Music

We are musicians

Intent

At Walmley Infant School we want each child to develop a love of learning and show care and respect for each other within the context of a happy, secure and challenging learning environment.

We want children at Walmley Infant School to develop a lifelong love of music. Our aim is to build their confidence and skills when composing and performing music as well as listening to a variety of music from around the world. We aim to encourage children to develop their natural curiosity about music and become creators of new music, growing in confidence to use music as an expressive tool.

At Walmley Infant School, the teaching of music ensures that all children have access to a curriculum that increases their confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. We want all children to have access to a wide genre of music and understand what music is through listening, playing, analysing, evaluating and composing music. Through music, we aim to provide creative and enjoyable opportunities that play an important part in helping children increase their self-confidence and develop other skills such as listening and attention, memory, concentration and coordination.

Our overall aim is for children to not only develop their skills in music but also develop their passion and curiosity to continue learning and enjoying music after they leave our school.

Implementation

The teaching of Music at Walmley Infant School aims to enable pupils to:

  • use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
  • play tuned and untuned instruments musically
  • listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high quality live and recorded music
  • experiment with, create, select and combine sounds
  • be creative and use music as a form of self-expression
  • be independent, have well-developed self-esteem, motivation and empathy with others and develop the ability to work with them in a group
  • develop skills and knowledge in performing, composing, listening to and appraising music
  • perform to audiences and watch live and recorded performances

Early Years Foundation Stage

In EYFS, children listen carefully to rhymes and songs, perform songs and build their own repertoires. They will express their own thoughts and feelings in response to music and will also have opportunities to play instruments, share ideas and create music collaboratively.

Key Stage 1

In Key Stage One, pupils follow the music objectives in the 2014 National Curriculum in England. Pupils begin to use their voices expressively and creatively, through rich cross-curricular links. They understand and explore how music is created and communicated. Instruments are used to enable children to create and compose music on their own and with others. As well as composing their own pieces of music, pupils will listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music. Pupils begin to listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians.

Planning and Resources

At Walmley Infant School, we use the online platform ‘Charanga’, which provides a rich collection of musical resources, further enabling teachers to teach the curriculum with confidence and skill. Music is approached as a cross-curricular subject as well as being taught discretely. Whenever possible, music is linked with topics to give it relevance. Music is regarded as a natural activity that could take place at any time of the day, for example chanting rhymes to support learning in an English lesson or singing a song to remember the names of the continents in a Geography lesson. Musical activities involve children learning as a whole class, in groups and individually. The planned activities provide all children with opportunities to show what they know, understand and can do.

There are a variety of music resources in school. Children regularly use musical instruments to develop their improvisation and composition skills. CDs are available for children to listen to and to help support the appreciation of music from a variety of musical traditions and cultures. We regularly use the online resources Sing Up and Charanga during assemblies, performances and lessons.

Subject knowledge organisers

At Walmley Infant School, Subject Knowledge Organisers in Key Stage One and Curriculum Overviews in EYFS are developed and shared each half term. These outline learning opportunities, key vocabulary and definitions and any associated prior learning to be built upon.

Inclusion

We are an inclusive school and teach music to all children, respecting individual needs. Through our music teaching, we provide learning opportunities for all pupils. We strive to meet the needs of all pupils including those with special educational needs, disabilities, more able and talented and those learning English as an additional language.

By the nature of the subject, it is not uncommon to find children with extremes of musical expertise. Our school aims to provide children with stimulating and challenging activities which cater for the range of abilities in music throughout our school. The value of music lies in its power to deepen personal experience. We aim to engage all pupils in performing, composing, listening and appraising.

Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development (SMSC)

SMSC is intrinsically linked to the Music curriculum. Creating, performing or listening to music is often a moving and sometimes a spiritual experience. We encourage children to reflect on the important effect that music has on people’s moods, senses and quality of life. Children at Walmley Infant school have the opportunity to encounter music from many cultures and through their growing knowledge and understanding of music, they develop positive attitudes towards diversity in other cultures.

Unicef Rights Respecting

In 2017 Walmley Infant School became a UN Rights Respecting School. The Convention has 54 articles that cover all aspects of a child’s life and set out the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights that all children everywhere are entitled to.

We aim to respect and promote the rights of children and the following articles from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are particularly relevant to the teaching of Music:

Article 12 – the right to be heard

Article 13 – the right to an opinion

Article 31 – the right to take part in creative activities

Assessment

Music is assessed throughout the year. Learners’ contributions and appreciation is monitored by staff in order to comment accurately on understanding.

Musical Performances

At Walmley Infant School, children have a variety of opportunities to watch and take part in performances, from participating in Nativity plays in the Early Years to performing in an End of Year production in Year 2. Walmley Infant School Choir meets weekly to learn songs and enjoy singing together. Children regularly participate in Singing Assemblies as well as being audience members, watching live music being performed by others.

Impact

At Walmley Infant School, we aim to inspire children to become lifelong learners. The expected impact of music teaching is that all pupils are confident performing, composing and listening to music as well as sharing their own views and opinions about a variety of musical styles from around the world. Children will be able to make links between music and other areas of their learning. They will be able to express themselves creatively and will have started to develop an awareness of the emotional impact that music can have on themselves and an audience. Children will have gained confidence in not only their musical knowledge and skills, but also in other areas of life. Progress will be measured through teacher assessments, enabling teachers to support and challenge children appropriately. Through the teaching of music at Walmley Infant School, pupils will be able to realise their potential and develop a lifelong enjoyment of music.