Music

Intent

At Goldfield Infants’ and Nursery School we aim to nurture a love for music which will start children off on their life long musical journey. Music makes an important contribution to the life of our school so we celebrate, promote and encourage it not only in weekly music lessons but across our whole school in classroom learning, music appreciation assemblies, extra-curricular activities and in musical performances and celebrations.

We aim to offer an inclusive, compelling and engaging music curriculum, in line with National Curriculum and Early Years objectives, through fun opportunities to sing, listen and explore how to play and compose whilst fostering a nurturing environment where children can help each other through peer learning and feedback. We want our children to experience a diverse range of Music to celebrate our community and the wider world so they look beyond their own musical experience by listening to music from a variety of historical periods, styles, cultural traditions and genres, being encouraged to identify themes and articulate areas of likes and dislikes.

Implementation

Music is mainly taught using the online scheme Charanga. This is supplemented further with units from the Music Express scheme to add more variety. We have chosen to follow the Charanga Music scheme of work because it offers a clear programme of study which meets our vision and enables pupils to meet the National Curriculum end of key stage attainment targets.

We enable children to understand musical concepts through a repetition-based approach to learning. Learning about the same musical concept through different musical activities enables a more secure, deeper learning and mastery of musical skills. Musical teaching and learning is not linear. The strands of musical learning are part of a learning spiral. Over time, children both develop new musical skills and concepts, and re-visit established musical skills and concepts with increasing complexity.

Music teaching at Goldfield is practical and engaging. A variety of teaching approaches and activities are provided with lessons typically including a combination of the following; games, songs, challenges, listening to music and discussing music, playing a range of musical instruments and performing.

Throughout their journey at Goldfield, children will have the opportunity to explore and learn how to play a variety of instruments from different orchestral groups, focussing on woodwind and percussion. In doing so, they understand how instruments are played in order to create different notes, as well as how to read basic music notation. In Year 2, all children learn how to play the recorder, using the ‘Recorder from the Beginning’ book series by John Pitts.

We also take part in the Get Playing project with the Hertfordshire Music Service, where all children are given the opportunity to learn to play the violin in Year 1. After this, many children continue with individual or group violin lessons taught by the same teacher. We offer a singing club, run by an experienced professional singer. These are popular provisions and add to the music experience at Goldfield.

Assembly times are used to support and extend the music curriculum both through singing and listening to music. The singing of nursery rhymes and listening to music is an integral part of the Early Years provision.

Impact

We strive for every child to achieve their full potential in music, develop a love for music, benefit from increased confidence and mental wellbeing. Music helps with confidence and self-esteem and plays an important part in nurturing positive attitudes. Regular singing or playing an instrument is linked with improvements in memory and focus. Participation in musical activities helps develop team and organisation skills, as well as qualities of empathy, resilience and reliability. Music can help support children’s learning in other subjects. Music enables children to develop an understanding of culture and history, both in relation to children individually, as well as ethnicities from across the world.

Children are able to enjoy music in as many ways as they choose – either as listener, creator or performer. They have the opportunity to discuss and share their own thoughts, opinions and ideas, acknowledging and respecting that these may vary and that this is positive. Musical knowledge and skills are built upon year on year.

We aim for all our children to achieve age related expectations in Music at the end of the Key Stage, with children being supported and challenged accordingly. For those children who will achieve above age related expectations, opportunities to further develop their musical talents and curiosity should be encouraged.

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