Music
Music Curriculum Statement
Jesus at the heart of our community. Learning with CHRIST.
Holy Name RC Primary is a welcoming place to learn. With Jesus at the heart of everything we do, we are one community who learn with:
Confidence
Happiness
Resilience
Independence
Safety
Tolerance…
…in the centre of vibrant Manchester.
Curriculum Intent
Our music curriculum has been tailored to meet the unique context of our school. It is designed to be broad and balanced, providing all pupils with the opportunity to master their learning and deepen their knowledge, making sense and giving purpose to why we learn about the different styles, genres and pieces of music. Teachers will provide pupils with challenging vocabulary, which will help to deepen their understanding and knowledge of musical notation and a range of tuned and untuned musical instruments.
We believe that music helps pupils to express themselves and to become confident performers in singing and in using instruments. The music curriculum allows pupils to gain appraisal skills of a range of genres of music along with compositional and listening skills. They are offered a range of opportunities to explore a range of instruments and a range of composers using a wide variety of musical styles.
The intention of our Primary music scheme is first and foremost to help children to feel that they are musical, and to develop a life-long love of music. We focus on developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that children need in order to become confident performers, composers, and listeners. Our curriculum introduces children to music from all around the world and across generations, teaching children to respect and appreciate the music of all traditions and communities.
Children will develop the musical skills of singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising and composing music, and listening and responding to music. They will develop an understanding of the history and cultural context of the music that they listen to and learn how music can be written down. Through music, our curriculum helps children develop transferable skills such as team-working, leadership, creative thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and presentation and performance skills. These skills are vital to children’s development as learners and have a wider application in their general lives outside and beyond school.
Holy Name RC Primary’s Music scheme of work enables pupils to meet the end of key stage attainment targets outlined in the national curriculum and the aims of the scheme align with those in the national curriculum.
Curriculum Implementation:
Holy Name’s Primary’s Music scheme takes a holistic approach to music, in which the individual strands below are woven together to create engaging and enriching learning experiences:
- Performing
- Listening
- Composing
- The history of music
- The inter-related dimensions of music
Each five-lesson unit combines these strands within a cross-curricular topic designed to capture pupils’ imagination and encourage them to explore music enthusiastically. Over the course of the scheme, children will be taught how to sing fluently and expressively, and play tuned and untuned instruments accurately and with control.
They will learn to recognise and name the interrelated dimensions of music - pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics - and use these expressively in their own improvisations and compositions.
Our National curriculum mapping document shows which of our units cover each of the national curriculum attainment targets as well as each of these strands within it. Our Progression of skills and knowledge shows the skills that are taught within each year group and how these skills develop year on year to ensure attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage.
The scheme follows the spiral curriculum model where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon. Children progress in terms of tackling more complex tasks and doing more simple tasks better, as well as developing understanding and knowledge of the history of music, staff, and other musical notations, as well as the interrelated dimensions of music and more.
In each lesson, pupils will actively participate in musical activities drawn from a range of styles and traditions, developing their musical skills and their understanding of how music works. Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work as well as improvisation and teacher-led performances. Lessons are ‘hands-on’ and incorporate movement and dance elements, as well as making cross curricular links with other areas of learning.
Differentiated guidance is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils in building a foundation of factual knowledge by encouraging recall of key facts and vocabulary.
Strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to be able to deliver a highly effective and robust music curriculum. Each unit of lessons includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support ongoing CPD, aiding teachers in their own acquisition of musical skills and knowledge. Further CPD opportunities can also be found via webinars with our music subject specialists. The curriculum has been created with the understanding that many teachers do not feel confident delivering the music curriculum and every effort has been made to ensure that they feel supported to deliver lessons of a high standard that ensure pupil progression.
Music is delivered across the Key Stages using the Development Matters Expressive Arts and Design/Being Imaginative and the 2014 National Curriculum. The principles, outcome and content of the requirements are placed at the heart of the schools’ programme of study in music.
Each class teacher follows and delivers the scheme of work Kapow which teaches a range of skills to children using a variety of music genres and appraisal skills which encourages them to think about the music and instruments.
Our Year 4, 5 and 6 children have access to our steel pan lessons with a specialist teacher where over a term they learn to play a range of musical pieces and learn to hear a range of musical notes whilst reading musical notations. They carry out performances twice a year to demonstrate their musical skills.
Our links with the Royal Northern college of music offers a small group of children piano/keyboard lessons for two terms where they learn a range of skills and perform to an audience at the end of the project. They learn to read music and children hear a range of musical pieces at the end of year concert.
Our school choir have learnt to sing in a range of styles and to perform in parish and local community events.
The school are developing the resources for children and there are a range of untuned instruments to allow pupils to learn how to play a set rhythm and number of beats to a piece of music. The school is well stocked with recorders and a group of children are learning skills to play a range of tunes linked with our curriculum and recorder books.
In music, assessment of pupil progress is taken against the age-related expectations for music. The outcomes of the assessments are used by class teachers to evaluate the quality of coverage of the ARE in music and to inform aspects of learning that need to be strengthened to improve the quality of provision and to enhance pupil progress. This includes assessing pieces of music composed by the children alongside their understanding of musical vocabulary and the range of tempos and pitches.
Curriculum Impact
The music curriculum is broad and balanced with a range of cross-curricular opportunities which allows pupils to become confident performers who have a good understanding of how music is composed and developed. The curriculum offers opportunities for children to enhance their musical vocabulary with a greater understanding of musical notation, number of beats and how to recognise the range of pitches, dynamics and tempos.
Pupils will be able to use their skills to compose their own music as well as take inspiration from different genres and musicians alongside the different African styles of music. They will use their communication skills and learning to transcribe and describe their feelings about a range of styles of music whilst also learning about music from a range of cultures.
The impact of our Primary’s scheme can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives and at the end of each unit there is often a performance element where teachers can make a summative assessment of pupils’ learning. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils by providing a highly visual record of the key learning from the unit, encouraging recall of practical skills, key knowledge and vocabulary.
After the implementation of our Primary Music Curriculum, pupils should leave primary school equipped with a range of skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education and to be able to enjoy and appreciate music throughout their lives.
The expected impact of following Holy Name Primary Music scheme of work is that children will:
- Be confident performers, composers and listeners and will be able to express themselves musically at and beyond
- Show an appreciation and respect for a wide range of musical styles from around the world and will understand how music is influenced by the wider cultural, social, and historical contexts in which it is
- Understand the ways in which music can be written down to support performing and composing
- Demonstrate and articulate an enthusiasm for music and be able to identify their own personal musical
- Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the national curriculum for