Music

Intent

At St. George’s Catholic School, our intention is to engage, motivate and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement.

Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination.

Music teaching at St. George’s follows the requirements of the National Curriculum for Music; providing a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum; ensuring the progressive development of musical concepts, knowledge and skills.  Music is a unique way of communicating.  It is a vehicle for personal expression and can play an important part in the personal and cognitive development of our pupils. To ensure our pupils have a wider appreciation of, exposure to and participation in music, St. George’s aims to reflect the culture and society that we serve, and so the teaching and learning of music enables children to be exposed to wider opportunities and life experiences.

At St. George’s, we recognise that music plays an important part in helping children to feel part of a community and so we provide opportunities for all children to create, play, perform and enjoy music, to develop their skills, to appreciate a wide variety of musical forms, and to begin to make judgements about the quality of music, supported by the wider school curriculum.

At St. George’s Catholic School, we recognise that meaningful musical connections provide pupils an opportunity to develop their own musical talent, as well as developing a secure understanding of the music curriculum. Repeating a musical skill does not mean their progress is slowing down or their development is moving backwards, it enables pupils to reinforce musical understanding in order to improve the quality of their musicianship.

Music teaching at St. George’s is practical and engaging. A variety of teaching approaches and activities are provided based on pupil ability. Lessons typically involve a combination of the following; games, songs, challenges, listening to music and discussing music, playing a range of musical instruments, performing back, finding the pulse and composing music using notation sheets.

Performance is at the heart of musical teaching and learning at St. George’s and all pupils participate in weekly singing assemblies. Pupils are encouraged to perform at events in our local community, from Christmas services in Church, care homes and choir concerts in the town park. Parents are invited and welcomed to watch all of these performances whether at or outside of school. 

At St. George’s, music teaching is not only focused on performance but also providing our pupils with an understanding and appreciation for music. Through our music lessons, children study a wide range of musical styles, genres and composers from a range of musical periods. This is supported by a range of one-off experiences through Wiltshire Music connect such as Djembe drumming sessions, Medieval music workshops and performers visiting our school.

Implementation

Kapow Primary’s Music scheme takes a holistic approach to music, in which the individual strands below are woven together to create engaging and enriching learning experiences:

·        Performing

·        Listening

·        Composing

·        The history of music

·        The inter-related dimensions of music

Music is taught by the class teacher for an hour each week. Support and guidance is available from the music coordinator, when needed.  Each five-lesson unit combines these strands within a cross-curricular topic designed to capture pupils’ imagination and encourage them to explore music enthusiastically. Over the course of the scheme, children will be taught how to sing fluently and expressively, as well as 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.

The instrumental scheme lessons complement the Kapow Primary scheme of work and allow lower key stage 2 pupils to develop their expertise in using a tuned instrument for a minimum of one term as recommended in the Model music curriculum.

As a school, we can offer children instrumental lessons in either Keyboard or guitar, through weekly lessons with a peripatetic tutor. 

Our National curriculum mapping document shows which of our units cover each of the national curriculum attainment targets as well as each of these strands within it. Our Progression of skills and knowledge shows the skills that are taught within each year group and how these skills develop year on year to ensure attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage.

The scheme 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, as well as the interrelated dimensions of music and more.

In each lesson, pupils will actively participate in musical activities drawn from a range of styles and traditions, developing their musical skills and their understanding of how music works. Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work as well as improvisation and teacher-led performances. Lessons are ‘hands-on’ 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 opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils in building a foundation of factual knowledge by encouraging recall of key facts and vocabulary.

Music features strongly in all of our whole school celebrations such as our Nativity, Easter, Harvest and Remembrance services.  We also have a strong community link with local churches, singing at different services through-out the year. Our Year 5 Class visits some of the local residential homes to perform carols and we liaise with other local schools to promote music and perform locally within the Warminster area.

Impact

The impact of our music scheme can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives and at the end of each unit there is often a performance element where teachers can make a summative assessment of pupils’ learning. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils by providing a highly visual record of the key learning from the unit, encouraging recall of practical skills, key knowledge and vocabulary.

Pupils should leave primary school equipped with a range of skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education and to be able to enjoy and appreciate music throughout their lives.

The expected impact of following the Kapow Primary Music scheme of work is that children will:

• • • •   Be confident 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 their own personal musical preferences.

• • • • Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the national curriculum for Music.

Music Policy 

Music Curriculum Map

Music Progression of Skills

Music Overview

Music - Intent, Implement and Impact

Music condensed long term plan

Music Tuition

We offer tuition on a private basis for guitar and keyboard. Tuition in other instruments can be arranged providing there are sufficient pupils. Lessons take place during the school day. Once children start taking music lessons we would expect them to continue for the term. The least amount of notice required to discontinue is  4 weeks.

Please contact the office if your child would be interested in learning one of these musical instruments.