Music Curriculum - Intent, Impact and Implementation

Music gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything- Plato.

Intent Statement

At Holymead Primary School children develop a passion for music and learn to see themselves as musicians. A focus is placed on the secure understanding of the inter-related dimensions of music through practical music making. Through discussion, active-listening and linking Music to other areas of the curriculum; music is shown to help them become a part of community, develop individuality and allows them to express their thoughts and feelings.

The aims of our curriculum are to:

• Actively listen to a diverse multitude of artists and genres throughout history
• Think about our own musical preferences and build opinions about the quality and style of different genres
• Understand how music can help us with confidence, expression, relating to others and when we are thinking about our thoughts and feelings
• We can use our voices effectively and perform a range of songs
• To play different instruments with a progression in notes and difficulty
• Create and compose music
• Play and perform music to an audience
• Understand and use a wide range of musical language

Implementation

At Holymead Primary School, the National Curriculum is implemented through the New Model Music Curriculum provided by Charanga and has been adapted to suit each year group. Through this scheme, our children will explore 6 themes linked to the wider world to discover that music is for everyone and can impact our children’s lives in some way. This scheme links to our Rights Respecting School and is tied in with our PSHC schemes where we highlight the importance of social justice, kindness, responsibility and charity.

The Charanga topics include the following strands of Music:

• Musicianship
• Listening
• Singing
• Notation
• Playing instruments
• Creating: composing
• Creating: improvising
• Performing

This scheme is supported with notation resources from Bristol Plays Music and the use of Sing Up! for singing warm-ups, songs and the teaching of singing. A bi-weekly Singing assembly is held on both sites, allowing children to sing a range of songs as a group.

A number of extra-curricular activities are available for the children. There is a choir held in Term 1, 2, 5 and 6 for the Year 4, 5 and 6 children. There is also an after school singing club for children in KS1. All children learn the recorder during class sessions in Year Three and for 3 terms in Year 4, and they are encouraged to continue with this instrument during extra-curricular sessions in Years 4, 5 and 6. There are also opportunities for children to learn a range of musical instruments, with tuition provided by Bristol Plays Music. Concerts are held in Term Six for the Year 4, 5 and 6 children while a Christmas concert involves children from all these year groups. Additionally, children get to partake in events in the wider community, performing at the local Christmas Lights Turn On. In KS1 and KS2 plays and performances are often given, particularly at Christmas. These regularly contain a musical element.

At the EYFS stage the children are encouraged to share their thoughts, ideas and feeling through a variety of activities in music.

At KS1 the children will be taught to use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes. They will play tuned and un-tuned instruments, listen to a range of live and recorded music and experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.

At KS2 the children will be taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They should develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory. They will be taught to play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts and improve and compose music for a range of purposes. They will listen and recall sounds with increasing aural memory, use and understand staff and other musical notations and appreciate and understand a wider range of live and recorded music. They will also develop an understanding of the history of music.

Impact

Throughout their time at Holymead Primary School, children will build on the 7 inter-related dimensions of Music, practise, compose, create, perform and sing; and as a result of this, we hope they become lifelong learners and lovers of Music, carrying on into secondary school and years beyond. By linking Music to themselves, their community and the wider world, we hope that children can use music as a tool for well-being, connecting with others and exploring their individuality.

Children will be deemed to be making good progress if they are applying the skills and knowledge taught in lessons. Children will be able to use musical language when talking about music and play and compose using an instrument.

As a school we measure the impact of our curriculum through-

• Formative assessment from teachers through performance and recall
• Videos recording evidence of performance
• Pupil conferencing once a year discussing the curriculum impact
• Discussion with music teachers from Bristol Plays Music
• Annual tracking and recording of standards using Crib sheets
• Subject Leader time dedicated to improving the delivery of the Music curriculum
• Monitor the impact of extra-curricular clubs and up-take of music lessons