Music

Music Aims

Music is an integral part of the children life and wider community. It is important for our children to have the opportunity to listen to, play and be emersed in a variety of musical styles and genres.

Music education is based on the principle that it should be fun and engaging for all concerned, and that every child is a born musician. Music plays a role in every aspect of our lives

Children will be able to talk about how a piece of music makes them feel and to understand key vocabulary that will progress from early years up until Y6.

They will also have the opportunity to play an instrument and take part in singing and hearing a range of songs.

Our Music Curriculum

Music is taught from Nursery, where children learn to sing songs, clap to the beat and begin to explore with instruments, all the way through the school to year 6.

We use a scheme called Charanga from reception to year 6. This scheme provides clearly sequenced units and lessons with week-by-week support for each year group. This scheme supports all the requirements of the National Curriculum: listening, singing, playing, composing, improvising and performing.

Teaching

Each unit of work has a Musical Spotlight. Just like the Social Questions, the Musical Spotlights deepen as the children move through the scheme. They offer an opportunity for a musical focus in each unit and a way to deepen the children’s musical knowledge and understanding.

Each unit comprises of weekly lessons, which follow the structure below;

  1. Understanding Music
  2. Listen and Respond
  3. Learn to Sing the Song
  4. Perform the Song

In some weekly lessons, there will be options for playing instruments, improvising and composing.

The teaching of the lessons meets and exceeds the national curriculum requirements in key stage 1 and 2.

In every year group the children learn about the ‘Interrelated Dimensions of Music’ shown below:

  • Pulse – the regular heartbeat of the music; its steady beat.
  • Rhythm – long and short sounds or patterns that happen over the pulse.
  • Pitch – high and low sounds.
  • Tempo – the speed of the music; fast or slow or in-between.
  • Dynamics – how loud or quiet the music is.
  • Timbre – all instruments, including voices, have a certain sound quality e.g., the trumpet has a very different sound quality to the violin.
  • Texture – the layers of sound working together make music very interesting to listen to.
  • Structure – every piece of music has a structure e.g., an introduction, verse and chorus ending.
  • Notation – the link between sound and symbol.

Curriculum overview


Enrichment

At Prince of Wales Primary School we give our children an opportunity to enhance their musical entitlement by giving them a chance to play and experience music in other forms than their weekly lessons.

  • Singing assemblies – The children will have fortnightly singing assemblies where they will have the opportunity to listen to a range of genres and sing a variety of songs.
  • Choir – In key stage 2 the children will have the opportunity to join the choir who rehearse after school. They perform to the whole school and also have the opportunity to perform in outside completions.
  • Instruments/ recorders – In Key stage 2 we buy into the Enfield music service (EMS) to provide the year 4 children with weekly recorder lessons.
  • African drumming – We hire an outside provider, who provide weekly lessons to different year groups over a half term period.
  • Steel pans – We have steel pan teacher who provides weekly sessions for upper key stage 2.
  • Individual lessons – parents are able to sign up for lessons through the EMS. Tutors will come into school to provide these lessons. There is also the opportunity for small group lessons.
  • Rocksteady bands – The Rocksteady company set up and run ‘band’ lessons and children can learn different instruments, including singing, within the context of a band. Parents pay for and arrange lessons directly with Rocksteady. Each term, they have a concert to showcase the learning and parents are invited.

Assessment

  • Children are asked a range of questions about the music.
  • Questioning is used to check understanding of the vocabulary.
  • Children will perform a final piece at the end of each half spring and summer terms to other year groups.
  • Year 4 will perform with recorders at the end of spring term to an audience of parents and year 3.
  • Children learning African drumming will perform to other classes in a different year group at the end of spring 2 by year 2, summer 1 by year 6 and summer 2 by Year 1.
  • Year 5 will perform on steel pans to year 4 at the end of summer 2.

Music Development Plan

Prince of Wales Music Development Plan