Music
Subject Leader: Miss De’Antiquis
Our place in the world
At St Mary Magdalen’s, we recognise that music is a way for children to gain a greater understanding of the world around them. Through listening and appraising music pieces from varied times and cultures, we are able to offer our children a way to learn and respond to the current world and the past. We provide multiple opportunities for children to perform, enabling children to shine in this creative outlet and feel apart of the school and wider communities.
Language and oracy
Music for many is an outlet for them to express themselves and emote. We focus on singing confidently and clearly in order to get the message of a song across. We develop our skills in listening through our listening and appraising within a selection of different songs. Within our music curriculum, we ensure musical vocabulary is embedded and used in every music lesson.
Learning skills
We believe that the skills developed within our music curriculum support children’s life skills. We use our 6 key skills throughout our music lessons at St Mary Magdalen’s. We focus on developing your child’s creativity, confidence, team work, perseverance, communication and independence.
Healthy body, healthy mind
Music offers a range of opportunities to perform and develop confidence. In order to perform, your child may have to push themselves, showing courage and perseverance. These opportunities foster a growth mind-set enabling your child to believe they can overcome challenges and worries. We encourage all children to believe that they are musicians and ensure that they know no limit with developing their own unique styles, supported by our curriculum.
Intent
Our curriculum ensures that your child develops a love of music and understands the importance and impact in listening, singing, composing and performing across a range of historical periods, styles, traditions and musical genres. Our children develop their evaluation skills, expanding their understanding of their own music tastes. Our music curriculum empowers and encourages our children to understand and celebrate multicultural communities and faiths. We also recognise the impact that music has on wellbeing and confidence.
The National Curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:
- Perform, listen to, review and evaluate music
- Be taught to sing, create and compose music
- Understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated.
Through the teaching of Music we encourage our pupils to:
- Think critically and develop a strong understanding of Music
- Know how Music reflects and shapes our history, and contributes to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.
- Produce creative work, exploring ideas and performing to an audience.
- Know about great Musicians, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of Music forms.
Implementation
Our children are able to participate in a range of musical activities and in class music lessons. We use a range of schemes such as Charanga and Out of the ark to ensure that music is delivered in a high quality and diverse way. We also have specific tailored music lessons led by our music subject lead to all classes over a term of 12 weeks. Within these lessons the children focus on theory and playing instruments. Pupils are exposed to a diverse range of singers, musicians and composers, and music from across the world is celebrated. All pupils have the opportunity to learn a musical instruments throughout the year focusing on Recorder and Xylophone. In Year 4 children have the opportunity to learn ukulele as part of the Soundmakers scheme.
We also have a choir for KS2 where all singing abilities are welcome and then a Chamber Choir of 10 children who are all advanced in their singing ability. It is important for us to recognise children who are gifted in the creative subjects and ensure they have an outlet to shine at their skills. We also offer a music enrichment to KS1 where the children learn how to sing, play and perform a collection of songs.
Each Key Stage within the school focuses on age appropriate skills and uses a range of strategies and interventions to support the pupils. We maintain a core focus on rhythm, patterns and structure throughout KS1 and KS2 with different age-appropriate focal points alongside this to build a wider understanding of fundamental musical concepts, as described in the National Curriculum, including: Pitch, Duration, Music Notation, Performance, Musical features and Composition.
Impact
Our Music curriculum ensures that children leave St Mary Magdalen’s:
With the confidence and passion for exploring a wide range of Music.
- The ability to apply the key principles of Music: Pitch, Duration, Music Notation, Performance, Musical features and Composition.
- The ability to review, modify and refine their work.
- Understand the importance of the process of Music and not just the final outcome.
- An understanding of the work of a diverse group of Musicians
- The ability to express their opinion of the work of others, using increasingly precise Music vocabulary.
- The confidence and perseverance to perform to an audience.
How to support your child at home?
- Listen to a diverse range of music genres and artists.
- Encourage your child to learn an instrument and practice regularly at home.