Music
Intent
Our Music curriculum enables our children to develop the expertise they need in the world that they live in so that they can flourish and reach their potential. Our children are given every opportunity to build their knowledge (Cultural Capital) and skills (Threshold Concepts) in Music to enable them to be successful citizens in our ever-changing world; they are encouraged to develop their Musical abilities, reasoning and applying to help in the world of further education, work and in their future lives.
Our approach to Music is ambitious and progressive for all learners and aims to develop children’s confidence in their own abilities and independence in their thinking, helping them become successful musicians, eager to learn more and build a love for the subject. We aim to offer rich and vibrant opportunities within the Music curriculum which draw upon meaningful real-life experiences. In addition, through applying Music to all areas of our curriculum, children will understand the wide application of their Music skills alongside the focus on our curriculum drivers, and what an important role this subject has to play in their overall learning journey.
The music curriculum is designed and taught with an understanding that the working memory is limited and that we can aid learning and the acquisition of the long term memory with regular repeated learning experiences over time.
Implementation
Our long term Music plan covers the national curriculum objectives thoroughly, ensuring that each year group builds on the previous experience of their learners so there is clear progression.
The Threshold Concepts in Music are:
- Perform
This concept involves understanding that music is created to be performed.
- Compose
This concept involves appreciating that music is created through a process which has a number of techniques.
- Transcribe
This concept involves understanding that compositions need to be understood by others and that there are techniques and a language for communicating them.
- Describe music
This concept involves appreciating the features and effectiveness of musical elements
Every child is encouraged to reach their potential through careful differentiation.
We follow the Charanga Music Scheme which is a progressive programme to enable the children to develop their understanding, make musical judgements, apply their new learning, develop their aural memory, express themselves physically, emotionally and through discussion and create their own musical ideas. The wide range of core resources have been developed specifically to motivate and capture each individual’s personal interest.
The children not only learn about music; they become musicians who are able to share and perform using their new skills.
There are 3 main resource areas: Units of Work, themed Topic songs and activities and instrumental Courses. The Units of Work are divided into 6 steps with activities and games which cover the musical dimensions, through singing and playing instruments, listening and creating music – all intrinsically linked through a central song or piece.
Charanga Musical School Units of Work enable children to understand musical concepts through a repetition-based approach to learning. Learning about the same musical concept through different musical activities enables a more secure, deeper learning and mastery of musical skills.
Impact
All class teachers assess weekly to determine next steps with every individual and the class as a whole. Planning is expected to be adjusted in line with AFL and it is the children’s learning which informs the planning.
By the end of Key Stage Two, children are expected to be able to do the following:
• Play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using voice and playing instruments with increasing accuracy, control and expression.
• Improvise and compose music using the inter-related dimensions of music separately and in combination.
• Listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory.
• Use and understand the basics of the stave and other musical notations.
• Appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music from different traditions and from great musicians and composers.
• Develop an understanding of the history of music.
Music at Park
We follow the fantastic, interactive Charanga scheme of work where the children are taught the vital parts of music including melodies, pitch, harmony, music appreciation, music history and much more!
Using Charanga, children can listen and appraise popular and classical music, learn how to play and improvise and most importantly, perform! This is done through exciting units with names such as such as 'Mamma Mia', 'I wanna play in a band and 'Fresh Prince of Bel Air!'
The children also have opportunities in the classroom music lessons to learn to play the recorder, glockenspiels and percussion instruments.
As well as our usual classroom based music lessons in which our children can enjoy our vast range of instruments, we have a weekly whole school 'Singing together' assembly led by Mrs Young. The children have the opportunity to perform their singing and play their instruments in productions and celebrations throughout the year. We love to hear live music being played and learning about the different groups of instruments, benefiting from visiting musicians during the year. Children have the opportunity to learn an instrument from visiting specialist music teachers who teach the Guitar and Keyboard. Our children are encouraged to develop an interest in music and we have Monthly music themes for our assemblies focused around a 'Musician of the Month'.
We have a very active school choir who have performed for numerous events. We take place in the Seasonal Concert organised by the Rotary Club of Wellingborough at The Castle Theatre which is always a yearly highlight. We also regularly sing at Wellingborough library and for community events. We have established links with a local care home, Lancum House, and the children are regularly invited to perform for the residents.