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Music

Intent

Our music curriculum encourages children to immerse themselves in musical learning that engages, inspires, challenges, provokes, exhilarates and liberates.

Our music curriculum will:

  • Provide a curriculum that engages, inspires and challenges children as well as revisiting knowledge and skills they have learnt previously.
  • Equip our children with the knowledge and skills to experiment and create their own performances and music.
  • Provide the knowledge, experiences and cultural capital necessary to become educated citizens and to succeed in life.
  • Provide children with the opportunity to learn to play instruments.
  • Encourage a love of music and a desire to learn more.

The teaching of music at Victoria Road encourages children to engage through regular, structured skills and knowledge-based lessons, providing an opportunity for pupils to develop their musicality, as well as drawing on new skills. With singing as our key driver, our children learn a wide variety of knowledge through song and musical performances, which further enhances their ability to remember more and deepen their understanding. 

The National Curriculum is adhered to as a minimum expectation of design and delivery. We believe that music is a universal language and are committed to providing equal opportunities for all children including those who are disadvantaged. We fully encourage and enable our children to take creative risks and immerse themselves intellectually, emotionally, physically and kinaesthetically in their musical learning experience. Through the interrelated dimensions of music (pulse, pitch, rhythm, tempo, dynamics, timbre, structure, texture and notation), our children are able to develop their creativity in a well-managed and safe environment. At Victoria Road, children are able to do this in our developing music room.

Music performance and composition play an integral part in developing our young musicians. Collaboratively, children develop their social skills and well-being through the sharing of ideas, skills, singing and playing instruments.

 Our music philosophy encourages children to assess and critique a wide variety of musical genres and composers through listening to the music of others. By developing the skills of responding to music, pupils are able to use those skills to effectively assess and improve upon their own work and that of their peers.

 

Implementation

 

In the EYFS, children will learn to sing a range of well-known nursery rhymes and songs and move in time with the pulse. They will listen to and talk about a wide range of music, expressing their feelings and responses. Children will explore instrumental sounds in order to create their own music and will be encouraged to share and perform their musical ideas with others.

In Key Stage 1, the children will learn to use their voices to sing expressively through learning songs and chants. They will begin to develop an awareness of the different interrelated dimensions of music through listening to a range of live and recorded music, and exploring and playing tuned and untuned instruments. Children will contribute to group and class compositions and begin to record their ideas using graphic notation. Children are encouraged to share and celebrate their learning through regular performance opportunities.

In Key Stage 2, the children will further develop their knowledge and understanding of the different interrelated dimensions of music through listening to a wide range of music from different genres and identifying their characteristics. By the end of Key Stage 2, children will sing and perform a broad range of songs, observing rhythm, phrasing, accurate pitching and appropriate singing style. All children in Key Stage 2 will learn to play an instrument through First Access (whole-class tuition) and will learn how to read and record staff notation. There will be frequent informal opportunities to perform across each unit to help prepare for performances to a wider audience.

Impact

Progression in music is supported through the use of techniques such as retrieval quizzes. Questions based on key vocabulary, notation and aural recall are just some of the activities included in this. These techniques, combined with responsive teaching which adapts learning in light of children’s knowledge, understanding and misconceptions, ensure that the children understand and remember key knowledge. In addition, regular opportunities to listen and appraise music will help the children to demonstrate their understanding of the interrelated dimensions of music and further develop their oracy skills. An electronic music portfolio is being developed to keep a record of the children’s outcomes at the end of each term (or unit). This will include recordings of children performing as a class, in small groups or solo performances.

At the end of the year, an age-related assessment will be given based on the work seen across the year. Children’s attainment is then shared with parents/carers in their annual report.

 

Singing Assemblies and Composer of the Term

At Victoria Road, the children attend a weekly singing assembly where they learn a range of songs that are mostly linked to social, moral and cultural themes. In addition, our weekly singing club gives children the opportunity to demonstrate their passion for singing, sing with other children across the school and learn how to prepare for a performance. 

We also use this opportunity to collectively introduce each year group’s ‘Composer of the Term’.  A composer or performer is assigned to help ensure that, by the end of KS2, pupils will have listened to a range of Western Classical Music, Popular Music and Traditional Music from around the world. Class teachers will then listen to the music of their composer/performer back in class throughout the term. 

Music Matrix

 Progression in Music

Composer Matrix

Music Development Plan