Music
Subject Leader: Mrs McCarthy
Our place in the world
We believe that the Music we teach our children allows them to develop their own tastes through a variety of different styles. We celebrate through our curriculum, a wealth of Musicians ensuring that the children experience Music projects inspired by Musicians from around the world.
Language and oracy
Creating Music expands a child’s ability to interact with the world around them, and provides a new set of skills for self-expression and communication. Our curriculum allows our children to develop their creativity, which is important throughout their lives. Our Music curriculum gives plentiful opportunities for new vocabulary, which we can introduce, repeat and model.
Learning skills
We believe that the skills developed within our Music curriculum support children’s life skills through developing their creativity, confidence, independence, logic, problem solving, perseverance, non-verbal expression and working collaboratively.
Healthy body, healthy mind
Through looking at Musicians of the month we enable the children to have aspirations for their future inspired by the journeys of Musicians. We encourage all children to believe that they are Musicians and put no limit on supporting them to develop their own style of Music throughout the topics we cover. Music fosters mental growth in children by providing opportunities for trying out new ideas, new ways of thinking and problem-solving.
Intent
At St Mary Magdalen’s Catholic Primary School and Nursery our intent is to develop children’s understanding of music through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, analysing, and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions, and musical genres. We believe that music has many benefits including helping children to understand multicultural communities and faiths, develop their communication and listening skills and also improve their creativity, confidence and wellbeing.
The National Curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:
- Perform, listen to, review and evaluate music
- Be taught to sing, create and compose music
- Understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated.
Through the teaching of Music we encourage our pupils to:
- Think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of Music
- Know how Music reflects and shapes our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.
- Produce creative work, exploring ideas and recording experiences.
- Know about great Musicians, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of Music forms.
Implementation
Our children are able to participate in a range of musical activities and in class music study. We use a range of schemes such as Charanga and Out of the ark to ensure that music is delivered in a high quality and diverse way. We ensure that the progression of music is developed during the school. Pupils are exposed to a diverse range of singers, musicians and composers, and music from across the world is celebrated. All pupils have the opportunity to learn a musical instruments throughout the year focusing on Recorder and Xylophone. In Year 4 children have the opportunity to learn ukulele as part of the Soundmakers scheme.
Each Key Stage within the school focuses on age appropriate skills and uses a range of strategies and interventions to support the pupils. We maintain a core focus on rhythm, patterns and structure throughout the KS1 and KS2 syllabi, with different age-appropriate focal points alongside this to build a wider understanding of fundamental musical concepts, as described in the National Curriculum, including: Pitch Duration Music Notation Performance Musical features Composition
Impact
Our Music curriculum should ensure that children leave St Mary Magdalen’s:
With the confidence and passion for exploring a wide range of Music.
- The ability to apply the key principles of Music: Pitch Duration Music Notation Performance Musical features Composition
- The ability to review, modify and refine their work.
- Understand the importance of the process of Music and not just the final outcome
- An understanding of the work of a diverse group of Musicians
- The ability to express their opinion of the work of others, using increasingly precise Music vocabulary.
How to support your child at home?
- Encourage your child to engage in learning more about the Musician of the month
- Listen to a diverse range of music genres and artists
- Encourage your child to learn an instrument and practice regularly at home