Music
Music Curriculum - Intent
At Carclaze, we aim for every child to have access to high-quality, practical, and engaging musical experiences. We want all children to develop the self-confidence, skills, knowledge and understanding to develop a lifelong love of music, whilst also providing a secure foundation that enables them to take music further should they wish too.
We are musicians: Children will learn to perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of great composers and musicians. As musicians, children will understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated through the interrelated dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre and texture. They will learn to sing and use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others.
Music Curriculum – Implementation
At Carclaze School, we implement the music curriculum through the pathway of the ‘Sing up’ scheme, which meets the requirements of the National Curriculum for Music, the suggested approaches of the Model Music Curriculum, as well as the Statutory Framework for Early Years Foundation Stage and Music Development Matters. Each unit is carefully broken down with support and guidance for all staff to be able to deliver high quality, inclusive music provision across both key stages.
The scheme ensures all children sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. This is embedded as a whole school approach through classroom activities and extra-curricular activities, including:
· Weekly music lessons
· Weekly choir sessions
· Concerts and performances
· Whole-school singing assemblies
· Special celebration assemblies
· Wider curriculum links (e.g. counting songs in maths)
Musical skills are further developed through individual or small group instrumental tuition, whole class teaching and after school clubs. In these lessons, children learn how to play an instrument, understand the principle of creating musical notes, as well as how to read basic music notation. They also learn how to compose, focusing on different dimensions of music, which in turn feeds their understanding when listening, playing, or analysing music. We ensure opportunity is given for all learners to be critical thinkers and evaluate their own and other’s work. This ensures that their aspirations are high and enriches their understanding of the music they produce.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) follows the ‘Development Matters in the EYFS’ guidance. Music is taught, shared and assessed through the specific areas of Expressive Arts and Design (Exploring and Using Media and Materials and Being Imaginative) and Understanding the World (Technology).
Music Curriculum – Impact
Whilst in school, children have access to a varied programme, which allows students to discover areas of strength, as well as areas they might like to improve upon. The integral nature of music and the learner creates an enormously rich palette from which a student may access fundamental abilities such as: achievement, self-confidence, interaction with and awareness of others, and self-reflection.
Assessment and Progression: Unit and lesson-by-lesson learning outcomes are included within each weekly session to inform teaching. The collecting of evidence to demonstrate pupil progress is written into each year group’s units of work – a ‘Progression snapshot activity’ – as part of a Unit at three points during the year – September, February, and June.
Impact of the curriculum in music is also monitored through:
- Learning conversations – pupils are able to talk confidently about their learning in music to adults and to each other.
- Lesson visits
- Performances within class and to a wider audience.
- Self-assessment
- Peer assessment
- Group assessment
- Targeted questioning