Music
Please note that we are currently updating all of the curriculum pages on the school website and some subjects may contain more detailed information than others. If you have any questions or require any further information, please contact school and arrange to speak to our curriculum lead, Mr J Barnes-Moran.
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 a range musical experiences.
INTENT
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 St Luke’s, we make Music an enjoyable learning experience. We encourage children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which we aim to build the confidence of all children. Singing lies at the heart of good music teaching. Our teaching focuses on developing the children’s ability to sing in tune and with other people. Through singing songs, children learn about the structure and organisation of music. We teach them to listen and to appreciate different forms of music. As children get older, we expect them to maintain their concentration for longer and to listen to more extended pieces of music. Children develop descriptive skills in music lessons when learning about how music can represent feelings and emotions. We teach them the disciplined skills of recognising pulse and pitch. We often teach these together. Children are taught how to work with others to make music and how individuals combine together to make sounds. We also teach them musical notation and how to compose music. We recognise that there are children of widely different musical abilities in all classes, so we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this in a variety of ways by:
- Setting common tasks, which are open-ended and can have a variety of responses.
- Setting tasks of increasing difficulty, (not all children complete all tasks).
- Providing resources of different complexity depending on the ability of the child.
All Children have the opportunity to study glockenspiels with peripatetic teachers from year 1 - 6. The musical knowledge and skills are built upon year on year. Wider Opportunity music teaching is organised by Oldham’s Schools Music Service.
CURRICULUM PLANNING
Our school uses the National Curriculum in England 2014 Framework for Music as the basis for its curriculum planning. Our Music teacher will produce Medium Term Plans which teaches to the National Curriculum. While there are opportunities for children of all abilities to develop their skills and knowledge in each teaching unit, the planned progression built into the music curriculum means that the children are increasingly challenged as they move through the school. Links are made to termly themes and other curriculum subjects where appropriate and these are identified on the Medium Term Plans. Long-term plans identify individual music units taught across the year group phases. Music is taught by a Music Teacher from Oldham School Music Service who takes responsibility for planning, resourcing and delivering this area of the curriculum.
EARLY YEARS FOUNDATION STAGE
We teach music in our Nursery and Reception classes as an integral part of the topic work covered during the year. We relate the musical aspects of the children’s work to the objectives set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework which underpin the curriculum planning for children aged three to five. Music contributes to a child’s personal and social development. Counting songs foster a child’s mathematical ability and songs from different cultures increase a child’s knowledge and understanding of the world.