Intent

Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high-quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon.

The national curriculum for music aims 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.

Implementation

At Preston Candover CE Primary school, our aim is for all children to have fun and become happy, competent, and confident music makers and performers. Music is considered a subject in its own right but is also used to support other areas of the curriculum e.g. through phonics lesson, to learn times tables, Geography, history lessons, etc. Music lessons are held in the music room each week, as part of the National Curriculum. All children are introduced to a wide variety of music genres and composers from a range of historical periods. All children are given the opportunity to use a variety of instruments throughout their Music lessons and are always encouraged to perform their Music to numerous audiences over the school year. All staff ensure that they model aspects of Music and Musical vocabulary, to ensure every child understands and if they require further explanation, support is given by showing them another way or providing pupils with 1:1 or group support. In Foundation Stage, music lessons will include singing, rhythm games and use of instruments, both in structured activities and though active learning. Music is considered a subject in its own right but is also used to support other areas of the curriculum e.g. singing nursery rhymes to develop literacy skills. The children also take part in an annual nativity, which is performed to parents.

In KS1, the children continue to develop their singing, rhythm skills and use of classroom percussion instruments in music games and through creative music-making. The KS1 nativity is also a musical highlight of the year. All KS1 children have a weekly music lesson. This introduces them to develop initial skills in singing and playing instruments.

In KS2, the children continue to have a weekly music lesson. The children enjoy learning about different famous composers throughout history and listen to and compare the music. Year 3-6 are very fortunate to have HIAS Music service come into school for an hour each week and teach them how to u play a musical instrument. This gives all children the opportunity to learn and play three instruments over the year. They are all currently learning how to play the clarinet. The children get the opportunity to perform to an audience at the end of each term.KS2 children learn and perform a variety of carols for the Christmas Carol Service and children have the opportunity to showcase their talents playing instruments, which is also performed to parents and the rest of the school. In year 6, the children perform a musical leaver’s play. In the past, these have included Robin Hood and the Sherwood hoodies and Shakespeare Rocks, which the children enjoyed learning immensely.

Each week, all the children attend whole school and class worships. In each worship, we listen to different styles of classical music and sing a hymn or song together as a whole school community. Children learn and sing songs that are linked to our school values or songs that are relevant to the time of year. There is a school singing and song writing club, which children can attend each week, for children from Year 2 to Year 6. Children in this club have performed at numerous events such as: school worships, annual Christmas Fayre, etc

Please use the links below to explore our music curriculum further: