Music
Statement of Intent
Our vision for music is that we provide every child with high quality music
experiences which engage and inspire them. We provide opportunities for
all children to create, play, perform and enjoy music and to appreciate a variety
of music styles.
We aim for every child to leave Christ Church Primary School with a range of
musical skills, knowledge and an understanding and love of music which they can
carry with them for the rest of their lives.
At Christ Church Primary School, the aims of music teaching are to enable children to:
• know and understand how sounds are made and then organised into musical structures;
• know how music is made through a variety of instruments;
• know how music is composed and written down;
• know how music is influenced by the time, place and purpose for which it was written;
• develop the interrelated skills of performing, composing and appreciating music;
• enjoy and appreciate a wide variety of musical styles;
• make and quantify judgements about the quality of music;
Implementation:
We believe Music is a powerful, unique form of communication that can change the way children feel, think and act. It is one of the highest forms of creativity and brings together intellect, feeling, personal expression, refection, and emotion. We believe our Music curriculum should engage and inspire our children to develop a love of music and their talents as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity, sense of achievement. We believe Music is an integral part of our culture, past and present and that teaching Music develops our children’s capabilities to listen and make judgements about the quality of music. We believe singing develops a sense of ‘Everybody’ in our school, and group identity and togetherness. As our children progress in our school, they develop as sense of critical engagement in music, allowing them to compose and discriminate to the best in the music – and feel fulfilled.
At Christ Church, Music is taught across each year group in units using Charanga, this enable pupils to study in depth the key skills, understanding and subject specific vocabulary. Each unit aims to activate and build on prior learning, to ensure better cognition and retention. Each unit is carefully sequenced to allow for prior learning to be built upon and skills to be practiced and advanced.
The Charanga Musical School Scheme provides teachers with week-by-week lesson support for each year group in the school. It is ideal for specialist and non-specialist teachers and provides lesson plans, assessment, clear progression, and engaging and exciting whiteboard resources to support every lesson. The Scheme supports all the requirements of the national curriculum. In line with the curriculum for music, this Scheme moves away from the previous levels and learning objective/outcome concepts to an integrated, practical, exploratory, and child-led approach to musical learning. Each Unit of Work comprises of the strands of musical learning which correspond with the national curriculum for music combining a range of musical activities and games.
• Listening and Appraising
• Singing
• Playing instruments
• Improvisation
• Composition
• Performing
All lessons enable pupils to explore their own response to music. Pupils are encouraged to discuss and share their ideas using the key music vocabulary, for example e.g., how the composer has used dynamics and tempo to create mood or atmosphere and its effect on the listener/audience.
Impact:
Whilst at Christ Church, children have access to a varied programme, which allows students to discover areas of strength, as well as areas they might like to improve upon. The integral nature of music and the learner creates an enormously rich palette from which a student may access fundamental abilities such as: achievement, self-confidence, interaction with and awareness of others, and self-reflection. Music will also develop an understanding of culture and history, both in relation to students individually, as well as ethnicities from across the world. Children are able to enjoy music, in as many ways as they choose - as listener, creator or performer. They can dissect music and comprehend its parts. They can sing and feel a pulse. They have an understanding of how to further develop skills less known to them, should they ever develop an interest in their lives.
