Music

Intent

At St John’s, we believe that music plays an integral role in helping children to feel part of a community. Therefore, we provide opportunities to create, play, perform and enjoy music both in class and to a larger audience. We encourage all children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which we aim to build up their love of music, self -confidence and sense of achievement. As a Catholic school, worships form an important part of our school life. Through these, assemblies and key performances, children showcase their talent and their understanding of performing with awareness of others. Our curriculum introduces children to music from all around the world and across generations, teaching children to respect and appreciate the music of all traditions and communities

Implementation

The music curriculum ensures that children sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. This is embedded in the classroom, through the structured music programme Charanga. Charanga enables teachers to produce inclusive lessons for all children including those who are disadvantaged, SEND, EAL, PP and GD,  to access the musical curriculum in a fun and engaging way, further promoting a love of learning. In these lessons, children are taught to use some of the language of music, to dissect it, and to understand how it is made, played, appreciated and analysed. They also learn how to compose, focusing on different dimensions of music, which in turn feed their understanding when listening, playing or analysing. Composing or performing using body percussion and vocal sounds is also part of the curriculum, developing the understanding of music elements without the added complexity of an instrument.

The children also take part in weekly assemblies and regular Masses, during which the whole school come together to sing hymns. The children are offered opportunities to take part in various concerts and performances and are given a chance to be part of the school choir. 

In EYFS, pupils are taught to:

• Sing songs, make music and dance, and experiment with ways of changing them.
• Represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, art, music.

In Key Stage 1, pupils are taught to:

• Use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
• Play tuned and un-tuned 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 are 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.
• 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.

Impact

At St John the Evangelist Catholic Primary School, children are enthused and engaged in a wide variety of musical activities and are able to enjoy the subject in as many ways as they choose- either as listener, creator or performer. This varied programme allows them to discover areas of strength, as well as areas they might like to improve on. Lifelong skills of resilience and teamwork are promoted in the subject, as children learn to work both independently and as part of a group. Opportunities to perform and watch music within school and outside of school ensure that children are excited and engaged. They also learn to understand the significance and place of music within the wider world, developing an understanding of culture and history, both in relation to children individually, as well as ethnicities from across the world. Through music, children are able to discuss and share their own thoughts, opinions and ideas, acknowledging and respecting that these may vary and that this is positive.

Watch the video below to see our Year 4 superstars performing in the Bradford Winter Festival 2020