INTENT

Music is all around us. The world is full of it; all we need to do is listen. At Highfield Junior and Infant School, we want the children to develop a lifelong love for music.

We want our pupils to be able to listen and appraise music across a range of historical periods, genres and styles. We also want them to learn about a range of diverse musicians and composers as inspiration. Our aim is that our pupils will learn to sing and play musical instruments and they will develop the skills to use their creativity to improvise and compose their own pieces of music. Through our curriculum, pupil’s confidence to perform in front of an audience will build. Enrichment and curriculum opportunities will develop an enduring passion for music in our pupils that could turn them into great musicians and composers of the future.

IMPLEMENTATION

Our music curriculum is based on the National Curriculum and includes a wide range of skills which are covered regularly each academic year. We have developed our music curriculum around the Charanga music scheme. We have carefully ensured that these plans are progressive and develop music skills sequentially which allow pupils to build on their previous knowledge and apply it in a different way. Each unit follows a sequence of learning: listen and appraise, singing, playing instruments, improvisation, composition, perform and share. Through this, each year group explores different styles of music. This approach ensures the children get a rich learning experience which covers all aspects of music. All children will study music for at least 30 mins per week.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is where we start our integrated approach to musical learning, laying down the foundations for KS1 and KS2 where we learn more about the interrelated dimensions of music (pulse, rhythm, pitch and tempo, dynamics, timbre, structure, texture). Our youngest children listen to and sing along with different pieces of music, nursery rhymes and action songs. They begin to improvise and play classroom instruments. The children are given the opportunity to share and perform the learning that has taken place.

Throughout school, pupils learn about different genres of music ranging from Jazz to Pop. Pupil are given many opportunities to listen and appraise songs so that they can form their own opinions about music. They listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory. They learn to understand and explore how music is created and produced. The children learn to talk music by using music language such as pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture and structure.

Pupils learn to develop their vocal skills. The KS1 curriculum focusses on the love of singing, especially songs with different rhythms. In KS2, children cover further singing skills such as, singing well in a group, in unison and with harmonies. During their time in school, children are given opportunities to perform their singing in front of their peers and parents.

Pupils learn to play a range of instruments throughout their time at Highfield Junior and Infant School. During the early years, in nursery and reception, the children are exposed to a range of instruments and learn their names and how to play them. The pupils in year 1 begin to learn to play the glockenspiel and are introduced to musical notation. In years 2, pupils are introduced to the recorder and are taught to play chosen songs; they begin to learn musical notation. In years 3, pupils continue to receive recorder playing lessons to build on and refine the skills which they acquired in year 2. In year 4, pupils are taught by a music specialist teacher who teaches the year group to play the keyboard and continues to build upon reading staff and notation to play a range of different songs within the curriculum. This is further continued in year 5 where they play chosen songs on the keyboard and further develop their musical notation. In year 6, children learn to play a range of songs on the glockenspiels and create improvisations and compositions. Throughout the pupil’s time in school, they are given opportunities within each unit of work to create new melodies and musical patterns and are given guidance to assess and improve their compositions.

At Highfield Junior and Infant School, children are given the opportunity to join in extra curriculum activities such as the school choir. The pupils rehearse after school or at lunchtimes. In this club, pupils are taught to pitch match, understand what the dynamics and articulation of music are and how to use it when singing. The pupils are given ample opportunities to share and perform in front of a range of audiences and outside of school. They have made regular local trips to the local hospital to perform.Each unit follows a sequence of learning: listen and appraise, interrelated dimensions of music, singing, playing Instruments, improvisation, composition, perform and share. Through this, each year group explores different styles of music. This approach ensures the children get a rich learning experience covering all aspects of music.

IMPACT

The impact of our curriculum is that pupils know, apply and understand how the elements of music are combined to create pieces of music. They become increasingly musically confident with an ability to perform their own and others’ music. They can recognise music from different parts of the world and different genres and are able to critically appraise music and discuss preferences. Our pupils can read basic formal notation and describe main note names and values. Finally, our pupils transfer to secondary school with skills they can develop in/out of school. Due to the opportunities given to the children to perform to varied audiences, children have developed self-belief and the confidence to perform.