Music

We develop an awareness and appreciation of many styles and genres of music. We teach practical performing skills which help the children to develop their confidence.

We value music because it is a most powerful and unique form of communication that can change and impact the way children feel, think and act. We believe that teaching music helps the body and the mind work together and through singing it can make children feel positive and happy. Music has a positive impact on a child’s wellbeing and resilience. We feel that performing music and learning about the skills involved in reading, composing and describing music can support a child’s creativity and allows them to use their imagination to express themselves.

In music lessons, children learn under four main areas: performing (using instruments and singing), composing (making up their own sections of music), transcribing (writing music down) and describing (using the inter-related dimensions of music) The children learn knowledge and skills relevant to their age and they build and develop these skills as they move through the school. We follow the National Curriculum for Music to ensure correct coverage. To develop these areas and allow the children to apply the skills we teach the children how to play musical instruments including the recorder, glockenspiel and Samba Band and allow them to compose their own sections of music on them. The children also develop descriptive language skills in music lessons when learning about how music can represent different feelings, emotions and narratives.

As well as music lessons, we offer extra-curricular activities, such as a choir, who take part in different events. We have an external piano teacher who comes into school and ‘Music in Schools’ offer lessons to children from Years 3-6 in clarinet, flute, saxophone, cornet, trumpet, tenor horn & fife. Additionally, we play a ‘music of the week’ as the children walk into assembly so that they are exposed to a wide range of composers and styles of music from different years and eras, enabling them to develop an understanding of the history of music. We also hold weekly singing assemblies where children from the different year groups sing together and at Christmas and Easter; we go to the local church to hold services where the children sing songs and the musicians play instruments. We feel that these events help to create a sense of community within the school and allow children from different ages to perform together to create a lovely sound. The Christmas and Easter services are also attended by parents which allows them to appreciate the music and again strengthens the sense of community.