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Music Curriculum "Where words fail, music speaks." Hans Christian Andersen

Music Leader - Miss S Machin

Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. 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.

By using the National Curriculum, we aim to ensure that every child is given the chance to:

  • play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression.
  • improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music.
  • listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
  • use and understand staff and other musical notations.
  • appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians.
  • develop an understanding of the history of music.

Intent

Our intention for our music scheme is first and foremost to help children to feel 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. Our curriculum introduces children to music from all around the world, teaching children to respect and appreciate the music of all traditions and communities.

Through music, our curriculum helps children develop transferable skills such as team-work, 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.

Implementation

At St Botolph's we follow Kapow which takes a holistic approach to music in which the individual strands below are woven together to create engaging and enriching learning experiences:

  • Performing
  • Listening
  • Composing
  • The history of Music
  • The interrelated dimensions of music

Each 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 interrelated dimensions of music - pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics - and use these expressively in their own improvisation and composition.

Our Curriculum overview 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 show 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.

Our scheme follows the spiral curriculum model 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.

The expected impact of following Kapow Primary Music 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 style from around the world and will understand how music is influenced by the wider cultural, social and historical context 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 preference.
  • Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National Curriculum for Music.

Essential knowledge for a musician

Knowledge of periods of music

Knowledge of the interrelated dimensions of music (tempo, timbre, texture, dynamic, pitch, structure, duration, appropriate musical notations). This means the elements of practical musicianship.

Knowledge of notation and composition

Knowledge of the history and cultural context of the music that they listen to and how it can be written down.

Essential skills for a musician

The ability to sing as part of an ensemble or sing solo.

The ability to play tuned and untuned instruments as part of an ensemble or solo.

The ability to improvise and compose music.

The ability to listen and respond to music.

Credits:

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