Music

Intent

Whilst at Sowerby Primary, every child has the opportunity to engage in creative musical activities, perform to an audience, be entertained, surprised and inspired by music. We believe that music should be an enjoyable experience for both the children and teachers. Our music curriculum aims to provide all pupils with a high-quality music education which engages and inspires them to develop a life-long love of music, increases their self-confidence, creativity and imagination, and provides opportunities for self-expression and a sense of personal achievement. Music at Sowerby is an integrated, practical, exploratory and child-led approach to musical learning.

 Our Aims

Alongside the National Curriculum, we aim to ensure that all pupils:

• perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians
• learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence
• understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

The interrelated dimensions of music weave through our music units to encourage the development of musical skills as the learning progresses through listening and appraising, differing musical activities, including creating and exploring, and performing. In each lesson, pupils have the chance to develop their talents in all aspects of music including rhythm work, technical vocabulary, instrumental skills, composition, singing and appreciation of music from different cultures and eras. Experiencing music in different contexts, such as live, recorded and composing music using technology, children are given the chance to foster a lifelong passion for music, as well as develop their musical expertise.

Implementation

To achieve high quality music lessons and coverage of the National Curriculum, Music is taught as a separate subject. Every half-term, each year group has a dedicated music week. Units from the world-leading music teaching and learning scheme Charanga, have been tailored to fit alongside our wider curriculum to help promote familiarity, progression and achievement within music.

Through its relevant links to other areas of our curriculum, music is used as a tool to support in other areas of learning. For example, songs and rhymes to help remember number facts, performance poetry in English, studying the music of other cultures as part of Geography and RE and responding to movement and dance in PE all incorporate different elements of music.

A weekly singing assembly allows the children opportunities to develop their singing skills and gain an understanding of how ensembles work. It is also an extra occasion to provide an opportunity to listen to music from a variety of different styles, periods and countries. Performances, such as Christmas plays and nativities and end of year shows, demonstrate that music is important to the life of the school. Extracurricular activities, such as Key Stage choirs and music lessons, also provide children with experience of making music. Music plays an important role in helping children to feel part of a community, so we organise and collaborate these ventures to enable children to share their musical skills at different events outside of school too. These include the Young Voices concerts and festivals, celebrations and performances at the local church and retirement homes. The school also works with Music for Life, providing a whole school concert and targeted musical workshops for smaller groups once a year. This gives children an opportunity to work with professional musicians from a range of musical backgrounds.

If home learning is required, children can continue with their learning at home through Yumu, the home learning area of Charanga.

Impact

The impact of teaching music will be seen across the school with an increase in the profile of music. Whole-school and parental engagement will be improved through performances, extracurricular activities and opportunities for wider learning will be presenting across the curriculum. Participation in music develops wellbeing, promotes listening and develops concentration. We want to ensure that music is loved by teachers and pupils across school, encouraging them to want to continue building on this wealth of musical ability, now and in the future. By the end of Year 6, our children will be able to sing accurately in unison and in two parts, compose and improvise their own melodies, perform on their own and as part of a group and talk about different styles of music using the correct musical vocabulary.