Intent
Our intent when teaching music at St Mary and St Joseph's is clear. Through high quality teaching and learning, our children will develop musical confidence and skills. They will become better musicians by the time they leave our school. Music is used as a driver to deliver other subjects at St Mary and St Joseph's, and we absolutely recognise the huge impact music can have on mental health. However, we very much view music as a discrete subject in its own right. We teach music through a carefully planned programme of progressive skills.
Our high-quality music curriculum will engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians. Children will meet the National Curriculum expectations in music, which in turn will enable them to develop a deeper understanding of the subject.
All Children will study music weekly for at least 40 minutes.
We are aiming for these endpoints and experiences for our children in our teaching of music at St Mary and St Joseph's:
To develop some competence when playing a tuned instrument.
To be able to improvise and compose a musical piece using a tuned musical instrument.
To sing as a class, in smaller groups and in other local community performances.
To be able to read staff notation with different levels of competence.
To have listened to, review and evaluate a range of music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions.
To use an increasingly complex musical vocabulary to describe the music they listen to.
To have enjoyed a range of live music performed by a range of musicians in the community.
Implementation
Our music teaching is delivered primarily using the Charanga scheme. The scheme ensures coverage of skills in a spirally designed curriculum. However, other resources such as Sing Up and DASP music, are at times, trialled by teachers to ensure the subject remains a dynamic one. A subject open to change, providing the best quality teaching for our children. The Charanga programme ensures students sing, listen, play, improvise, compose and evaluate. The elements of music are taught in classroom lessons, so that children can use the language of music to dissect it. They use musical vocabulary to understand how it is made and played. A progression of vocabulary is used through the school. In appraising music, children can use this vocabulary to describe what they hear. Children will listen to and appraise music from a range of genres. They will become familiar with composers. Children learn how to play an instrument in our school. Through Charanga units, children learn to accompany music using a tuned instrument. They also have opportunities to improvise and compose with an instrument. As part of the Dorset Music Hub’s tuition programme, our year 4, children are taught recorders by a trained musician. We build on this tuition and develop skills by continuing recorder work in year 5 and 6, using Charanga and other resources.
Our music Curriculum is planned to demonstrate progression and build on and embed current skills.
Impact
We measure the impact of our music curriculum through the following methods:
Pupil discussions and interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
Photo and video evidence of the pupils’ practical learning.
Termly summative grids tracking depth of experience in musical skills following Charanga units of music.
Learning walks by the music coordinator with a particular focus to evidence e.g musical vocabulary in use, compositional work occurring, notation used etc Photos are annotated by coordinator as evidence, contributing to feedback given annually to music governor.