Music 

Intent  

‘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.’ Department of Education, National Curriculum.

At Chigwell Row we aim for all children to be successful in music lessons, however that may look for each individual child, and 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 music, our curriculum helps children develop transferable skills such as team-working, 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 

In the Early Years singing and listening to music is embedded within daily learning. The children use songs to support them with daily routines in the classroom and the Kapow Scheme is used to support the planning of activities for pupils related to the relevant topic. The children learn about music from around the world and listen to music that links to festivals. Within provision the children have a curiosity corner which features different instruments that they can explore. Where possible cross-curricular links are made, for example high-quality texts are used to teach the children about recycling, and children are given the opportunity to upcycle materials into musical instruments in the arts and crafts area. Music is used to promote a calming atmosphere during different points in the day and children are encouraged to listen to music and discuss how it makes them feel. 

 

In KS1 the children have weekly music lessons and we follow the Kapow scheme of 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

Over the course of the curriculum, 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.

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.

We have adapted the scheme to suit the needs of our children and to fit with our two year rolling curriculum in KS1. One unit in KS1 is dedicated to learning a tuned musical instrument. Where possible we look to make cross curricular links. For example our topic in Year A ‘Vocal and body sounds’ links with the theme of our English text ‘Seaside’ and our Geography topic ‘Why do we love being beside the sea so much?’

We have weekly singing assemblies and children also have the chance to attend an after school club run by a specialist music teacher. All children are invited to sing in our annual nativity and children in key stage 1 also have opportunities to perform at concerts, carolling and some visits within the local community, which parents are welcomed to watch.

Strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to be able to deliver a highly effective and robust music curriculum. The kapow scheme includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support ongoing CPD, aiding teachers in their own acquisition of musical skills and knowledge.

 

 Impact 

 

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

  • Assessing children’s understanding of subject-specific vocabulary through discussions before, during, and after lessons
  •  Images and videos of the children’s practical learning.
  • Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice)
  • Observations of the pupils 
  • Pupil performances
  • Adult questioning and prompting

 Our Music Curriculum Map

music topic overview .pdf

 

cris music development plan 2024 2025.pdf