Music

“Music is about communication, creativity, and cooperation, and by studying music in schools, students have the opportunity to build on these skills, enrich their lives, and experience the world from a new perspective.”

William J. Clinton

Music is an art form that expresses ideas and emotions through sound, rhythm, melody or harmony. Music is a form of language which evokes movement and emotion.  Music engages the brain while stimulating neural pathways associated with higher forms of intelligence, memory and an improved mental health.

At Harris Primary Academy Beckenham Green in our teaching of music we will cover:

• Pitch, Duration, Dynamics, Tempo, Timbre, Texture and Structure, Composition, Performance
• A range of styles of music
• History of music

A musician needs the following skills, which will be embedded within our curriculum:

Intent: introduction, vision and philosophy

The purpose of this document is to clarify the how, why and what of music teaching at our Academy.  This is to be used by staff to clarify expectations, highlight the resources that we have access to, and to ensure that a high-quality music curriculum is being taught to all of our pupils in our academy. 

We ensure that our music teaching engages and inspires our pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement.  As our pupils progress, we see them develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon.

As part of our teaching, we strive to provide children with the skills needed to be a musician, which include: being analytical, being able to persevere, listening, communicate effectively with others and to have a sense of rhythm.  We encourage children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which we aim to build up the confidence of all children.  Our teaching focuses on developing our children’s ability to sing in tune both on their own and as part of a group.  We teach them to listen and appreciate different forms of music and provide them with the vocabulary to effectively participate in discussions based on their own opinion of different pieces of music.  We encourage our children to use their analytical skills in music lessons when learning about how music can represent feelings and emotions, critically engaging both in the work of composers, their own and their peers work.

 

Implementation: what does Music teaching look like?

Music in the Early Years Foundation Stage

At Harris Primary Academy Beckenham Green children sing songs, make music and dance, and experiment with ways of changing them.  This is done through singing songs and listening to a range of music types.  We also have access to a wide range of musical instruments.  We encourage our children to join in with a wide variety of songs and dances and give them the opportunity within our provision to experiment with how different objects and instruments make noises.

 

Music in Key Stage 1 and 2

Throughout key stage 1 and 2, we use a progression grid which outlines the minimum expectation of what should be taught in each year group including relevant vocabulary.  By following this progression, we ensure that knowledge is building upon what the children have remembered from what they have previously been taught.

We recognise that the national curriculum is a minimum expectation of what should be taught to our children therefore we strive to deepen our students’ understanding.  

Impact

The impact of our music curriculum is measured through the monitoring of video recordings made throughout each unit of work- these videos demonstrate the skills and knowledge learnt in that half term.

Subject leaders conduct learning walks and pupil interviews to measure the impact of our teaching, based on how much children can remember and how they can articulate what they have learnt.

Subject leaders will meet with their counterparts from other cluster schools half-termly and will moderate the planning, work and monitoring outcomes from their setting to ensure that standards are exceeding the expectations of the National Curriculum.   

 

HF Curriculum Lead - Miss S French

HPAK Music Lead - Mrs S Doku