings programme.