Curriculum

Music

Music Ambassadors 

Intent

At Manor Road Primary our vision is to give children access to an engaging and fun music curriculum reflecting the world they live in now, but at the same time giving them access to musical styles throughout history. Our Music curriculum will equip our children with the skills to build their resilience and perseverance to be creative independent thinkers. It will stimulate reflection, challenge and innovation.

Children are able to listen and appraise a variety of musical styles alongside performing pieces and creating their own compositions through the use of instruments and technology.

To achieve this, all children access a variety of musical games, songs, instruments, music workshops, and extra – curricular activities giving them practical hands on experience. We hope children continue to grow in confidence as they progress through the musical curriculum and become passionate in their responses to music. Added to this, we want children to become more independent learners within this area, reflect upon their learning and develop resilience within the musical world. As a school, these are our aims:

• To encourage awareness, enjoyment and appreciation of music in all its forms.
• To develop imagination and creativity.
• To help children of all abilities develop positive attitudes and to experience success and satisfaction in music.
• To offer opportunities to sing, play instruments, compose, listen and appraise.

Singing skills- A singing culture will be established and nurtured within the school. Children and adults in the school will be encouraged to sing whenever appropriate to aid well -being and health as well as musical outcomes.

Instrumental skills – Children will be taught to sing a wide ranging variety of songs and to use their voices expressively. They will have the opportunity to play both tuned and un-tuned instruments with increasing control and will rehearse and perform with others, with an awareness of audience, being reflective of theirs and others work in a respectful manner.

Composing skills-  Children will create Musical patterns and will be shown how to explore, select and organise musical ideas, recording these in a variety of ways, (e.g.: pictorial score, by means of a digital recorder, tape recorder or video or using notation).

Appraising skills- Children will be given the opportunity to explore and explain their own ideas and feelings about Music, using Music, dance, expressive language and Musical vocabulary. They will analyse and compare sounds and will become confident at suggesting improvements for their own work and that of others in a respectful manner.

Listening and applying knowledge and understanding-  Children should be able to listen with concentration and to internalise and recall sounds with increasing confidence. They will develop a growing awareness of the interrelated dimensions of music. They will learn that time and place can influence the way music is created, performed and heard, that music is produced in different ways and is described through invented and standard notations which will be applied appropriately throughout their musical journey in school.

Implementation

At Manor Road Primary School :

• Children will participate in regular music lessons making use of a wide variety of musical instruments.
• Staff will use Kapow planning to support the children’s development within music. Every year group will build upon the learning from prior year groups therefore developing depth of understanding and progression of skills. This serves as a base to aid and enhance our teaching, but is not intended to be rigidly adhered to.
• Staff will refer to our Music Progression of Skills document to ensure they are building on the skills from prior year groups.
• Staff will make professional judgements about when to adapt, miss out or add additional materials where this would benefit learning.
• Provide opportunities for children to develop practical skills and progress by listening and appraising, singing, playing, composing, and performing.
• Promote an enjoyment and foster interest of music through regular singing practice, musical workshops, and other extra- curricular opportunities where possible.
• Support pupils experiencing difficulties with extra encouragement by working in a small groups with the teacher/ support staff or with a more musically able child.
• Our Marking / lesson feedback sheets and Non-core data assessment allow us to use data to inform future teaching and learning as well as tracking progress across the year groups. .
• As well as music lessons in class, children, from Y2 to Y6 are invited to learn a range of instruments Guitars, Drums and Keyboard lessons. These are organised by school but self-funded with arrangements made for PP children.
• Pupils are given the opportunity to listen to a range of music through various in and out of school opportunities- in class, assemblies and key stage performances.
• Performances take place within various school activities and are integral to the school ethos.
• The Staff lead regular whole school assemblies which include song learning and music appreciation.
• Instrumental groups will be encouraged to perform in Assembly whenever performances are ready to be heard.
• Kapow can be supplemented by the subject leader and the teacher’s own input to match and compliment the personalised, creative curriculum. The scheme also provides the necessary details, activities, accompaniments and recordings to support our music teaching.
• Music skills and skills progression are monitored, as is the delivery of music.
• Resources: We have a range of music equipment and resources that can easily be moved around the school.
• There are a full class set of glockenspiels and a number of other tuned instruments including: Keyboard, tambourines, drums, bells and more.
• A portable sound system with bluetooth connections and microphone is available for every class when needed.
• The school has a class set of iPads available.

EYFS

Through Expressive Arts, children are taught to sing songs, make music and dance. Children are given opportunities to experiment with ways of changing sound and develop an understanding of pulse rhythm and pitch. Children follow a scheme of work from Kapow and enjoy listening and responding to different styles of music, learning to sing, joining in with nursery rhymes and action songs which leads to playing classroom instruments and performing for others. Children are also encouraged to use everyday objects to make music and create sound, children enjoy exploring our music wall outdoors and experiment with sound using objects made from different materials such as wood, metal and plastic. Children experiment with a wide range of resources both natural and man-made improvising with different types of beaters to make a range of sounds.

Impact

The impact of this Music curriculum will lead to outstanding progress over time across key stages relative to a child’s individual starting point and their progression of skills. Those children showing a high level of skill, musical talent and confidence will be encourage to lead and enthuse others and share their developing skills with the rest of the school community with performances in assembly. Children will therefore be expected to leave Manor Road Primary reaching at least age expected expectations for Music.

Our Music curriculum will hopefully foster a love of music of all genres, an understanding of its value towards positive mental health, an increasing enthusiasm for the subject and a potential for life- long musical enjoyment, in all our children.

Here are the Music Subject Ambassadors for 2022-2023. We are all already working hard to help improve Music across the whole school