Intent
Music is a powerful form of communication which has a huge impact on the development of the whole person. At Mereside, we believe that our music curriculum should support children to flourish and aspire to developing their talents as musicians. This will lay the foundations for a lifelong love of music alongside musical appreciation and understanding.
Music supports emotional well-being and allows all children to develop confidence, creativity and resilience as they embrace the challenge music education provides. Working with others through music making sustains and develops healthy relationships and develops the communication skills needed to create music and to appraise the music of others. It is an invaluable way of bringing people together, supporting collaboration and enriching the wider school community. As global citizens, music education enables us to value and respect diversity. Music plays an important and valuable role in worship at Mereside, providing opportunities to develop our Christian values and providing us with a vehicle for praise and reflection. The many benefits of a music education support the children at Mereside in all aspects of their life and education. They will have improved memory and coordination, a higher level of self-esteem and self-motivation and be able to enjoy and take pride in their music making.
Our Music Curriculum
At Mereside, we aim to develop the four big ideas in music; singing, listening, performing and composing. This will enable the children to:
• sing and using their voices to create and compose music
• experience a range of music from different styles and historical periods
• explore the inter-related dimensions of music such as pitch, tempo and dynamics
• take part in whole class ukulele teaching in Year 3
•take part in whole class percussion teaching in Year 5
• develop their knowledge of musical notation in order to communicate their ideas
• share and experience music and song together as a whole school
• have the opportunity to learn a variety of musical instruments through peripatetic music lessons
• take part in additional opportunities to join with other children from across the county to share singing opportunities
Implementation
At Mereside, music is taught as a discrete subject with additional opportunities for weaving music into the normal school day such as classroom informal singing, a daily Act of Worship, weekly whole school singing and invited live musicians. We follow a long term curriculum plan from Year 1 to Year 6 using Sing up’s scheme that meets the requirements of the Model Music Curriculum. This provides a framework of learning that supports children to development their knowledge and skills in the subject. It is a spiral curriculum that revisits key skills regularly providing children with the opportunity to practise and improve their skills following a clear and detailed progression.
During each unit of work, children will
• develop their musicianship skills through games which develop and embed the key learning for that unit
• listen and appraise music from a range of musical styles and historical periods
• learn to sing songs
• play instruments such as glockenspiels
• improvise on a range of notes
• compose using rhythm and pitch based strategies
• perform their songs including their improvised and composed elements
Early Years Foundation Stage
During their first year at Mereside, children will discover a curriculum that allows them to explore and follow their natural curiosity and creativity. Children will learn a wide repertoire of songs and will have the opportunity to listen to live and recorded music. They will also have opportunities to create their own organised sounds and to take part in formal and informal performances. Children will learn some key vocabulary and will play musical instruments both pitched and unpitched. They will also be encouraged to respond creatively to musical stimuli and will develop their understanding of the feelings and ideas music creates.
Key Stage One
In Key Stage One, children will continue to extend their repertoire of songs and rhymes and build their musical confidence. They will focus on listening carefully and responding to a wide range of music both live and recorded. They will play musical instruments, considering the different ways that sounds can be made and the way the dimensions of music such as tempo and dynamic can change the sounds. Increasing imagination and control will enrich the creation of short compositions including the consideration of ways to combine sounds and silences. An appropriate notation such as graph notation will allow children to record and share their compositions.
Key Stage Two
In Key Stage Two, children’s singing will increase in confidence and control. They will experience part singing and ways to improve the quality of the music they make as part of a class or group performance. They will be able to join the school choir and take up wider opportunities to share large singing events with other schools. Whole class ukulele teaching will take place during year 3 with a teacher from Shropshire Music Service and whole class percussion lessons will be taught in year 5. Children will be offered opportunities to have peripatetic lessons in a variety of instruments.
They will develop their skills in performance and composition using their voice and tuned and untuned percussion. By listening to a range of music from different times, cultures and contexts, both live and recorded, they will learn to critically appraise the music they hear. As part of this, children will recognise instruments, style and historical period, and use the inter-related dimensions of music to describe the music. They will also consider their own personal response to the music they listen to. As their listening skills develop, they will become increasingly able to discriminate and recall sounds. In order to read the music of others and to communicate their own, they will increasingly use and understand staff notation.