The following video was created by Year 5 as part of their Computing topic on video editing.
Intent
Our main aim is that children leave St Kentigern’s with a wide range of happy and rich memories in Music, formed through interesting and exciting experiences, that enhance a child’s awareness of their own abilities and strengths as a learner.
Our high-quality music education will engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. Children will meet the National Curriculum expectations in music, taught by staff who will support children to develop skills which in turn will enable them to develop a deeper understanding of the subject.
Implementation
We use Charanga to deliver the majority of our music curriculum in KS1 and 2. Each 6 session/lesson unit combines listening, composing, performing and learning musical language. Children use a mixture of voice, tuned and untuned instruments as appropriate to their age and stage.
In EYFS, children sing songs and nursery rhymes every day. They also have a weekly Charanga music lesson. Children experience a wider range of genres through cross curricular topic work. Whether that is listening to and recreating rainforest sounds, listening to music popular in World War 2 or singing animal songs.
Through singing songs, children learn about the structure and organisation of music. Through wider ops and further music tuition, all children will learn to play an instrument and have some ability to read music. Children will learn to read and write staff notation, increasing their understanding of rhythmic and melodic notation. Children will develop self-confidence and teamwork skills through performance. They will have opportunities to sing as a class, in smaller groups and as a school community.
Children will listen to, review and evaluate a range of music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including contemporary music and the works of the great composers and musicians using subject specific vocabulary relating to the musical elements; instrumentation, metre, rhythm, pitch, dynamics, tempo, texture, structure and melody. Through cross curricular links with our computing curriculum, children will use music technology to compose simple rhythms and melodies.
Opportunities exist for children of all ages to experience learning beyond the classroom. This will allow them to enrich their knowledge by, for example, attending performances by professional musicians and participating in school productions and concerts. Other opportunities might include visits to concerts, meeting musicians, professional musicians visiting schools to work with pupils, musicians from other schools sharing their expertise with staff and children and performing in events in the community such as singing Christmas Carols at local care homes or the Blackpool Music Service Winter Festival at the Empress Ballroom.
In addition to the music curriculum:
- all children in Year 4 receive 30 minutes brass tuition (initially cornet) a week
- children in Y3 – Y6 are offered lessons in woodwind, brass and guitar
- children in Y2 – Y6 are invited to choir
Impact
Children enjoy their music lessons. The impact of the lessons is constantly monitored, both formatively (during lessons) and summatively (at the end of the unit) against the lesson and topic objectives.
Many children chose to continue brass tuition after wider ops in Year 4. They either continue with the cornet or move on to euphonium, French horn or trombone and join our school brass band.
The expected impact of following our music curriculum is that:
- Children will be confident performers, composers and listeners and will be able to express themselves musically at and beyond school
- Understand the ways music can be written down to support performing and composing
- Demonstrate and articulate an enthusiasm for music and be able to identify their own musical preferences
- Meet the end of Key Stage expectations as outlined in the National Curriculum for Music
The achievements of the children are celebrated every term in our music assemblies, parents are very welcome to attend.