Rode Heath Primary SchoolMusic
"Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity."
(National Curriculum, 2013)
The National Curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:
• perform, listen to, review and evaluate music
• learn to sing, create and compose music
• understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated.
Intent
At Rode Heath Primary School, we aim for a high quality music curriculum that will enable all children to feel that they are musical. We focus on developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that children need in order to develop a life-long love of music. We want our children to be confident performers, composers and listeners. Our scheme of work, based on the Kapow planning, introduces children to music from all around the world and across generations, teaching children to respect and appreciate the music of all traditions and communities.
Our children will develop the musical skills of singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising and composing music, and listening and responding to music. They will develop an understanding of the history and cultural context of the music that they listen to and learn how music can be written down. Through music, our curriculum helps children develop transferable skills such as team-working, leadership, creative thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and presentation and performance skills. These skills are vital to children’s development as learners and have a wider application in their general lives outside and beyond school.
Our scheme of work enables pupils to meet the end of key stage attainment targets outlined in the National Curriculum.
Implementation
Our scheme takes a holistic approach to music, in which the individual strands below are woven together to create engaging and enriching learning experiences:
- Performing
- Listening
- Composing
- The history of music
- The inter-related dimensions of music
Each five-lesson unit combines these strands within a cross-curricular topic designed to capture pupils’ imagination and encourage them to explore music enthusiastically. Over the course of the scheme, children will be taught how to sing fluently and expressively, and play tuned and untuned instruments accurately and with control.
They will learn to recognise and name the interrelated dimensions of music - pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics - and use these expressively in their own improvisations and compositions.
The instrumental scheme lessons from Kapow Music complement our scheme of work and allow lower key stage two pupils to develop their expertise in using a tuned instrument for a minimum of one term as recommended in the Model music curriculum. Children in Year 4, have a term of glockenspiel lessons delivered by The Love Music Trust.
Our music scheme follows the spiral curriculum model where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon. Children progress in terms of tackling more complex tasks and doing more simple tasks better, as well as developing understanding and knowledge of the history of music, staff, and other musical notations, as well as the interrelated dimensions of music and more.
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.
Differentiated guidance is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils in building a foundation of factual knowledge by encouraging recall of key facts and vocabulary.
Strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to be able to deliver a highly effective and robust music curriculum. Each unit of lessons includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support ongoing CPD, aiding teachers in their own acquisition of musical skills and knowledge.
We also provide all children with the opportunity to express themselves musically in weekly singing assemblies, productions, end of unit performances, musical activities embedded into classroom practice and musical links in other subjects. We offer piano, brass and percussion lessons for all Key Stage 2 pupils and have our own class set of glockenspiels for use with our scheme.
Impact
The impact of our music scheme can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives and at the end of each unit there is often a performance element where teachers can make a summative assessment of pupils’ learning. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils by providing a highly visual record of the key learning from the unit, encouraging recall of practical skills, key knowledge and vocabulary. After the implementation of our music curriculum, our pupils leave primary school equipped with a range of skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education and to be able to enjoy and appreciate music throughout their lives.
The expected impact of our music scheme of work 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.