Music Intent

“Music education can help spark a child’s imagination or ignite a lifetime of passion. When you provide a child with new worlds to explore and challenges to tackle, the possibilities are endless. Music education should not be a privilege for a lucky few, it should be part of every child’s world of possibility- Hilary Clinton.”

Music teaching at Kenton Primary school aims to progress development of musical concepts, knowledge and skills.  We believe that music plays an integral role in helping children to feel part of a community, and provide opportunities for all children to create, play, perform and enjoy music both in class and to an audience.  We want children to experience a range of compositions and to have felt the music, moved to it and expressed themselves and sung along with it. We want to ensure children have the foundations of music to support them in their future.

Music Implementation

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 to the best in the musical canon. (The National Curriculum)

Children showcase their talent and their understanding of performing with awareness of others through assemblies, wider school community shows and national singing events. Lessons enable children to develop their skills, appreciate a wide variety of music and begin to appraise a range of musical genres.

The aims of our Music curriculum are to develop pupils who:

 ∙ Enjoy and have an appreciation for music.

∙ Listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, cultures, styles and traditions.

 ∙ Can sing and use their voices to create different effects.

 ∙ Create and compose music, both on their own and with others.

∙ Use a range of musical language.

 ∙ Make judgments and express personal preferences about the quality and style of music.

 ∙ Take part in performances with an awareness of the audience.

Using the scheme Charanga, Music is taught every half-term across the school and every child participates. Teaching is well thought out and adapted to ensure that every child can participate and make progress within their music education. Using Charanga, we have identified the clear learning outcomes for each stage of our pupils’ music education. Our curriculum is therefore sequenced and planned to give every child the opportunity to progress to and past these points. The knowledge and skills build upon prior learning to ensure every child is making progress within their musical education. The skills taught throughout our music curriculum are singing, playing, improvising, composing, listening, and developing in their social and emotional skills. Due to the spiralized nature of the curriculum, the music specific skills and knowledge (pulse, rhythm, pitch, tempo, dynamics, timbre, texture, structure, and notation) are taught throughout the units of work and revisited and then built upon year by year. There are in built opportunities for children experience performing music as an ensemble, building upon their confidence, cultural capital and our school values of teamwork and creativity. Teachers consistently model taking creative risks and foster a creative atmosphere that transcends subjects that allows children to feel comfortable with their own developing creativity.

We assess the impact of music education throughout the learning process and provide opportunities for children to reflect on themselves as musicians. Recording work in music is vital and children will make progress through listening to and improving upon their work as well as that of others as they move through the school

Music Impact

The impact of teaching and learning will be determined through subject monitoring, SLT reviews and performance. Assessment is on-going within music education and starting points for all children are different, based upon the musical exposure they have had so far in their lives. Teachers will use assessment materials from Charanga to monitor progress and to ensure the pupils are meeting appropriate end points. Pupils will leave Kenton Primary School with a sense of achievement in Music and a confidence in expressing themselves, listening and offering critique to others and confidence in their own creativity and ideas. They will be ready for wherever their music education takes them throughout secondary school and beyond