MUSIC
INTENT:
At St Mark’s Primary School, we make music an enjoyable learning experience. We encourage all children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which we aim to build up their love of music, self- confidence and sense of achievement. Our teaching focuses on developing the children’s ability to, sing in tune and with other people, play tuned and untuned musical instruments with increasing control, fluency and expression and listen critically to a wide range of music from different periods, genres, styles and traditions. As children progress through the school they will increasingly understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated through the interrelated dimensions of music: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and musical notation. By Key stage 2 children will begin to improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music.
IMPLEMENTATION:
We teach music in EYFS classes as an integral part of the topic work covered during the year. In the Early Years, music contributes to a child’s development in the area of expressive arts and design. Key stage 1 and 2 children are taught music by their class teacher largely in 3 half termly blocks although some aspects of music learning are ongoing throughout the year.
We use Charanga (an online resource) to support our music teaching as it is a very clear and comprehensive scheme of work which covers all the national curriculum requirements in a full and progressive way. Instrumental learning (glockenspiel) is taught explicitly and progressively using the charanga units of work. We have created our own scheme using resources from the Charanga scheme which have been chosen specifically to support our progressive curriculum to help build on the children’s prior learning.
Children throughout the school sing on a regular basis in assemblies and during collective worship times. The children are also able to practice their singing at various points of the year such as Christmas performances and carol services, Easter performances and various Masses throughout the year. We have a weekly singing practice in assemblies and children in years 3 to 6 are given the opportunity to join the lunchtime choir that meets once a week.
IMPACT:
We strive to ensure that our children's progress is in line with or exceeds their potential when we consider the varied starting points of all our children on their musical journey through school. We measure this using the assessment criteria outlined on the Charanga website, while always considering the age-related expectations for each year group. This is then monitored using our Music progression grids. Our intentions are that our Music curriculum will ensure our pupils are prepared and inspired for life beyond primary school and throughout their educational journey.