Music

Teaching and Learning

Music is taught to all children in school on a weekly basis to develop key skills, promote enjoyment of Music and embed the purpose and importance of the subject.  The core aims of the National Curriculum are addressed in each lesson. Our approach to the planning, assessment and teaching of music throughout the school is organised alongside our class groupings. Listening opportunities reflect our creative cross-curriculum by linking to areas of study in geography, history or science.  Further opportunities to sing have been prioritised in a weekly whole school session which may also link to cross-curricular and PSE learning. Information technology plays a significant role in the teaching of the music curriculum as a tool for listening, creating, performing and self-study.  Through singing, performing, listening and reflecting on high quality pieces from a range of genres, pupils learn to communicate their ideas and emotions to others.  They also learn about, and can empathise with cultural, emotional, spiritual and social diversity.

Sequenced Learning 

By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study. 

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 un-tuned 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.

 During their time in Reception and Year One, children will sing a variety of traditional songs, nursery rhymes and modern pieces together for enjoyment during their weekly music session. They will practise chants and rhymes as part of early phonics and mathematical development, and will also sing as part of a whole school ensemble on a weekly basis to enable them to find their voice and begin to use if effectively.

They will begin by playing a variety of un-tuned instruments with increasing control, effectively changing volume, speed and tone.  In year two they will be introduced to musical notation.  Playing the recorder mouth piece they will be introduced to, and learn, notational value as they master tonguing.  Notation and fingering will then be introduced from term two in a sequence of progression starting with one handed notes B,A,G,C,D then two handed F,E,D and then lower C and upper E,F,G.

Pupils in Acorns Class will listen to a variety of high-quality live and recorded music with growing concentration.  We will listen to a piece of music at the beginning and end of each lesson with the piece changing regularly.  Children in Acorns will be asked to record their own appreciation / reactions to the music on a termly basis in words and pictures.  They will be asked to consider and express for example :

· How does this music make you feel?

· Do you enjoy listening to this music?

· What instruments can you hear in this piece of music?

· Does this piece of music tell a story?

· Would you recommend this piece of music to someone else?

Throughout reception and Year One children will be given a selection of standard and crafted instruments (recycled, made, everyday objects) to accompany the music they sing and hear and will also work in small groups composing and copying each other’s sounds.

Key stage 2 Pupils will 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 will 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. 

Building on notational value and fingering learned in year two, children will continue their recorder playing to develop fluency, confidence and tone.  They

will play and perform in groups and as solo artists at school events throughout the year.  Taking responsibility by practising at home and/or recorder club to

improve the level of their playing.  By the end of year six they will use note names and a staff to record their own compositions.  

Pupils in Twiglets, Birch and Oaks Classes will listen to a variety of high-quality live and recorded music with the aim that they:

· 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. 

We will listen to the same piece of music at the beginning and end of the lesson.  We will aim to listen to four pieces of music linked to our topic each half term.  We will then complete one of the following:

· A written response to the genre of music we have been listening to sharing our reasons as to whether we enjoyed it how we reacted to it, including whether we would recommend this music to someone else.

· A factual account of how the musical genre reflected the period of time it was first composed.

· A factual account relating to the history of music at that time.

· A biography of the composer.

· An instructive text on how the music was played/composed/performed.

· A fact file of one of the main instruments in the piece.