Music Curriculum Statement

‘‘Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” – Plato

Curriculum Intent:     

 We want every child to be happy and enthusiastic learners of Music and be eager to achieve their very best in order to fulfil their creative and musical talents. We encourage children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which we aim to build the confidence and wellbeing of all children. Our central aim is that children leave St Peter’s with a wide range of rich memories formed through inspiring and engaging musical experiences.

Our Music curriculum  is designed to inspire pupils to develop a love of music and appreciate their talent as musicians, thereby increasing their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement.

Our core aims are for children to:

• Be confident performers able to listen to, review and evaluate music
• Be composers.Pupils are taught to sing, create and compose music
• Be musicians.Have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument 
• Be critical and reflective listeners. Understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated.

Children meet and often exceed the National Curriculum expectations in music, developing skills which in turn will enable them to achieve a more profound understanding of the subject. Our children gain a firm understanding of what music is through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, analysing and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions and musical genres.  Children are immersed in the works of a composers from diverse backgrounds.

It is our aim for the children to develop self-confidence and teamwork skills through performance. They have opportunities to sing as a class, in smaller groups and as a school community. Children learn to read and write various forms of notation, aimed at supporting long term musical development. They use subject specific, Tier 3, vocabulary relating to the musical elements; instrumentation, metre, rhythm, pitch, dynamics, tempo, texture, structure and melody. 

We encourage pupils to develop a curiosity for the subject, as well as an understanding and acceptance of the validity and importance of all genres of music, and to foster an unbiased respect for the role that music may be expressed in any person’s life. We are committed to ensuring children understand the value and importance of music in the wider community and are able to use their musical skills, knowledge and experiences to immerse themselves in music, in a variety of different contexts.

Curriculum Design and Implementation:

The music curriculum at St Peters ensures students sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. A carefully designed scheme of learning, based on the National Curriculum, ensures consistency and progress of all learners.

High quality teaching responds to the needs of all children of all musical abilities. The children are exposed to a wide variety of musical genres from across the globe and are provided with opportunities to understand how music is used in the wider world including careers. Music is taught through excellent cross-curricular opportunities, which complements and enriches our topic curriculum.  Children learn to work both independently and as part of a group, ensuring skills of resilience and teamwork are promoted in this subject.

Our teaching focuses on developing the children’s abilities to understand rhythm and follow a beat. Through singing songs, as well as weekly singing assemblies, children learn about the structure and organisation of music. We teach them to listen to and to appreciate many 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.

The school receives high-quality sessions from outside providers such as specialist peripatetic teachers. Upper Key Stage Two children are invited to bring their instruments from home, such as strings, brass or keyboards, to supplement and develop their learning in school. In doing so, children are taught how to understand the different principle of each method of creating notes, as well as how to read basic music notation. They also learn how to compose, focussing on different dimensions of music, which in turn feeds their understanding when listening, playing or analysing music. Composing or performing using body percussion and vocal sounds is also part of the music curriculum, which develops the understanding of musical elements without the added complexity of an instrument.

Curriculum Impact:

Our children are happy learners during their music lessons. Children of all abilities and backgrounds achieve well in Music, which is reflected in excellent progress that reveals a clear learning journey. Children talk enthusiastically about their learning in Music and are eager to further their learning in the next stages of their education.

It is well observed that when children perform to an audience their quality levels increase so we promote numerous opportunities for practising towards performances in order for children to show case their talents and enjoyment.  

Music at St Peter’s provides:

• essential opportunities for: achievement, self-worth, self-confidence, interaction with and awareness of others, and self-reflection.
• an excellent understanding of culture and history, both in relation to students individually, as well as ethnicities from across the world.
• opportunities to be a listener, creator and performer.
• an understanding of how to further develop skills less known to them, should they ever develop a further interest in music later in their lives.