Music
At Greenlands Primary School all children, including those who are disadvantaged and children who have SEND learn subject specific concepts through learning about a wide variety of musical traditions and styles across the school.
Without music life would be a mistake
- Friedrich Nietzche
At Greenlands we follow the Kapow Music Scheme
Why Music is Important
Making music in the early and primary years increases listening and concentration skills, and enhances a child’s ability to discriminate between sounds. This improves phonetic awareness and helps to develop language and literacy skills.
There is a positive impact on spatial reasoning, which is linked to mathematical thinking and on physical co-ordination, which supports handwriting skills. Music-making in small groups promotes teamwork and the development of leadership skills, as well as being hugely enjoyable. Pupils’ confidence can be enhanced if they have opportunities to perform. Music-making has social and emotional benefits, helping children to improve their mood and relieve stress.
National Curriculum Purpose of Study
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.
What Music Looks Like at Greenlands Primary School
Children are encouraged to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians. Music topics give pupils the opportunity to listen to music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions. Pupils learn to sing, to play a musical instrument and to create music of their own. The interrelated dimensions of music weave through the topics to encourage the development of musical skills as the learning progresses through listening and appraising, differing musical activities (including creating and exploring) and performing.
The teaching of music at Greenlands Primary School is underpinned by the National Curriculum and the Greenlands Knowledge and Skills Progression Document. Knowledge and Skills have been arranged within subject specific themes. Vocabulary for each topic is identified and explicitly taught to address the recognised ‘word gap’ that exists for many of the children that attend Greenlands Primary School. The continued revision of whole school concepts and subject specific themes, alongside regular revisiting of previous learning will enable children to know more, remember more and be able to do more.
Inclusion
All music lessons/activities are designed and planned to include all children through a range of approaches. Lessons are planned to facilitate the best possible outcome for all children within the class.
Concepts Running Through Music
- Listening and Appraising
- Singing
- Musicianship – Pulse/ beat, rhythm, Pitch,
- Improvising
- Composing
- Structure and Notation
- Performing
- The History of Music
Whole school overview
EYFS
In the Foundation Stage children learn to sing and perform a wide range of simple songs and rhymes. They learn to find the pulse in a piece of music and begin to copy simple rhythms using their voice and classroom instruments. They are introduced to a wide variety of musical styles including funk and classical.
Key Stage 1
Year 1
Children begin to expand their repertoire of songs and explore an increasing range of musical styles. They develop their understanding of rhythm and pitch (high and low notes). They use this knowledge to create their own simple rhythms and melodies.
Year 2
Children explore further examples of different musical traditions and styles. they listen to and identify a range of musical instruments. They learn to use their voices in different ways when singing and performing and use percussion instruments to create simple real life sound effects. They will use graphic scores to record their music.
Key Stage 2
Year 3
Children build on their musical knowledge from Key Stage 1 by experiencing a wider range of musical styles, for example Idian, classical, battle songs, ballads and jazz from around the world. They further increase the repertoire of songs they know and begin to sing songs in two parts. They begin to think in more detail about the music they create, taking into account dynamics and tempo. They build their skills in playing tuned instruments, using an increasing range of notes.They begin to read simple musical notes and link this to the notes that they play.
Year 4
Children are introduced to samba and rock and roll music and explore a greater variety of classical and contemporary music. They use their musical knowledge to compose sections of music to accompany songs and create simple melodies using tuned instruments. They further develop their understnding of musical notation to record their compositions. They begin to interpret performance directions added to mucial notation to direct them how to play.
Year 5
Children explore further musical styles including South and West African, musical theatre, blues and dance. They explore, in increasing detail, the features of the songs they learn, for example the texture, tempo, rhythm and pitch. They sing in increasingly varied ways e.g. performing solos, and singing backing vocals. They learn an increasing number of notes when playing tuned instruments and learn how to read these on staff notation.
Year 6
Children continue to build their awareness and experience of different musical styles. They will look at musical eras in context and discuss how they have inluenced each other for example, African music leading to the blues leading to modern day dance. Children develop their competence at singing in a group, developing an increasing awareness of the singing of others and of how their own singing fits in. They practise and develop their skills in playing tuned instruments and reading music on staff notation. They recognise the difference between graphic notation and staff notation. Children make more complex musical decisions about the tempo, dynamics, structure and textures of their compositions.
