Music
Music is key in our children’s education and we strive to develop an appreciation of Music: (whether that be as an audience member, performer or musician); develop a child's individuality and self-confidence. We believe that by enhancing skills in creative and performing arts we develop a child's individuality and self-confidence. All children have opportunities to experience and perform orally through whole school collective worship, lessons and as part of a choir and as part of theatrical performances. They will also develop a broader understanding of music in the real world as well as aspects of theory, reading sheet music and playing a variety of musical instruments. All children have opportunities to perform for the whole school and wider audiences in our school productions, events and a range of music festivals. We also have a variety of professional musicians, who provide specialist music lessons (KS2) that develop and encourage the children’s aspirations through extracurricular opportunities. .
Music is taught through a spiral curriculum which encompasses the music skills of composing, listening, appraising and performing incorporating the inter related dimensions of music. The units covered create an opportunity to enrich and extend the children’s knowledge and learning providing cross curricular links.
The inter related dimensions of music refers to the building blocks of music and include the exploration and analysis of:
- Pulse (duration) - a steady beat
- Rhythm (duration) - long and short sounds over a steady beat
- Pitch - high and low sounds
- Tempo - fast and slow
- Dynamics - loud and quiet
- Timbre - the character of a sound
- Texture - layers of sound, how thick or thin music is
- Structure - how the sections of a song or piece of music are ordered
Our aim is to awaken the musician within, to inspire children to enjoy music for what it is and to be able to appreciate it to build a better understanding of the world around them.
A successful learner at our schools will:
- play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing a range of different 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;
- develop an understanding of the staff and other musical notations;
- appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians;
- develop an understanding of the history of music.
Progression of Knowledge and Skills document