Music
Our School Vision
Dream, Believe, Achieve
Our vision is for all children to leave Stanton under Bardon Primary School as confident, independent, respectful and self-motivated young people. Our children will develop an enthusiasm for lifelong learning and be equipped with the academic, social and emotional skills to best prepare for life in the modern world.
Intent
At Stanton under Bardon Primary School, we believe that music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. 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 National Curriculum)
We use and follow the Kapow Primary music scheme to teach the music curriculum. The scheme first and foremost helps children to feel that they are musical, and to develop a life-long love of music. We focus on developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that children need in order to become confident performers, composers, and listeners. The 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.
By using Kapow Primary’s Music scheme of work, it 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
Stanton under Bardon Primary School takes a holistic approach to music through the use of Kapow, in which the individual strands below are woven together to create engaging and enriching learning experiences:
- Performing
- Listening
- Composing
- The history of music
- The inter-related dimensions of music
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 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.
Our National curriculum mapping document and long-term plans show which of our units cover each of the national curriculum attainment targets as well as each of these strands within it. Our progression of skills and knowledge shows the skills that are taught within each year group and how these skills develop year on year to ensure attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage.
A spiral curriculum model is followed, 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, as well as the interrelated dimensions of music and more.
In each lesson, pupils 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.
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. The scheme ensures that teachers feel supported to deliver lessons of a high standard that ensure pupil progression.
Alongside our curriculum provision for music, pupils also have the opportunity to participate in additional 1:1 music teaching by being offered the opportunity to learn a musical instrument with an external music teacher. These children then get the opportunity to perform what they have learnt at the school musical evenings in front of other pupils, staff and parents.
At Stanton under Bardon, we also recognise that staff have musical abilities that can be utilised to supplement our musical curriculum. Pupils have the opportunity to join the school singing club (who also participate in school musical evenings) and are given opportunities to participate in external performances. For example, the school has performed at the Young Voices concert, and through Leicestershire Music Services, have also performed at De Montfort Hall and the Royal Albert Hall with other local primary schools. The school singing club is open to KS2 children on a weekly basis, with the average number of pupils being in the range of 20-30. Pupils in the choir meet at lunchtime once a week and focus on singing in unison, developing harmony, solo performances and having fun! The singing club also has the opportunity to perform in school performances, carol concerts (along with Key Stage 2 as a whole) and have sung at a range of events both in school and at other venues.
Impact
After the implementation of Kapow Primary Music, pupils should leave Stanton under Bardon Primary School 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 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 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.