Our Music Subject leader is Mrs Sibthorpe

INTENT:

At West Coker Primary School Primary School we aim to develop a love of music and encourage children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which we aim to build self-confidence, creativity and a sense of achievement in all children. Our teaching focuses on developing the children’s ability to sing in tune and with other people, listening to others as they perform. We teach them to listen to and appreciate different forms of music and with maturity, expect them to maintain their concentration for longer and to listen to more extended pieces of music. Through singing songs, children learn about the structure and organisation of music and develop descriptive skills in music lessons when learning about how music can represent feelings and emotions. We teach them the disciplined skills of recognising pulse and pitch and encourage them to consider this when composing music independently or with others and when performing for an audience.

IMPLEMENTATION:

The music curriculum ensures children sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. This is embedded in the classroom through the structured music programme Music Express as well as the weekly singing assemblies and music clubs. The elements of music are taught so that children are able to use some of the language of music to dissect it, and understand how it is made, played, appreciated and analysed. They learn how to compose, focusing 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 part of the curriculum, which develops the understanding of musical elements without the added complexity of an instrument.

Subject content

Key stage 1

Pupils should be taught to:

• use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
• play tuned and untuned instruments musically
• listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music
• experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.

Key stage 2

Pupils should be taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They should develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory.

Pupils should be taught to:

• play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression
• improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music
• listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
• use and understand staff and other musical notations
• appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians
• develop an understanding of the history of music.

IMPACT:

Music assessment is ongoing to inform teachers with their planning, lesson activities and differentiation and of the improvements or skills that still need to be embedded. We aim for children to understand the relevance of what they are learning within music and to enjoy their musical experiences within school ensuring that they experience performances from others as well as performing themselves.