Music

Intent

At St Thomas’ we recognise that music surrounds children’s everyday lives whether it be through television, radio, computer games or shopping centres. We want children to be inspired, through the music curriculum, to develop a love of music and their talents as a musician. As well as fostering an enthusiasm for the subject, through lessons we aim to develop children’s musical skills, knowledge and understanding to support their musical education beyond primary school. We aim to not all teach stand-alone music skills but also develop links with music across other areas of learning and the curriculum.

Implementation

Within our Early Years curriculum, music plays an integral part. Music and Rhyme are used across all aspects of learning such as singing nursery rhymes, number rhymes as well as simple songs led by staff. As children move through Key Stage One and Two, staff follow a structured music scheme to support them in the delivery of age-appropriate music skills. Music is also linked with topics across the curriculum to allow children to develop a history of music as well as listen and appraise music from other cultures. As part of music lessons, children have access to musical instruments to allow them to compose their own music as well as using digital apps, such as garage band, to digitally compose and edit their music. Our Year 4 class take part in the Wider Opportunities Music Programme, which allows them to participate in music teaching from a specialist teacher on a range of instruments over the course of the year.

Impact

Through our music teaching we hope that children will develop an enjoyment and appreciation of wide variety of musical styles. We aim to allow children to gain a knowledge and understanding of the interrelated skills of composition, performance, and appreciation alongside developing a sense of pulse and rhythm and understand a range of musical vocabulary. We aim to have children leave us with positive attitude towards and experience success and satisfaction within music. Assessment of music is carried out in a variety of ways, informal observations will be completed during the lessons as well as video recordings of children’s performances, children will also complete self-assessments of their musical compositions. Alongside the skills taught through the structured music scheme, we use seesaw to assess children against subject specific skills to inform teacher assessment in this area.