St Mary's Catholic Primary School

Music

Our music curriculum at St Mary’s ensures that the children experience a wide variety of music from different cultures, in different styles and by different composers. Children are encouraged to enjoy music through listening, singing, playing instruments and creating their own compositions. Music is linked to our class topics and we use a range of resources including some from the ‘Charanga’ online scheme.

Children in KS2 have the opportunity to learn to play an instrument in school. The school employs music specialists from the Lancashire Education Authority’s music service to provide tuition for those children wishing to learn to play instruments, currently guitar and keyboard. Singing is also encouraged in school and the children are provided with opportunities to sing in large groups, small groups and solo parts.

The children are given opportunities to ‘showcase’ their talents in concerts, talent shows, Church services, school productions and community links.

Aims
The national curriculum for music aims to ensure that all 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 inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

Attainment targets
By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the
matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study.

Key Stage 1
Pupils should be taught to:
– use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
– play tuned and untuned instruments musically
– listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music
– experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.

Key Stage 2
Pupils should be taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They should develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory.
Pupils should be taught to:
– play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression
– improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music
– listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
– use and understand staff and other musical notations
– appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians
– develop an understanding of the history of music.

 

Programme of Study - Music St Mary's Progression of Skills - Music Music in Reception Overview Musical Progression - Key Stage 1 Key Stage 1 Styles and Cross-Curricular Links Musical Progression - Key Stage 2 Key Stage 2 Styles and Cross-Curricular Links