Music
Our Intention:
We aim for all children to participate in a wide range of music lessons during their time at primary school: we want to ensure that children feel confident to sing and join in fully with music lessons, playing percussion instruments and also have opportunities to learn how to play instruments that they might not have access to outside school.
We also want children to experience hearing and thinking about a wide range of music from the past and from around the world and to develop the ability to discuss what they like and don't like, giving reasons why. We also want our children to experience what high quality live music sounds like. We value music in and of itself and also as parts of the Arts.
Implementation and Curriculum Aims:
Children in EYFS take part in singing songs daily as part of their every day learning. Children hear music very regularly and enjoy singing along with their teachers. We also have an area outside where children are able to create and perform their own music, as well as listen to music and dance.
The Charanga music scheme is used across school to support the teaching of all aspects of music, from listening and discussing, to learning and performing, to creating children's own music. This is taught in blocks across the year in each class from Y1 to Y3 and also in Y6.
We have singing sessions for all children in school, focusing specifically on teaching children how to sing during their time in school from Y1 to Y3. We have a singing teacher who comes to school on a weekly basis and works with children in F2 and Y1 and also Y2 and Y3. The children learn about pitch and breathing and develop skills at singing in the round.
As children move into Y4 and Y5, we continue to take part in singing sessions but link this closely to rhythm and tempo. As children become more skilled, they also start to transfer their skills to learning the violin. We buy into the Sheffield Music Hub and have a trained violin teacher working with Y4 and Y5 children each week to develop these skills.
In Y6 we are planning to develop a Pathways group. This group will consist of approximately 8 children who have previously learned the violin and have either shown particular aptitude or enjoyment in learning. They will have weekly group lessons with our violin teacher and will be encouraged to continue learning the violin, or another instrument when they move to secondary school.
Children of all ages perform songs and play pieces of music that they have learned to the rest of the school and to parents and carers. We usually hold three concerts per year. In addition to these, we participate in Sheffieldwide festivals each year, when we all learn the same songs and actions and perform them together on a stage. (This year Key Stage 2 are learning songs in their classrooms that they will sing as part of a recorded virtual performance.)
Whenever possible, we take the children to live performances and it is now a yearly event for children in Key Stage 2 to visit the City Hall to hear and see the Halle Orchestra perform. Each concert has a theme the we explore in school and express in another medium, such as Art, Poetry or Dance. We listen to the pieces beforehand, discussing instruments used and the moods and feelings they create.
Impact:
Children in our school love to sing and play instruments. They take real joy and pride in their musical accomplishments. They have become much more confident and skilled at performing over the last few years and the pleasure they take in sharing music with friends and family is evident. We have worked hard with parents to develop the amount of live music that children experience and are starting to see an improved ability in children using their imagination when listening to music and broadening their vocabulary when discussing music and the effect that it has on them.
A few children go on to learn instruments at secondary school and this is an area that will hope will improve further in the coming years.
Our current Music curriculum is under review and supporting documents on coverage, skills and knowledge will be uplaoded asd and when the curriculum review is completed.
