Music

Meet The Music Team

Music Lead – Mrs Mower

Intent

At Horbury Primary Academy, it is our intent that we make music an enjoyable learning experience. We encourage children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which we aim to build up the confidence of all children. Our teaching focuses on developing the children’s ability to understand rhythm and follow a beat. Through singing songs, children learn about the structure and organisation of music. We teach them to listen and to appreciate different forms of music. Children develop descriptive language skills in music lessons when learning about how music can represent different feelings, emotions and narratives. We also teach technical vocabulary such as volume, pitch, beat and rhythm and encourage children to discuss music using these terms.

Key Stage 1 & 2

The National Curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:

– Perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians.

– Learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence.

– Understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

Key Stage 1 National Curriculum Attainment:

Pupils should be able to:

– Use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes.

– Play tuned and untuned instruments musically.

– Listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music.

– Experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.

Key stage 2 National Curriculum attainment:

Pupils should be able to:

– Pupils should be taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They should develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory.

Pupils should be taught to:

– play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression

–  improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music

– listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory

– use and understand staff and other musical notations

– appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians

– develop an understanding of the history of music.

Implementation

Our pupils will learn that music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. They will be inspired and engaged by music education. Music lesson will engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and develop their talent as musicians, and in turn increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon.

• The Charanga scheme of work is used from Year 1 – 6 to ensure a wide exposure to different genres of music, with lots of practical opportunities to explore and develop as musicians and singers. Assessment is carried out in line with the school policy.
• The school has whole class ensemble teaching in Year 3 where children are taught a specific musical instrument for a school year. In Year 3, the pupils are currently learning to play the ukulele. These lessons incorporate teaching musical notation, singing, as well as learning to play an  instrument.
• Follow on group guitar lessons are also available to pupils to continue to develop their skills and ability on a musical instrument the following year.
• Children have access to peripatetic music teachers from the local authority we currently offer-guitar, woodwind, brass, strings and percussion lessons.
• Our school choir takes part in the local church Harvest, Christmas and Education Sunday services and attends Young voices.
• All our children take part in a weekly singing practise.
• The whole school goes to the local church at Harvest, Christmas and Easter and celebrates together in words and song.
• All children participate in plays at either Christmas or the end of year 6, performing in front of a large audience.
• Choir and instrumentalists take part in the Horbury Pyramid music day and in our school summer music concert.
• Children from year 6 also take part in the Miner to Major project.
• Children are made aware of opportunities available and possibility of accessing them e.g Music Centre Band, Wakefield Youth Choir.

Impact

• Children will participate in wider musical activities.
• Opportunities for improved well-being and confidence will be increased
• Children will gain wider audience performance experience.
• Children will have heightened awareness of musical opportunities available in and outside of school in the hope that access will be increased.
• Music assessment is ongoing to inform teachers with their planning, lesson activities and differentiation.
• Summative assessment is completed at the end of each unit to inform leaders of the improvements or skills that still need to be embedded.
• Music is monitored throughout all year groups using a variety of strategies such as lesson observations and pupil interviews.
• Children will enjoy singing and performing in a range of contexts for different audiences.