Music

 

Intent:

At our school, we believe that in order to succeed in music, confidence and feeling musical is key to becoming musicians. We develop skills alongside knowledge and achieve this though a diverse range of music and styles. We develop an understanding of historical significance and culture in order to deepen appreciation of the art. We aim to improve skills in order to allow our children to become confident performers, composers and listeners. Our mapping ensures that children are exposed to music from different cultures and generations in order to develop respect for all musical traditions and communities.

Curriculum Overview:

We follow a 2-year planning cycle in Key Stage 1 and a 4-year planning cycle in Key Stage 2, across a variety of topics and styles to ensure that children are exposed to the full breadth of the subject on a repeated basis. These are taken from Kapow and personalised to meet the needs of our children. It is a progressive scheme that allows skills to develop year on year. The topics below, show the outline of each cycle. Currently in the school year 2023/2024, we are on cycle B in Key Stage 1 and D in Key Stage 2. 

Key Stage 1 Autumn 1 Autumn 2 Spring 1 Spring 2 Summer 1 Summer 2 
Cycle A All about me (pulse and rhythm) Animals (West African call and response) Under the sea (musical vocabulary) Traditional stories (orchestral instruments) Fairy tales (timbre and rhythmic patterns) On this island British sounds and song 
Cycle B Animals (classical music, dynamics and tempo) Musical me Superheroes (pitch and tempo) Space (dynamics, tempo, timbre and motif) By the sea (vocal and body sounds) Myths and legends 
Key Stage 2 Autumn 1 Autumn 2 Spring 1 Spring 2 Summer 1 Summer 2 
Cycle A Ballads Rainforests South Africa instrumental unit Ancient Egypt Baroque Carribean instrumental unit 
Cycle B Vikings Rivers South Africa instrumental unit Blues Fingal’s Caves South America instrumental unit 
Cycle C Chinese New Year Samba and carnival South Africa instrumental unit South and West Frica Pop Art Indonesia instrumental unit 
Cycle D India Romans South Africa instrumental unit Holi Leavers India instrumental unit 

 

 

Skills:

The skills covered of performing, listening, composing and appreciation of the history of music are not taught in isolation at our school. Instead, these are taught holistically, with singing, playing instruments, composing and listening to music all integrated into music lessons. This covers all aspects of the statutory National Curriculum and so aligns with the Model Music curriculum (released 2021) 

We have updated our curriculum to include whole-class instrumental instruction in line with the DfE’s model music curriculum. Each unit focusses on music from a different part of the world and is taught on tuned percussion instruments. 

Enrichment:

We endeavor to practise our musical skills at every given opportunity, be it through cross-curricular links in lessons; performances at special times of year including Christmas, Harvest and Easter assemblies and productions and encouraging creativity in all aspects of our children’s lives.