Music
Our Vision
Our children will develop a love and appreciation for music: the emotions it can evoke; the places it can transport you; the people it can unite. They will both enjoy and create music in a range of styles, communicate with others through this medium, and, most importantly, see themselves as musicians.
Subject Leader: Alison Silver
alison.silver@forestedge.org.uk
"Music gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything."
- Plato
Intent
At Forest Edge, our intention is first and foremost to help children to feel that 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 and across generations, teaching children to respect and appreciate the music of all traditions and communities. Children will develop the musical skills of singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising and composing music, and listening and responding to music. They will develop an understanding of the history and cultural context of the music that they listen to and learn how music can be written down. Through our Music curriculum and wider school life, children have opportunities to perform their music to an audience.
Implementation
At Forest Edge, we follow the Kapow Primary Music scheme as the basis for our music curriculum, which is supplemented by the Hampshire Music Service and other enrichment. Kapow Primary’s Music scheme 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 inter-related dimensions of music
Lessons are taught weekly, during alternate half terms. Each five-lesson 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 the interrelated dimensions of music - pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics - and use these expressively in their own improvisations and compositions.
In each lesson, pupils will actively participate in musical activities drawn from a range of styles and traditions, developing their musical skills and their understanding of how music works. Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work as well as improvisation and teacher-led performances. Lessons are ‘hands-on’ and incorporate movement and dance elements, as well as making cross curricular links with other areas of learning. Differentiated guidance is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils in building a foundation of factual knowledge by encouraging recall of key facts and vocabulary.
Strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to be able to deliver a highly effective and robust music curriculum. Each unit of lessons includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support ongoing CPD, aiding teachers in their own acquisition of musical skills and knowledge. Across the federation, we have a wide range of musical instruments that are shared between the schools.
In Year 3&4, children benefit from weekly instrumental lessons led by specialist teachers from the Hampshire Music Service. They experience three different instruments each year, allowing them to develop their expertise in using a tuned instrument. By the time they leave Lower Key Stage 2, our children will have had specialist teaching of six different instruments.
In addition to this, our schools host weekly singing assemblies, carol concerts and end of year musicals which give children a chance to perform aloud to an audience. They also attend events such as theatre trips and orchestra performances throughout their time with us as part of our ‘50 Things’ enrichment promise. Children and parents have the option to learn an instrument in more depth with our extra-curricular music lessons with a specialist teacher.
Impact
Through this teaching, our children should be confident performers, composers and listeners who show an enthusiasm for music. Through formative and summative assessment opportunities during performances, children should show that they meet the intended end of key stage expectations. Subject leaders monitor the progress and attainment of children against the progression of skills during the learning walks throughout the year and identify any areas for future development of the curriculum, CPD for staff or support for particular pupils.
