Intent

We aim to deliver a high-quality creative, collaborative, celebratory and challenging musical education with carefully chosen content and breadth to ensure that pupils acquire a coherent knowledge and understanding of music.   As with all subjects, each unit of study will have specific ‘sticky knowledge’ (the things we want the children to know or skills to be able to apply long term). These are guided by ‘Golden Threads’ that weave throughout all Music learning and they are: Composition (developing the craft of creating melodies and fashioning these into short pieces), Performance (creating opportunities to celebrate, share and experience music of all kinds and Listening (expanding pupils’ musical horizons in order to gain a deeper understanding of how music is constructed and its impact on the listener).

Implementation

Music will take place every week for 30 minutes (or sometimes as a ‘blocked’ period where a half-term's learning happens over one or two weeks if this will make a particular unit of study more effective). High quality resources will be provided using the scheme Kapow. In addition, daily Collective Worship provides regular opportunities for listening to music, singing and performing and singing practice will take place once a week for 20 minutes. Church services, concerts and plays also provide opportunities for developing skills in singing and performance.

The Music curriculum begins in Reception where children begin to develop the ability to sing songs from memory, identify high and low pitch and a sense of tempo and use body percussion and movement to respond to music.

In Key Stage 1, pupils will begin to expand and develop their knowledge of pitch, tempo, dynamics, and rhythm.  They will focus on singing with expression and will begin to use musical terminology. 

In Key Stage 2, children will continue to develop and expand their skills and knowledge of pitch, tempo, dynamics and rhythm. They will identify the stylistic features of different genres, styles and traditions of music; constructively critique their own and others’ work, using musical vocabulary;  sing songs in two or more secure parts  and perform from graphic and staff notation and from their own notation.

Across all phases of primary school, children use their oracy skills to discuss the music - what they like and what they don’t like.

Impact

Outcomes and understanding will be gauged from learner voice conferencing, quality of work and performance produced and ongoing formative assessment within and between lessons. Our Golden Threads will inform future planning to ensure children are given ample opportunities to build on prior learning and expand on their understanding of Music.