Music

Intent

The intention of Academy360 music scheme is first and foremost to help children to feel that they are musical, and to develop a life-long love of music.  We 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 develop transferable skills such as team-working, leadership, creative thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and 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.

Skills

The intent of our Music curriculum is to develop pupils who:

• Can sing and use their voices individually and in a group

• Create and compose music on their own and with others

• Use technology appropriately when composing

• Have opportunities to learn a musical instrument

• Understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated

• Listen to, review and evaluate the work of great composers and musicians from a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions

• Enjoy and have an appreciation of a range of different musical styles e.g. Classical, Jazz, Hip Hop, Pop, Rock etc.

• Use and understand musical language and include musical features in their own work

• Make judgements about the quality of music

• Have opportunities to play a wide variety of instruments

• Have different opportunities to take part in performances

Implementation

Academy360’s Music scheme takes an 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

The music scheme of work overview 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, 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. 

The music scheme follows the spiral curriculum model where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon.  Children have the opportunity to develop their understanding and knowledge of the history of music, 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 and key facts and vocabulary.

In addition, to further develop children’s skills, weekly singing assemblies take place and termly performances.  Children also have opportunity to work with music specialists and be part of the school choir.  They can also choose to engage in after school clubs and one-to-one private music lessons.

Impact

The impact of Academy360’s music scheme can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities.  After the implementation of Academy360’s music scheme, children 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 suspected impact of Academy360’s 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 culture, 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 and 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.