Music
Intent
The National Curriculum for music aims to ensure that all children:
- perform, listen to, review and evaluate music
- be taught to sing, create and compose music
- understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated
At Wellington Primary, 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. We are committed to developing a curiosity for the subject, as well as an understanding and acceptance of the validity and importance of all types of music and an unbiased respect for how a person may wish to use musical expression in their 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 involve themselves in music in a variety of different contexts.
Implementation
The music curriculum ensures children sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. This is embedded in the classroom through the structured music programme Charanga as well as various concerts, performances and musical clubs. The elements of music are taught in the classroom lessons so that children are able to use some of the language of music to dissect it and understand how it is made, played, appreciated and analysed. In the classroom, children learn key aspects of music through cross-curricular links. They also learn how to compose, focusing on different dimensions of music, which in turn feeds their understanding when listening, playing or analysing music. Composing or performing using a variety of tuned and untuned percussion and vocal sounds is also part of the curriculum, which helps to further develop their understanding of the musical elements.
Long-Term Overview:
Impact
Whilst in school, children have access to a varied programme. This allows them to discover areas of strength, as well as areas they might like to improve upon. The integral nature of music and the learner creates an enormously rich palette from which a child may access fundamental abilities such as: achievement, self-confidence, interaction with and awareness of others, and self-reflection. Music will also develop an understanding of culture and history, both in relation to children individually, as well as ethnicities from around the world. Children are able to enjoy music in as many ways as they choose – either as listener, creator or performer. They can dissect music and comprehend its parts; they can sing with increasingly accurate pitch and rhythm; they can feel a pulse. They have an understanding of how to further develop their musical skills and some children will wish to extend their music learning further through individualised lessons with a music specialist.