A member of Dales Academies Trust Subject Leader: Mrs Blackburn
‘Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of all garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.’
Matthew 13 vs.31-32
Our entire curriculum, including Music, is underpinned by the ‘Parable of the Mustard Seed’ and summarised by our motto:
Together may we give our children: roots to grow and wings to fly.
Intent
We want our children to love music. We want them to have no limits to their ambitions and grow up wanting to be music producers, songwriters, composers or rockstars! Our vision, is to give children access to an engaging and fun music curriculum reflecting the world they live in now, but at the same time giving them access to musical styles throughout history. Children are able to listen and appraise a variety of musical styles alongside performing pieces and creating their own compositions through the use of instruments and technology. To achieve this, all children access a variety of musical games, songs, instruments and have access to different musical genres through our Charanga Scheme. We hope children continue to grow in confidence as they progress through the musical curriculum and become passionate in their responses to music. Added to this, we want children to become more independent learners within this area, reflect upon their learning and develop resilience within the musical world. As a school, these are our aims:
· To encourage awareness, enjoyment and appreciation of music in all its forms.
· To develop imagination and creativity.
· To help children of all abilities develop positive attitudes and to experience success and satisfaction in music.
· To offer opportunities to sing, play instruments, compose, listen and appraise.
Singing skills- Children will be taught to sing a wide ranging variety of songs and to use their voices expressively. A singing culture is well established and nurtured within the school, children sing daily in collective worship and our KS2 children can join our school choir who perform regularly at special events such as Harvest, Christmas Services and Leavers Services. There are also opportunities to perform in the community with events such as carol singing at Middleton Lodge and attending the Big Sing at The Sage Gateshead.
Instrumental skills – Children have the opportunity to play both tuned and un-tuned instruments and rehearse and perform with others, with an awareness of audience.
Composing skills- Children create musical patterns and are shown how to explore, select and organise musical ideas, recording these in a variety of ways, (e.g: pictorial score, by video or using notation).
Appraising skills- Children are given the opportunity to explore and explain their own ideas and feelings about music, using music, dance, expressive language and musical vocabulary. They analyse and compare sounds and are confident at suggesting improvements for their own work and that of others.
Listening and applying knowledge and understanding- Children are able to listen with concentration and to internalise and recall sounds. They will learn that time and place can influence the way music is created, performed and heard, that music is produced in different ways and recorded in a variety of ways too.
Children in Early Years experience music across the areas of learning. They are taught to see, hear, perform and participate in a variety of nursery rhymes, songs, music-making and dance through the ‘Expressive Arts and Design’ area of learning. In Reception, children are given opportunities to experiment with ways of changing sound and develop an understanding of pulse rhythm and pitch through the Charanga scheme of lessons.
We believe a love of and appreciation of music gained in childhood lasts a lifetime and that making music with others is a social, joyful and spiritual experience. We therefore, encourage children to understand and create music but above all, to find enjoyment within this particular curriculum area.
Children are encouraged to express themselves in creative ways. Drama and Music workshops are often used to support work in Literacy. Our school productions are memorable moments of the school year. Each year group has the opportunity to perform in these with: Nativity in EYFS and KS1; a Spring performance for Years 3 and 4 and the Summer musical for Years 5 and 6. The essentials of performing to an audience are showcased in these performances and it is always wonderful to watch the children’s musical development during the rehearsals. Music links to many other subjects and is often used in teaching of History, English, MFL, Geography, Maths and Art.
We also allow opportunities for children who wish to learn a musical instrument and have visiting peripatetic music teachers who come on site to teach piano, violin, guitar etc. They can choose individual or group lessons, which allow more children to access specialist teaching.
Implementation
Please see below for our Long Term Overview. We use a scheme called Charanga which ensures a systematic and progressive development of our children skills.
Impact
The impact of this Music curriculum will lead to good progress over time across key stages relative to a child’s individual starting point and their progression of skills. Our Music curriculum will hopefully foster a love and increasing enthusiasm for the subject amongst our children, and a potential for life- long musical study.
Additional Information
For more information regarding our Music curriculum (including our curriculum map and key procedures), please click on the ‘Useful Documents’ links below.
Similarly, under ‘Useful Links’, you can find more information regarding supplementary resources and other useful websites.
Useful Documents
Useful Links
BBC Ten Pieces – An excellent resource bank for listening and appraising activities.
Bring the Noise – Aimed at Early Years and Key Stage 1.
