‘‘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 develop a love of music and become confident, enthusiastic musicians who are eager to explore, create and achieve their very best. Through a wide range of musical experiences, pupils are encouraged to develop their creativity, self-confidence and wellbeing, while discovering and celebrating their own musical talents.

Our Music curriculum is designed to inspire and engage pupils, helping them to appreciate music in all its forms and develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to express themselves creatively. Through singing, playing instruments, composing, performing and listening, children have opportunities to experience the joy and excitement of making music together.

Above all, we want every child to leave St Peter’s with a lasting love of music and a wealth of rich memories created through inspiring and engaging musical experiences.

Our Musical Concepts

Our Music curriculum is built around six key concepts that pupils revisit and develop throughout their time at St Peter’s. These concepts provide a clear structure for children to build their musical knowledge, skills and confidence, while giving them opportunities to explore, create and express themselves through music.

 

Listening and evaluating – Pupils listen carefully to a wide range of music and learn to describe, compare and evaluate what they hear. They develop their musical vocabulary and deepen their appreciation of different styles, traditions and cultures.

 

Creating sound – In Key Stage 1, pupils explore how sounds can be created and changed using their voices, bodies, instruments and other objects. They experiment with different sounds and discover how these can be combined to communicate ideas.

 

Performing – Pupils develop the skills and confidence to perform individually and as part of a group. They learn to perform with increasing accuracy, expression and awareness, experiencing the enjoyment of making music together.

 

Notation – Pupils learn how music can be represented and communicated through a range of musical symbols and notation. They develop their ability to read, interpret and record musical ideas with increasing confidence.

 

Improvising and composing – Pupils experiment with musical ideas, responding spontaneously and making creative choices in the moment. They learn to develop, organise and refine their ideas, making deliberate choices about rhythm, melody, dynamics and structure to create and communicate music of their own.

 

Curriculum Design

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.