Music

 Intent

At Puss Bank School and Nursery, it is our intent that we make music an enjoyable learning experience.  Our children will be exposed to a variety of musical genres, both past and present and from all over the world, in order to develop musical appreciation.  Through exploration, children will make progress in the skills of composition and performance.  Our pupils will persevere in becoming musicians and will be reflective about their own, and their peers’, work. We are passionate that all children have the opportunity to learn read music and play a musical instrument and have opportunity to perform with others. We are committed to ensuring children understand the value and importance of music in the wider community too, and are able to use their musical skills, knowledge, and experiences to involve themselves in music, in a variety of different contexts.

Design

Appreciation of music, through learning to listen, will develop children’s musical knowledge and skills. This will provide the foundation for a love of music from which children will more aptly be able to appraise and develop preferences in what they hear. 

Composition is important for developing key skills and the understanding of musical vocabulary. 

Pupils will learn how to compose focussing on different dimensions of music, which in turn feeds their understanding when listening, playing, or analysing music.  Composing or performing using body percussion and vocal sounds is also a large part of our curriculum, which develops the understanding of musical elements without the added complexity of an instrument.

Through careful planning of the progression of skills and vocabulary, children build on prior knowledge to extend their musical confidence in composition.

 

Performance ensures pupils sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate.  This is embedded in the classroom activities as well as singing assemblies, various concerts and performances, the learning of instruments, and the joining of an ensembles, in and out of school.

Key vocabulary is progressive, planned for (often being part of the learning objective) and revisited throughout the year.

 

EYFS

By the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage, pupils should be able to:

• Express and communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings by using a widening range of movement, and a variety of songs and musical instruments.
• Recognise and explore how sounds can be changed, sing simple songs from memory, recognise repeated sounds and sound patterns, and match movements to music;
• Use their imagination.

This will be achieved through using a bank of short songs and activities which will encourage our youngest pupils to find their singing voice whilst helping to develop a sense of pulse, pitch and tempo. Children will have opportunity to develop and apply their skills through activities presented to them within continuous provision.

 

Years 1, 2 and 3

All children in KS1 and Year 3 will follow a progressive scheme of work that concentrates on the four National Curriculum strands.  All musical learning in this scheme is built around the Interrelated Dimensions of Music and units have been chosen to complement each year group’s topics and interests, this includes a direct link to the particular period in History that is being studied.

 

Years 4, 5 and 6

All children in Years 4, 5 and 6 will receive instrument tuition from an outside agency.  Through this expert tuition, children will cover all the curriculum strands, have the opportunity to compose their own pieces, make links to the particular period in History that is being studied and become confident and competent musicians and performers.