Intent

‘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.’ DFE 2014.

Music at GKCS is led by passionate subject leaders who are driven to make sure all children are offered the best opportunities for a broad and rich musical experience and to achieve their full potential in music. We want children to really enjoy their Music learning so that they develop a lifelong appreciation of Music.  All children at GKCS take part in high-quality class Music lessons where they learn how to enjoy listening and appraising music; how to understand the interrelated dimensions of music and acquire a musical vocabulary to describe what they hear; learn how to play an instrument(s) and to improvise and compose, whilst developing an understanding of the history of music; finally building their confidence and showcasing their skills through performing in front of an audience.

Implementation

Through structured weekly Music lessons, we teach children how to understand and appraise music, to learn to sing and to play instruments and to build their confidence in performing. 

Our curriculum is centred around ‘Charanga’, a structured Music scheme from Reception to Year 6.  Across each unit, children will learn to appraise different music styles, to build their core music skillset based around the interrelated dimensions of music, to learn to sing a new song and play instruments, to improvise and compose, and to perform with increasing confidence.

A core benefit of the scheme is that throughout their time at GKCS, children will be encouraged to appraise a wide variety of music featuring different styles, and music from different cultures and time periods which will be supplemented with live performances.

Knowledge organisers are used for each unit to identify the key knowledge and skills that the children will be taught.  This will allow children to reflect on their learning in the unit. Teacher assessment during lessons and review of progression across the unit feeds in to planning for future lessons and units. 

How the Scheme is structured:

Each Unit of Work comprises the of strands of musical learning which correspond with the national curriculum for music:

1. Listening and Appraising – being exposed to a variety of different (recorded) music, and reflecting on this in detail, going well beyond whether or not it appeals to individual children – for example, thinking about the interrelated dimensions of music, the style, the instruments that can be heard.
2. Musical Activities
   1. Warm-up Games (building skills related to the interrelated dimensions of music)
   2. Singing (focused on one song per unit)
   3. Learning to play instruments
   4. Improvisation
   5. Composition
3. Performing

Impact

Through our weekly Music lessons and wider focus on Music throughout school life, we ensure children :

• appreciate and appraise a wide variety of musical genres and styles
• build a sense of pulse and rhythm
• understand and use a range of musical vocabulary
• learn to sing a range of songs
• explore how music is produced by a variety of instruments and learn to play instruments (focus instrument being glockenspiels)
• develop the skills of composition, improvisation and performance

Our main goal is that, as well as learning and progressing their musical skills, children will develop a positive attitude towards music and feel a sense of achievement and pride in their Music learning.