Music
Vision
Excellence achieved through care, creativity and challenge.
Intent
Our music curriculum is designed to give our pupils music making opportunities, including singing, instrument-playing, performing, and composing and to introduce them to the incredible wealth of music both from around the world and throughout history.
Implementation
At King’s Hedges Educational Federation, there is a low uptake of private music tuition and extra-curricular music; one of our main aims is to provide pupils with sustained and high-quality whole-class singing and instrumental teaching (two of our purple threads), so they can reach a standard where they can enjoy the experience and gain confidence to perform to an audience (another of our purple threads).
Our curriculum is organised so that all pupils have a weekly timetabled music session. The older year groups are mostly taught by a specialist music teacher, and all other year groups are supported by this teacher in planning and developing resources. We have a dedicated space for teaching music and high-quality instruments and resources. Each year group learns a particular instrument(s) for the whole academic year. Many of our pupils lack confidence in unfamiliar situations and find performing in public daunting. With this in mind, we have a planned schedule of performance opportunities for all year groups, with a particular focus on Christmas and Summer term performances.
Our curriculum is designed to explicitly teach performance skills and prepare the children so that they are set up to succeed. The other purple threads (listening & appraising, and composing & improvising) are taught throughout the year alongside the singing, instrumental work and performing, following the year-group criteria set out in the King’s Hedges Education (KHEd). Our curriculum is detailed and challenging in these areas, and builds on prior learning each year. We have selected the most important musical vocabulary which is used first in Reception and added to and built upon throughout the rest of the school. This vocabulary is clearly displayed in the music room and referred to throughout the curriculum.
Impact
Assessment for learning is embedded in each unit of work and the purple threads are picked up at different points throughout the year and then continued and extended with each subsequent school year, helping pupils to develop their musical skills and build their confidence.
Music Knowledge Organisers are given to children in each key stage in the form of a booklet, which they can refer to throughout their time at King's Hedges. These booklets are kept in a file which children take with them through the school, along with their written music work. These resources help to children to make connections across the music curriculum, building on knowledge and using more.
At the end of each term, pupils’ progress is assessed against the KPIs, which are based on the purple threads in the music curriculum. Our hope is that pupils will enjoy the music they have experienced, feel confident in their musical ability and develop a life-long engagement with music, in whatever form they choose.
Enhancements
The music teacher leads a weekly whole school singing assembly to further develop singing skills. The school offers extra-curricular musical activities such as singing and instrumental clubs, which are non-selective, and pupils from these clubs are also given opportunities to perform, such as in whole school assembly and to friends and family.
In addition to this, we endeavour to take the choir to external events each year, to give them a chance to perform in new settings and at a high standard. Older pupils and more experienced musicians are encouraged to mentor younger pupils in club sessions. Live performances by musicians are booked whenever possible. Parent-funded Rocksteady instrumental sessions are offered to KS2 pupils.
Music Progression
Knowledge organisers are available here: www.kingshedgesprimary.org.uk/learning/knowledge-organisers
