Music

Music

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.

September 2014 saw the implementation within maintained schools of the new National Curriculum in England. Music as a compulsory subject is expected to be taught to and experienced by all children in Key Stages 1 and Key Stage 2.

The programmes of study set out the minimum requirements for music as a starting point for schools developing innovative provision to meet the needs of their pupils.

If taught well, music has the potential to make a significant contribution to children’s development: increasing confidence and self-esteem, developing leadership, team working, concentration and problem-solving skills, and developing identity and improving social cohesion within the school and wider community.

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 interrelated dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations

External Link Icon The National Curriculum KS1 and KS2 Music Programme

Our Music Vision - Intent

At St Thomas’ Leesfield, music education is based on the concept that music is an essential part of life and integral in the development of the whole child. The quality of life is improved by physical, emotional, social and cognitive growth experiences through a meaningful, sequential study in music.
We believe music education engages learners in developing self-esteem, self-discipline, cooperation, creativity, and self-motivation necessary for success.

At St Thomas’ Leesfield School music plays an important role in increasing our children’s emotional well-being and confidence. We aim to provide a sense of enjoyment and a positive attitude that inspires pupils to develop a love of music (using different genres eg Reggae, Hip Hop, Gospel), sing, play instruments, musical composition and learn musical notation. We want children to develop a passion for music through fun, enjoyment and an appreciation of existing musical pieces through singing, composition plus using and experimenting with a variety of musical instruments.

Implementation of Our Vision

Music is used to unite our school and children come together daily to sing and explore different styles of music, through celebration and praise in our daily collective worship. Every class has ‘Sticky Learning’ objectives that match the music curriculum so that the teachers know what to teach in each music topic, ensuring a broad coverage of the curriculum. This year we have also introduced the ‘Word Aware Programme’ which provides subject specific vocabulary for each music topic. These are vocabulary cards that secure the children’s previous knowledge, target new vocabulary for the children to learn during the topic and offer further vocabulary to challenge them.

The children are taught music through topic-based learning (generally one or two weeks) in which the children develop their attitudes, skills and knowledge (ASK) linked to the National Curriculum objectives and also develop their ‘sticky learning’ to help them remember the skills they have learnt.

Children develop skills in singing, playing a range of untuned percussion instruments, listening and composing, using the inter-related dimensions of music progressively through their time at school. EYFS children develop their love of music through daily ‘dough disco’, dance and naturally throughout the different areas of the EYFS curriculum.

We have a thriving school choir and the children have many opportunities to perform at our Harvest, Easter and end of year services in church as well as at coffee mornings, cream teas, Lees Christmas Lights switch on (Leesfield FUNdraising events and community projects) as well as entertaining and singing at local care homes.

The children are also given the opportunity to take part in extra-curricular clubs that enhance their musical skills with our partner schools in the Dovestone Learning Partnership (DLP).  So far these have comprise of Opera performances (Carmen) and a Brass Band all made up of keen children from our ten schools.

Through our teaching of music any exceeding child is sign-posted to outside extra-curricular music lessons (usually Oldham Music Centre) and we also offer peripatetic brass lessons during the school day on a weekly basis although parents must pay for this addition.

Impact

Music is an integral part of our school life and we aim to give the children the skills and appreciation to enable them to access any form of music as they continue their educational journey. We will embed the importance of study and practice to enable musical skills and passion to be developed.

Our topic-based curriculum enables children to learn about the subject of music and instruments and then to ensure music and other area of the curriculum and skills are embedded through our ‘sticky learning’ and hidden curriculum. Our school subscribes to a specialist music online programme (Charanga) which enables the children to be engaged in music and all are given the opportunity to develop their attitudes, skills and knowledge through a clear plan of progression to ensure the maximum impact on our children.

Our Music Learning Journey

Please select the document below.

Click to Download Music Learning Journey 2022-23 [pdf 321KB] Click to Download

Music Learning Resources

Please use the links below to access our learning resources.

External Link Icon KS1 Music Resources
External Link Icon KS2 Music Resources
External Link Icon BBC Teach - Ten Pieces
Explore the stories and secrets hidden in these classical pieces of music.
External Link Icon Early Years - BBC Teach - Bring the Noise
External Link Icon KS1 - BBC Teach - Bring the Noise
External Link Icon KS2 - BBC Teach - House of Sound
External Link Icon KS2 - BBC Teach - Compose Yourself