Music
Our Curriculum Threads:
Our curriculum threads are woven through our Music curriculum as it:
Allows children to develop their LANGUAGE AND ORACY by discussing and expressing opinions on the features of music; comparing, discussing and evaluating their own and others’ performances; learning the musical language of graphic scores and basic staff notation, and using an increasing range of musical vocabulary to comment on elements such as pitch, tempo and dynamics.
Gives children exposure to a range of music from different cultures, which encourages them to understand that music from different parts of the world has different features and appreciate such DIVERSITY. Making music together, whether through voice, instruments or body percussion is something that everyone can contribute to and participate in and is therefore INCLUSIVE to all.
Enables children to develop WISDOM AND WONDER through exposure to a range of musical genres, as they learn to recognise their personal musical preferences and begin to place musical eras within broader historical contexts.
Promotes HEALTH AND HAPPINESS by offering many opportunities to make music together, such as singing, improvising and performing music in class lessons, participating in whole school weekly singing assemblies, being a member of the school choir and performing in front of a wider audience at school concerts and annual church services. Such acts of collaborative music-making promote a sense of community and teamwork – a firm foundation for children’s self-esteem and wellbeing.
Intent
At Winkfield St Mary’s, our intent is to provide a creative, ambitious and inspiring Music curriculum.
Through our music curriculum and school environment, children will:
- listen and respond to music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and cultural traditions
- read, write, create and compose music with a developing understanding of musical notation
- explore different features of music, such as pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre and structure
- be given opportunities to play and explore musical instruments
- learn to sing and use their voices on their own and in collaboration with others, with increasing accuracy, control and expression
- learn about great composers past and present
We strive to engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music, thereby increasing their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. Expressing themselves physically, emotionally and through responding to their own and others’ musical ideas creates strong links to our school focus on developing oracy skills. Children begin to appreciate that music is all around us in numerous forms and that it has the power to connect us to each other, different places and different periods of time. It is our aim to instil a love of collaborating with others through music by composing, performing and listening to music together, and to enjoy the strengthened bond that this brings in our school. By the time children leave Winkfield St Mary’s, we hope that they have not only learnt about music but can also recognise themselves as musicians, and enjoy expressing themselves using the universal language of music.
Building a strong musical community in the school, where children can express themselves individually, appreciate different musical cultures and enjoy the bond of performing together is fundamental to our school values, where children ‘may have life and live it to the full’ John 10:10.
Implementation
Music is taught in each year group by class teachers under the subject leadership of Mrs Beavan, using resources and schemes of work from Kapow. Using this scheme as a basis, we are confident that pupils’ skills are developing progressively and effectively through regularly taught and well-planned lessons. The spiral curriculum model is followed where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon and children progress in terms of tackling more complex tasks, developing more technical knowledge and furthering their understanding of music.
Following Kapow’s Music Scheme, individual strands such as performing, listening, composing, understanding musical elements, using musical notation and an awareness of the history of music are woven together to create engaging and enriching learning experiences. Each five-lesson unit combines these strands within a cross-curricular topic designed to capture pupils’ imaginations and provide that essential ‘hook’, and is clearly linked to the National Curriculum attainment targets and individual strands within them. Over the course of the scheme, children will be taught how to sing fluently and expressively, and play both tuned and untuned instruments accurately and with control. They will learn to recognise elements such as pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics and use these expressively in their own improvisations and compositions.
In each lesson, pupils will actively participate in musical activities drawn from a range of styles and traditions, developing their musical skills and their understanding of how music works. Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work as well as improvisation and teacher-led performances. Lessons are ‘hands-on’ and incorporate movement and dance elements, as well as making cross-curricular links with other areas of learning. We follow guidance to differentiate activities in order to ensure that lessons can be accessed by all pupils and that we can offer opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning where necessary.
At Winkfield St Mary’s we are lucky to have a wide range of both tuned and untuned percussion, to support and enrich our musical education.
Our weekly singing assemblies are met with enthusiastic participation and bring the whole school community together, using a range of musical styles to link carefully chosen songs to our assembly themes and school values.
Children in KS2 attend weekly choir rehearsals and enjoy performance opportunities such as Christmas, Harvest and Easter services at St Mary’s Church, PTA events at school and massed choir events with other Bracknell schools at the Hexagon Theatre in Reading. We focus on singing with clarity and phrasing in unison, developing harmony, solo performances and having fun!
Individual children have weekly music lessons at school, including piano, violin and singing and there is a KS1 recorder club after school.
Impact
Through the implementation of Kapow Primary Music and our positive musical ethos within the school, we will see pupils leaving primary school equipped with a range of skills to enable them to access, enjoy and appreciate music throughout their lives, as well as form a firm foundation in their secondary music education.
The impact of our teaching can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities, highlighted particularly by the performance element at the end of each unit.
The expected impact of our music scheme at Winkfield St Mary’s is that children will:
- Be confident performers, composers and listeners and will be able to express themselves musically at and beyond school.
- Show an appreciation and respect for a wide range of musical styles from around the world and will understand how music is influenced by the wider, cultural, social, and historical contexts in which it is developed.
- Understand the ways in which music can be written down to support performing and composing activities.
- Demonstrate and articulate an enthusiasm for music and be able to identify their own personal musical preferences.
- Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the national curriculum for Music.
Furthermore, the impact of music teaching throughout the school will be continually monitored by the music subject leader to ensure there is effective progress of knowledge with relevant skills being developed each year. The music subject leader will also strive to raise the profile of music by inviting external musicians to perform, such as professionals from Berkshire Maestros, seizing opportunities for performances both within and outside the school environment, selecting a range of relevant songs to fit our themes and values and encouraging participation in extra-curricular musical activities.