Music Intent
Curriculum Intent
The intent of St. Anne’s music curriculum is first and foremost to help children feel that they are musical and to develop a life-long love of music. We focus on developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that the 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.
During their time at St. Anne’s, children will develop the musical skills of singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising and composting music, and listening and responding to music. They will develop an understanding of the history and cultural content of 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, presentation and performance skills. We believe these skills are vital to children’s development as learners and have a wider application in their general lives outside and beyond school. They also help prepare children for adulthood.
As a school, we strive to give the children many opportunities to perform and demonstrate their musical skills allowing them to share their talents, increase confidence and further develop their performance skills.
Our music curriculum allows children to meet their end of Key Stage attainment targets which are outlined in the National Curriculum and the aims in our curriculum align with those in the National Curriculum.
Implementation
At St. Anne’s, we take a historic approach to music in which the individual strands listed 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 with a cross curricular topic designed to capture pupils’ imagination and encourage them to explore music enthusiastically. Over the course of children’s time at St Anne’s, 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 and dynamics- and use these expressively in their own improvisations and compositions.
For your youngest learners in EYFS, we provide fun and engaging music sessions to develop musical skills and relationships through musical games, songs and rhymes delivered by Durham Music Service.
The sessions focus on aspects of musical learning and development as detailed in Musical Development Matters: Hearing and Listening; Vocalising and Singing; Moving and Dancing and Exploring and Playing. We work with your setting to devise the best programme for your needs and help children to have the very best start to their musical journey.
Children in years 3 and 4 can explore the magic of instrumental learning as part of the First Access scheme where they learn to play the ukulele. This programme introduces pupils to instrumental learning in a fun and inclusive way. They are carefully designed to develop pupils’ love of, confidence and progress in music, while also enhancing their personal and educational development as a whole.
In upper key stage 2, children have the opportunity to explore a digital music programme. Once again delivered by Durham Music Service.
The hope of the whole class teaching is that some children want to continue their musical learning journey and begin to play an instrument of choice. At St. Anne’s we offer guitar, violin, clarinet and flute lessons. We also have a choir for our children to develop their singing and performance skills.
Our curriculum follows the spiral 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 notations, as well as the interrelated dimensions of music and more.
Children in St. Anne’s are exposed to the music curriculum on a weekly basis. 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 staff 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 o 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 are also obtained through Durham Music Service and online subscriptions.
At St. Anne’s we pride ourselves on giving children the opportunity to present their musical talents to family and friends on a regular basis. We take part in the Durham and North East Choir of the Year competitions, perform an annual whole school musical, sing at church, have a musical concerts where children play individual and whole class instruments and the choir sing at care homes and in supermarkets to raise much needed funds for the school.
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.