Music

Intent

At Even Swindon Primary School, we are musicians.

We believe that our Music curriculum will encourage children to express themselves creatively and fall in love with music.

We have carefully designed our Music curriculum to provide the pupils with opportunities to learn about musical genres from around the world as well as giving them access to musical styles throughout history. Our pupils are able to listen and appraise a variety of musical styles alongside performing pieces and creating their own compositions through the use of instruments and technology.

We strive to inspire our pupils’ to grow up wanting to be music producers, songwriters, composers and even rockstars! We hope children continue to grow in confidence as they progress through the musical curriculum and become passionate in their responses to music.

Our music development plan can be found below.

Implementation

• Children at Even Swindon participate in weekly music lessons.
• At Even Swindon, we make use of the online musical resource Charanga for delivery of music across KS1 and KS2.
• Charanga planning is used by teachers to drive children’s development within music. Every year group will build upon and recap the learning from prior year groups therefore developing depth of understanding and progression of skills. This serves as a base to aid and enhance our teaching, but is not intended to be rigidly adhered to. Teachers should make professional judgements about when to adapt, miss out or add additional materials where this would benefit learning.
• At Even Swindon, our progression documents provide opportunities for children to develop practical skills and progress by listening and appraising, singing, playing, composing, and performing.
• We promote an enjoyment and foster interest of music through regular singing practice, musical workshops, and other extra- curricular opportunities such as the school choir and music lessons by the Swindon Music Cooperative.
• Teachers formatively assess throughout each unit, making adaptions as appropriate.
• Our SEN children are supported through differentiated adult support. All pupils are exposed to the various music styles and instruments covered within the units and support, albeit though an adult or coach, is given as appropriate.
• Our G&T children are encouraged to support the class teacher and other children by sharing and demonstrating their musical understanding.
• Children are exposed to live musical performances by the Swindon Music service throughout the year including a Wind, Strings, Percussion and Rock and Pop roadshows.
• In EYFS, children learn through Expressive Arts. They are taught to sing songs, make music and dance. Children are given opportunities to experiment with ways of changing sound and develop an understanding of pulse, rhythm and pitch. The children use nursery rhymes to develop the children’s vocabulary and pronunciation. Children are also encouraged to use everyday objects to make music and create sound, children enjoy exploring our music wall outdoors and experiment with sound using objects made from different materials such as wood, metal and plastic.
• We have a range of musical equipment and resources that can easily be moved around the school. There are a full class set of glockenspiels and recorders and a number of other tuned and untuned instruments including hand bells, tambourines, drums, guitars and more.
• The children are taught how to play and develop their skills in musical instruments from Year 2 to Year 6. Children receive African drumming lessons by a professional in Year 2. They also learn how to play the glockenspiel in Years 3 and 4 and learn how to play the recorder in Years 5 and 6 by their class teachers.
• Performances take place within various school activities and are integral to the school ethos. The children have multiple opportunities to share their musical abilities throughout the year including Nativities in EY and Y2, Carols by Candlelight in Year 3 and Productions in Year 6.
• Our Even Swindon school choir is invited to perform at many events across the year including collaborative concerts, Henry Day awards ceremony and leavers assemblies.
• Charanga offers effective CPD and support for staff through a breakdown of units and clarification of key vocabulary and terminology.

Impact

We believe high quality learning in music has been achieved when pupils choose to listen and appraise a range of music and use music as an expression of themselves. When children have developed a thirst for the musical disciplines and are actively choosing to develop this further.

This will be evident through children’s engagement in their weekly music lessons, children talking enthusiastically about their music education, children choosing to learn a musical instrument and appreciating music all around them.

The impact of our music curriculum will be overseen by the subject leader(s) through learning walks, team teaching, book looks, pupil and staff voice, planning feedback, and ongoing data analysis.