Curriculum Statement: Music
‘Excellence, Truth and Grace’
Music Intent
At Middleton Parish Church School, our goal is first and foremost to help children to feel that they are musical and develop a love of music. Children will embody our motto of excellence, truth and grace in their approach to music and children’s musicality will be celebrated at all levels of ability. We focus on developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that children need in order to become confident performers, composers and listeners. Our music curriculum introduces children to music from all around the world and across generations. We aim to ensure that all children are given quality musical opportunities that build on our school’s Christian foundation, the children’s past experiences and the cultures of the community that surrounds our school This teaches the children to respect and appreciate the music of all traditions and communities.
At Middleton Parish Church School, children will develop the musical skills of singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising and composing music, and listening and responding to music. The children will develop an understanding of the history and cultural context of the music that they listen to and will learn how music can be written down.
At Middleton Parish Church School, our Kapow scheme of work enables pupils to meet the end of key stage attainment targets outlined in the national curriculum and the aims of this scheme align with those of the national curriculum.
Music Implementation
At Middleton Parish Church School, Music is taught as a discrete subject and we take a holistic approach to music in using the Kapow scheme. We follow a spiral curriculum model where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon. Each five lesson unit combines these strands within a cross curricular topic designed to capture the pupil’s imagination and encourage them to explore music enthusiastically.
Areas of learning, such as times tables in maths, vocabulary in languages and movement in dance can all incorporate different elements of music. Singing in collective worship allows the children opportunities to develop their singing skills and gain an understanding of how ensembles work. Performances, such as Christmas and Easter services and class assemblies, demonstrate that music is important to the life of the school.
We are aware that for some children our approach needs to be adapted to meet their needs, we do this in a number of ways: tapping into areas of interest for the individuals, expectation of different outcomes for children and the way we provision of resources. Differentiated guidance is available for every lesson to ensure lessons can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required (within the scheme).
Music Impact
Music at Middleton Parish Church school is monitored both through formative and summative assessment opportunities. Every lesson plan includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives and at the end of each unit and there is often a performance element where teachers can make a summative assessment of pupils learning. These performances are recorded for assessment but also as a way of celebrating the children’s musical work. Formative assessment takes place throughout music lessons and is used by staff to give children verbal feedback on their music skills to ensure improvements can be made in the moment.
Teachers record assessments for each unit taught. Recording children who are struggling or achieving beyond expectation for the year group. Knowledge organisers for each unit of work support children by providing a highly visual record of the key learning from a unit encouraging recall of practical skills, key knowledge and vocabulary.
At Middleton Parish Church School, the impact of teaching music will be seen across the school through performances, extracurricular activities and opportunities suggested in lessons for wider learning. Participation in music develops wellbeing, promotes listening and develops concentration. We want to ensure that music is loved by teachers and pupils across school, encouraging them to want to continue building on this wealth of musical ability, now and in the future
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