Music
Vision
And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
Through the teachings of Jesus, all can flourish spiritually, emotionally and academically throughout life, living out love and justice for all. Our Christian values of love, justice, compassion, wisdom, forgiveness and friendship underpin the life of the school community and impact on our daily lives. Guilden Sutton Church of England Primary School strives to provide the best possible education for our children. We aim for excellence within our happy, secure school where each individual’s achievements are valued and celebrated. By using a holistic approach, we will provide a curriculum that offers a diverse and challenging environment to inspire and motivate every child in our care.
Intent
At Guilden Sutton Church of England Primary School, we believe that high quality music education will engage and inspire our pupils to develop a lifelong love of music and their talent as musicians. We hope that this experience and achievement will then increase their self-confidence and creativity. Through our music scheme, Charanga, children are introduced to a wide variety of music styles and genres from different times and places. Charanga lessons provide opportunities for active listening, performing and composing, as well as providing key learning about songs, artists and musical styles. Our intent in music is for children to:
- Perform, listen to and evaluate a wide range of songs and music styles.
- Focus on famous and celebrated musicians and songs from different time periods and cultures.
- Enjoy solo, group and class ensemble performances.
- Explore the dimensions of music and develop their skills and knowledge in singing, playing instruments, composing and improvising, and performing to a variety of audiences.
- Have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument.
- Develop an understanding of the terminology used within all music: pitch, timbre, dynamics, tempo, texture, structure and musical notation.
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Implementation
Our music curriculum, delivered using the Charanga music scheme, ensures students sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. This is embedded in classroom activities as well as weekly singing assemblies, various concerts and performances, and the learning of instruments. All children receive the same curriculum offer. Our ambitious, broad and balanced curriculum is adapted to ensure learning for all our children is never narrowed. Music resources and additional support are available and utilised where appropriate to further enhance first quality teaching.The elements of music are taught in classroom lessons so that children are able to use some of the language of music to understand how it is made, played, appreciated and analysed. Each group of lessons focuses on a genre/artist/song, giving children the opportunity to delve into the culture of that time and place. Our Charanga scheme also contains a bank of artists and genres, allowing music from specific times and places to be chosen, to link to learning in other curricular areas, adding depth and consolidation.
A whole school progression plan ensures students make good progress each year and cover the key skills and knowledge in the National Curriculum. In the classroom students are given the opportunity to learn how to play an instrument – glockenspiels and recorders are used in Charanga lessons from Y1 – Y6. Children in Year 4 learn to play guitar, samba drums and brass instruments as part of their Music for Life programme, with concerts at the end of each term. With such provision, children can apply their understanding of creating notes to different instruments and practise reading basic music notation. They also learn how to compose, focusing on different dimensions of music, which in turn feeds their understanding when listening, playing, or analysing music. Children in KS2 are given the opportunity for specialist music tuition from peripatetic music teachers who are trained in a variety of instruments. A weekly choir after school club is offered to KS2 children, who take part in several concerts and performances throughout the year. All children learn songs and participate in performances throughout the year – KS1 nativity, KS2 carol concert, Easter assembly and Y6 end of year performance. Children are assessed individually or in small groups (through observations, questioning, evaluation of written work and ‘sticky quizzes’) to ensure they are meeting the standards outlined in the National Curriculum.
Impact
At Guilden Sutton, children have a love and enjoyment of music throughout the school. Pupils are enthusiastic about and enjoy music lessons. They become increasingly confident in applying their skills (through differentiated targets), especially in performances, and have a sense of self-achievement. Children encounter and participate in a wide range of musical enrichment activities and have opportunities to complete musical activities outside of the curriculum. They leave Guilden Sutton with a wide experience of music culture and history, both in relation to students individually as well as ethnicities from across the world, and with the skills, knowledge and attitude that will allow them to continue their music learning in the next stage of their education. The vast majority of pupils reach end of year expectations.
