Intention

We aim to help children develop a life-long love of and enthusiasm for music.  We want to focus on developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that children need in order to become confident performers, composers and listeners.  Our curriculum introduces children to music from all around the world and across generations, teaching children to respect and appreciate the music of all traditions and communities.

Children will develop the musical skills of singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising and composing music and listening and responding to music.  They will develop an understanding of the history and cultural context of the music that they listen to and learn how music can be written down.  Through music, our curriculum helps children develop transferable skills such as team-working, leadership, creative thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, presentation and performance skills.  These skills are vital to children’s development as learners and have a wider application in their general lives outside and beyond school.  We hope to equip children who later may decide to go on to have a career in music.

We are using the Kapow Primary scheme of work, enabling pupils to meet the end of key stage attainment targets outlined in the national curriculum.  The aims of the scheme align with those in the national curriculum.

Implementation

The key strands of :

Performing, listening, composing, the history of music and the inter-related dimensions of music are woven together through Kapow units in order to create an engaging and enriching learning experience. 

The curriculum is developed through a series of five-lesson units within a cross-curricular topic, designed to capture pupils’ imagination. Over the course of these lessons, children will be taught how to sing fluently and expressively, and play tuned and untuned instruments accurately and with control.  They will learn to recognise and name the interrelated dimensions of music – pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics and use these expressively in their own improvisations and compositions.

Year one will use a condensed version of the Kapow units in order to fit in all their learning and continuous provision.  In Year two, a condensed version of the Kapow units will also be taught to enable the whole year group to spend a term learning to play an instrument (the recorder.)  Year Five will receive WCET provision throughout the year (brass or violin).  This will more than meet the minimum of one term of instrumental teaching as recommended in the Model music curriculum.

Our curriculum follows the spiral curriculum model where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon.  Children progress in terms of tackling more complex tasks and doing more simple tasks better, as well as developing understanding and knowledge of the history of music, staff, and other musical notations.

Pupils will actively participate in musical activities drawn from a range of styles and traditions.  Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work to improvisation and teacher-led performances.  Lessons will be as “hands on” as possible and incorporate movement and dance elements, as well as making cross curricular links with other areas of learning.

Differentiated guidance is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed by all pupils and to give opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning as required. Knowledge organisers are available for each unit in order to support pupils in building a foundation of factual knowledge by encouraging recall of key facts and vocabulary.

Each unit of lessons on Kapow includes multiple teacher videos to help develop subject knowledge and provide ongoing CPD where necessary, aiding teachers to further work on their own musical skills and understanding. Music is timetabled weekly throughout the school although Years One will operate a condensed version of the curriculum.

Children will be encouraged to perform to their peers, their parents and adults at every opportunity (e.g. Year Group Assemblies, the Year Five and Six performance, the Nativity plays and concerts within the local community.  Guitar and ukulele lessons are available with Mr. Cole on request. 

Impact

There will be both formative and summative assessment opportunities.  Each Kapow lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objective and at the end of each unit, there is often a performance element to help make a summative assessment of pupils’ learning.  This will be recorded termly on Arbor.  Videos will be recorded as appropriate and placed on the Google Drive.  The knowledge organisers for each unit (given out to the children or put up on display) support pupils by providing a highly visual record of the key learning from each unit, encouraging recall of practical skills, key knowledge and vocabulary.  Children will be encouraged to build on previous learning and recap their learning throughout each unit.

Our expectation is that children will leave Abbots Hall equipped with a range of skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education and to be able to enjoy and appreciate music across a range of contexts throughout their lives.

We expect that children will:

• Develop confidence as performers, composers and listeners and will be able to express themselves musically at and beyond school.
• Show an appreciation and respect for a wide range of musical styles from around the world and will understand how music is influenced by the wider cultural, social and historical contexts in which it is developed.
• Understand the ways in which music can be written down to support performing and composing activities.
• Demonstrate and articulate an enthusiasm for music and be able to identify and talk about their own personal musical preferences.
• Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the national curriculum for Music.