Music
Intent: “Know the Way”
At Thurlbear Primary School, we recognise and understand that music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high-quality music education should inspire our children to develop a love for music and grow skills to become young musicians. As the children progress through school, they should develop a critical engagement with music allowing them to listen with discrimination, develop composition skills and truly engage with all genres and styles of music.
Music is a practical and creative expression of ideas, thoughts and feelings. It provides opportunities to promote children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Music contributes greatly to our aim for every child to THRIVE.
Music is taught across the EYFS in the ‘Being Imaginative and Expressive’ Early Learning Goal.
Invent, adapt and recount narratives and stories with peers and their teacher.
Sing a range of well-known nursery rhymes and songs.
Perform songs, rhymes, poems and stories with others, and – when appropriate – try to move in time with music.
In line with the National Curriculum aims, we ensure all our pupils:
perform, 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
learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence
understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the elements of music: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.
Implementation: “Show the Way”
Our curriculum is supported by the ‘Sing Up’ scheme of learning and support from Somerset Music and extra-curricular clubs. Children at our school develop the necessary skills to progress in line with the National Curriculum standards.
Through a range of whole class, group and individual activities (provided by class teachers, specialist teachers from Somerset Music and music tutors), children are actively involved in using and developing their own unique singing voices, using body percussion, whole-body actions and handling and playing school instruments. Throughout their experience at Thurlbear, children have opportunities to explore sounds, listen, compose and perform.
Children enjoy lessons on tuned instruments such as the recorder, glockenspiel and ocarina. Teachers also have access to 'Sing Up', which is used to support singing across the curriculum for all ages and whole school collective worship. This resource is used to compliment other areas of the curriculum and important festivals at our school such as individual Class worship, Harvest, Easter, Christmas services and Music worship.
Children have opportunities to perform each term to parents or other children during a whole school worship. We also welcome independent music tutors into the school to deliver sessions in piano, drums and guitar.
We have a choir and take part in performances at school events and external locations. We have visits from musical groups, that encourage children to see where learning a musical instrument can lead.
To understand the impact of how we deliver music, teachers track progress by observing what the children have learned towards the end of a unit of learning. Children will normally take part in a performance to their peers or other audiences, which is recorded.
Impact: “Grow the Way”
Music opportunities at our school provide a platform for our children to discover different cultures, emotions, thoughts and enables them to express their individuality or identity. Children learn the power that music has to influence thoughts, language, celebrations, events and history. To engage with different cultural music and explore the history of different genres, we use the Sing Up scheme of work to help our children to deepen their understanding of the importance of inclusion in our world.
It is our hope that pupils at our school find some way to engage in a positive musical experience that inspires them to continue their learning in this area beyond the primary experience. We want every child to know that through perseverance of learning a tuned instrument, or bravery of performing to a large audience, or the feeling of being included when singing in a choir can transfer to other skills needed in life.