Our Music curriculum has been designed to build on our children’s cultural capital, through our curriculum drivers, children’s interests, and the requirements of the National curriculum’s ‘Model Music Curriculum’ and the new ‘Statutory Framework for Early Years’. This is to enable our children to; acquire a widening repertoire and appreciation of a range of musical genres and their historical origins as well as growing their musical knowledge, musicianship, and vocabulary to ignite a love for creating original and imaginative composing and performance work.
Our Music curriculum provides a coherent, structured, academic curriculum that leads to sustained mastery for all and a greater depth of understanding for those who are able. It sets out a clear list of what will be covered for each year group which ensures each teacher, even as a non-specialist, has clarity as to what to cover, the disciplinary knowledge children should understand, and the criteria for progression.
Our Key Music concepts: singing, listening, composing, musicianship, and performing are organised so that children can return to the same concepts over and over so they gradually build a secure musical understanding and appreciation.
Our music progression clearly shows the expectations for all children at the end of each school term.
Music is taught as a discrete subject every week in Reception and KS1 following the Leicestershire Music scheme of work alongside our music spine and introduction to instruments. This is built upon during whole school and year group assemblies alongside a weekly 40-minute music assembly. In the nursery, music is interweaved throughout all areas of learning with a particular emphasis on communication and language, and phonics and alongside our nursery rhyme spine. Music disciplinary knowledge is revisited in all years so it is built upon across the 4 years of our children’s time here. This ensures progression and enables children to create a music schema and move their learning from working in to long term memory.
Our children love music; they are confident to talk about all aspects of our music curriculum using the correct musical vocabulary, they have learned to appreciate many different types of music, enjoy making and performing music and the children are aware of musical opportunities available to them now and in later life.
Our explicit teaching with continual assessment for learning and music progression ensures that teachers are clear about the progress and attainment of each child.
Opportunities for the future
We ensure our children are made aware of jobs they could aspire to do in the future as a musician: video and sound engineers, music directors/conductors, music teacher, DJ, musical therapist, music journalist, music agent, song writer, musical theatre performer, session singer/musician, record producer
In Class learning 2024-2025
Our Year 2’s have been learning to write music using stick notation and then play their music piece using the musical instruments.
On Friday 20th September in the afternoon we had the Carducci String Quartet come to our school to give an interactive performance to our children. They have performed globally and won awards. They played the violin, viola and the cello.
In Class Learning 2022-2023
Alexander the violinist
Alexander has just passed his grade 6 violin exam. He is an absolute showman and the children were entranced with Alexander’s violin playing.
- Alexander played a range of classical music:
- Humoresque – Dvorak
- Lullaby – Brahms
- Ch’ella mi creda – Puccini
- Torna a Surriento – Ernesto di Curtis
Alexander ended by playing Abba’s ‘I Have a Dream’. Playing the violin was Alexander’s dream. When people refused to help him with his dream because he has Down syndrome Alexander persevered, showing great resilience and independence.
Year 1 Music - Pulse
Year 1 Music - Pulse
The children are using their bodies to move and respond to long and short sounds.
Year 1
Year 1 Responding to sounds using their body movements
Year 1 following notation to create long and short sounds.
Year 2
Year 2 Rehearsing for their Harvest Assembly
As part of our year 2 music curriculum the children have been enjoying learning about Elvis Presley.
Here’s Yusuf Bhula and Nadeem Shaikh telling us all about Elvis!
Excellent musicianship from Year 2s.
In this group we have R keeping the pulse, K chanting and clapping the rhythm, A playing the drone and M playing an ostinato.
Excellent focus from all children.
Year 2s reading, chanting and playing the rhythm.
Year 2 children singing a simple ostinato (repeating pattern) from “Zum Gali Gali” – 1 part over the top of another.
Violin Concert
The children were very excited to welcome the talented violinist, Fenella Humphreys, who performed a mini classical concert to the children. Fenella performed a range of classical pieces to which the children listened to in awe.
Fenella was impressed with the children’s classical knowledge and that when she asked for requests, Reyhan, in year 2, asked for; ‘Carmen’s Overture’ by Georges Bizet.
Click on the link to hear the first classical excerpt that Fenella played to the children. Search for Advent Calendar 2022 Day 1 – J. S. Bach Gavotte en Rondeau
In Class Learning - 2021-22
- Reception children performing a rhyme whilst keeping a steady beat.
- Reception children making and recognising long sounds
- Reception children playing the rhythm of their own composition.
- Reception children beginning to play along to the pulse of songs.
- Reception children singing their own version of ‘On a log’ - fabulous creativity.
- Reception boys singing their own version of ‘On a log’ - fabulous creativity.
- Reception boys singing their own version of ‘On a log’ - fabulous creativity.
- Year 1s warming up before their singing lesson
- Abubakr in year 1 demonstrating that, after lots of practice, he can follow the clap, clap, rest, rest rhythm and include his name during the rest, rest. Try - it is harder than you think!
- Year 1 children clapping the rhythm to their own composition.
- Year 1 controlling pitch & timbre to recreate the 'cuckoo' excerpt from 'Carnival of the Animals' by Saint-Saens
- Year 2 children performing their osinato patterns.
- Tajbid in Year 2 experimenting with changing sounds using the beatboxing technique.