Our St Swithun's Curriculum for Music

Our Subject Leader for Music is Mr CHarly.

Music in the curriculum

• We plan using the Kapow Primary's Music Scheme and the National Curriculum.
• We also subscribe to 'Musician of the Month' and incorporate this as part of our Music offer to the children of St Swithun's. Click on the link to find out more - Musician of the Month - Primary School Music Resources

Intent

The intention of the Kapow Primary's music scheme is first and foremost to help children to feel that they are musical, and to develop a life-long love of music. Through the teaching of music we focus on developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that children need in order to become confident performers, composers, and listeners. Our curriculum introduces children to music from all around the world and across generations, teaching children to respect and appreciate the music of all traditions and communities. Children will develop the musical skills of singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising and composing music, and listening and responding to music. They will develop an understanding of the history and cultural context of the music that they listen to and learn how music can be written down. Through music, our curriculum helps children develop transferable skills such as team-working, leadership, creative thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and presentation and performance skills. These skills are vital to children’s development as learners and have a wider application in their general lives outside and beyond school.

Kapow Primary’s Music scheme of work enables pupils to meet the end of key stage attainment targets outlined in the National curriculum and the aims of the scheme align with those in the National curriculum

Implementation

Kapow Primary’s Music scheme takes a holistic approach to music, in which the individual strands below are woven together to create engaging and enriching learning experiences:

● Listening and evaluating

● Creating sound

●Notation

● Improvising and composing

● Performing

Each five-lesson unit combines these strands within a cross-curricular topic designed to capture pupils’ imagination and encourage them to explore music enthusiastically. Over the course of the scheme, children will be taught how to sing fluently and expressively, and play tuned and untuned instruments accurately and with control. They will learn to recognise, demonstrate and name the interrelated dimensions of music - pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics - and use these expressively in their own improvisations and compositions.

In each lesson, Children will actively participate in musical activities drawn from a range of styles and traditions, developing their musical skills and their understanding of how music works. Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work as well as improvisation and teacher-led performances. Lessons are ‘hands-on’ and incorporate movement and dance elements, as well as making cross curricular links with other areas of learning. Differentiated guidance is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils in building a foundation of factual knowledge by encouraging recall of key facts and vocabulary. Strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to be able to deliver a highly effective and robust music curriculum. Each unit of lessons includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support ongoing CPD, aiding teachers in their own acquisition of musical skills and knowledge. Further CPD opportunities can also be found via webinars with our music subject specialists. Kapow has been created with the understanding that many teachers do not feel confident delivering the music curriculum and every effort has been made to ensure that they feel supported to deliver lessons of a high standard that ensure pupil progression. Include how Music is timetabled in your school and the rationale behind that decision; tools or other resources available in school to allow staff to implement the scheme of work; anything you do to raise the profile of Music in school; any extra-curricular or enrichment activities related to the subject.

Music lessons are timetabled weekly with additional time spent investigating our chosen 'Musician of the Month'.

Impact

After the implementation of Kapow Primary Music, children should leave St Swithun's C of E Primary Academy equipped with a range of skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education and to be able to enjoy and appreciate music throughout their lives.

The expected impact of following the Kapow Primary Music scheme of work is that children will:

✓ Be confident performers, composers and listeners and will be able to express themselves musically at and beyond school.

✓ Show an appreciation and respect for a wide range of musical styles from around the world and will understand how music is influenced by the wider cultural, social, and historical contexts in which it is developed.

✓ Understand the various 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