Music
The subject leader for Music is Mrs Walker.
Music Curriculum & Skills Progression inc EYFS 21-22
Music Curriculum Statement
Intent
At Grange, we want our music lessons to be engaging and creative. We aim to provide a curriculum in which children are able to enjoy listening to, appraising and creating their own music. We want children to experience using a range of different instruments throughout their primary school life – from a range of percussion instruments, through to glockenspiels and ukuleles.
We believe that a music curriculum which inspires creativity is the entitlement of all children. Our aims in teaching music include the following:
From the National Curriculum, we aim to provide opportunities for the children:
- 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.
In our EYFS, our Educational Programme for Music is designed to ensure that the development of children’s artistic and cultural awareness supports their imagination and creativity. It is important that children have regular opportunities to engage with the arts, enabling them to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials. The quality and variety of what children see, hear and participate in is crucial for developing their understanding, self-expression, vocabulary and ability to communicate through the arts. The frequency, repetition and depth of their experiences are fundamental to their progress in interpreting and appreciating what they hear, respond to and observe.
Implementation
Our Music Curriculum ensures children listen, sing, play, perform and compose. We do this through the use of the structured program “Charanga Musical school” to deliver most of our Music Curriculum. Music lessons are broken down into 3 half-term unit, where emphasis is put on teaching the musical elements and using and understanding the musical vocabulary to analyse, discuss and appreciate a wide range of music. Lessons usually follow a specific sequence:
- Listen and Appraise
- Musical Activities (including pulse and rhythm)
- Singing and Voice
- Playing instruments
- Improvisation / Composition
- Perform and Share
Children have access to a wide range of musical instruments in school. Shakers, untuned instruments and glockenspiels are used to teach the Charanga units. Ukulele units are also taught in Years 5 and Years 6 using the online resource “Musical Futures”. The development and application of musicianship –understanding pulse, beat, rhythm and pitch is continual and embedded.
Within the EYFS setting, music is an integral part of children’s learning journey. Rhyme and rhythm are utilised throughout the learning of phonics. Children learn a wide range of songs and rhymes and develop skills for performing together. Singing and music making opportunities are used frequently to embed learning and develop musical awareness.
Further to this we aim to teach the MMC (The Model Music Curriculum 2021) in ways that are imaginative, purposeful, well managed and enjoyable. Links between music and other subjects are to be explored as a feature of practice throughout the school. The MMC explores how musical techniques and skills can be nurtured and developed in all pupils. The skills as identified in the MMC are:
- listening
- composing
- performing
Performances are at the heart of musical teaching at Grange Primary, with children participating in a range of performances in their musical career. These include Christmas performances, class assemblies and singing concerts. Also, at the end of a music unit classes are encouraged to perform their end of unit song to the whole school during an assembly on whatever instrument they have been learning. Parents are invited to come and watch all of these performances.
In addition to this, Grange Primary was one of six schools in Lancashire chosen to participate in the TIME project. Children took part in a range of projects, lead by specialists in Art, Music and Drama, to embed the Arts across the curriculum.
Children are also exposed to a wide range of music though our Musician of the Month initiative. Each half term children are introduced to a new musician in assembly and learn about their musical style. Their music is played during each assembly of that half term and in classes where appropriate. A Musician of the Month notice board is displayed in the hall so children are reminded of who we are listening to each half term.
Impact
We assess the impact of our Music curriculum in a range of ways which includes:
- Summative assessment of learning.
- Images and videos of the children’s practical learning.
- Children’s work saved into teacher evidence files
- Observations of pupils learning and engagement during and after lessons
- Reflective evaluation of lessons, (AfL) leading to review and adjustment where needed
- Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice) through formal and informal monitoring
- Annual reporting to parents of standards across the curriculum.
- Termly subject leader reports to governors
The full programme of study is available by following the link to the DfE website below:
Musician of the Month (Spring 2) - Bon Jovi
Every half term we focus on a new musician and spend quality time listening to the music of that artist. We learn about their lives and the type of music that they are famous for. This half term we are taking influence from our TT Rockstars competition and learning all about the lives and music of Bon Jovi.
Bon Jovi are credited with bringing Glam Rock music to the masses and bridged the gap between popular music and Glam. They were frequently played on music TV and Radio stations when others of their genre were not. They were characterised by flamboyant showmanship on stage and costume-like outfits. Listen to the songs below and don't be afraid to air guitar along!
Bon Jovi - Lay Your Hands On Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhjSzibOIH4
Bon Jovi - You Give love a bad Name
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrZHPOeOxQQ
We use the Lancashire resource 'Charanga' as the basis for our scheme of work. Through this scheme we develop our musical skills using a range of instruments, such as shakers and other non-tuned instruments, glockenspiels and ukuleles. Children have the opportunity to demonstrate their progress using these instruments to the rest of the school in music assemblies at the end of a unit.
We also learn to sing a wide range of songs using the resource SingUp. We have been thrilled to come together again as a school to sing in our regular weekly assemblies. We also look forward to putting on special events again such as our singing assemblies where parents, family and friends are invited into the school to come and listen to the children sing, an event enjoyed by all!
Here is a song we enjoy singing together. It is taken from the film Zootropolis and is about keeping trying and never giving up. Please feel free to have a go at singing it at home. The children will show you how it's done!