Music

Through our music curriculum we engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and to develop their own musical knowledge and ability to increase their self-esteem, creativity and confidence. 

Our curriculum ensures that music plays a fundamental role in the life of our school and that children gain a love for music and to grow in knowledge and appreciation of music through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, analysing and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions and musical genres. Each child is to be given the opportunity to learn or have an experience of playing a range of musical instruments no matter of their age, ability or background. In addition, all children will be able to sing as part of whole school singing or the school choir. 

Furthermore, children will have an opportunity to express themselves creativity through composition and improvisation (either instrumentally or vocally) to enable them to have a sense of pride and achievement. 

Our music curriculum, which is based on National Curriculum, aims that all pupils will have the following opportunities:

• perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians
• learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence
• understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

The curriculum content is sequenced to build learning over time- the content is planned and sequenced so that knowledge and skills build on prior learning and towards clearly defined end points; curriculum content supports subsequent learning: within lessons, lesson sequences, topics, years and phases curriculum ; planning identifies small enough component steps; and known gaps in knowledge and skills are addressed in the sequencing of lesson content.  Our curriculum is carefully designed in to 1 year cycle for Years 1 – 4 and a 2 year cycle for Years 5 and 6.

• In Year 1, there are two exploring sounds units, two beat units, one pitch unit and one performance unit. During these units, they will be introduced to the interrelated dimensions of music. Specifically, pitch, dynamics, tempo, structure and notation. In Year 1 the children are concentrating on graphic notation and they start to look at note names.
• In Year 2, there are two exploring sounds units, two beat units, one pitch unit and one performance unit. During these units, they will continue to build on their learning and application of the interrelated dimensions of music which they started in Year 1. Specifically they will learn about, pitch, duration, tempo, structure and notation. In Year 2, the children are concentrating on graphic notation and they continue to use note names.
• In Year 3, there are six units and they focus on composition, beat, pitch, structure, exploring sounds and performance. During these units, they will continue to build on their learning and application of the interrelated dimensions of music from KS1. Specifically, they will focus on pitch, structure, texture and notation. In Year 3, the children will continue to use note names and are introduced to staff notation.
• In Year 4, the children are learning a brass instrument. This is delivered by a specialised music teacher. The units focus on connecting sound to notation, developing ensemble skills, texture, pentatonic scales, understanding chords and performance.
• In UKS2, there are six units and they focus on composition, beat, structure, interrelated dimensions of music and performance. During these units, they will continue to build on their learning and application of all eight parts of the interrelated dimensions of music. In Years 5 and 6, the children will continue to use graphic notation, note names and staff notation.
• A weekly retrieval lesson has now been included in the school timetable from KS1 to UKS2. This allows the children to recall knowledge and definitions of vocabulary from previous years and Key Stages

Long Term Planning

Key figures