Intent

At Rood End Primary, our aim is for children to feel that they are musical and develop a life-long love of music.  We focus on the developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that children need to become confident performers, composers, and listeners.

Children develop the skills of singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising and composing music, and listening and responding to music.  They develop an understanding of the historical and cultural context of music that they listen to and learn how music can be written down.  Through music, our children develop a range of transferable skills such as leadership, teamwork, creative thinking, problem solving, decision making, and performance.

We use the Kapow Primary Scheme of work for music, alongside specialist provision to enable children to develop a depth of skill and knowledge with different instruments.  Children leaving the school will have experience of playing the recorder, djembe drum and ukulele, and our curriculum covers all aspects of the primary National Curriculum.

Implementation

Our Music scheme takes a holistic approach to music in which the individual strands are woven together to create engaging and rich learning experiences:

• Performing
• Listening
• Composing
• The history of music
• The inter-related dimensions of music

Each unit combines these strands within a theme designed to capture pupils’ imagination and encourage them to explore music enthusiastically.  Children are taught how to sing expressively and fluently, and play tuned and untuned instruments with accuracy and control.  They learn to name the interrelated dimensions of music – pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture, and dynamics – and use these expressively in their own improvisations and compositions.

We use a spiral curriculum model where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon.  Children progress in terms of tackling more complex tasks and doing more simple tasks better, as well as developing understanding and knowledge of the history of music, staff, and other musical notations.

In each lesson, pupils will partake in musical activities drawn from a range of styles and traditions, developing their musical skills and their understanding of how music works.  Lessons include a range of teaching strategies including independent tasks, group work, improvisation, and teacher-led performances.   

Strong subject knowledge is vital to the delivery of an effective and robust music curriculum.  The Kapow scheme of work supports teachers by providing all necessary subject knowledge via detailed lesson plans and videos. 

Music is timetabled so that all pupils have music lesson per week.  This will either be delivered by a specialist (in the case of djembe, ukulele, and recorder) or by the class teacher, with all pupils experiencing a balance across each school year. 

Impact

We expect pupils to leave our school equipped with a range of skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education and be able to enjoy and appreciate music throughout their lives.

The expected impact is that children will:

• Be confident performers, composers, and listeners
• Be able to express themselves musically
• Show an appreciation and respect for a wide range of musical styles from around the world.
• Understand how music is influenced by the wider cultural, social, and historical contexts in which it is developed.
• Understand ways in which music can be written down to support performing and composing activities.
• Demonstrate and articulate an 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.