Music
Music @ Ashwell Primary School
Purpose of study
Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. 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. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon.
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.
At Ashwell School we use the Charanga Music Scheme of work to teach children music.
The Musical School Scheme provides teachers with week-by-week lessons for each year group in the school, from ages 5–11. It is ideal for specialist and non-specialist teachers and provides lesson plans, assessment, clear progression, and engaging and exciting whiteboard resources for every lesson. The Scheme supports all the requirements of the national curriculum.
The learning within this Scheme is based on: Listening and Appraising; Musical Activities — creating and exploring; and Singing and Performing. Everything is clearly and simply explained and the planning support is extensive.
Curriculum Enrichment
- Ashwell School works closely with the Herts Music Service: https://www.hertsmusicservice.org.uk/hertfordshire-music-service.aspx
- The Herts music service also enable us to facilitate one to one or small group lessons that are taught by peripatetic music teachers that come into our school each week.
- The School Choir perform at the Ashwell Village Music Festival
First Access Lessons
At Ashwell, our pupils in Year 3 have one year of first access. This enables every child in year 3 to learn an instrument in a group together. First Access is delivered across 33 sessions during the year and results in children taking part in a performance to an audience. Our vision for this programme is that it acts as a route into instrumental learning for our pupils, having experienced the fun and enjoyment of learning with their friends.
We are currently in the process of updating, refining and further enhancing our curriculum design in order to give our children even better learning opportunities, experiences and curriculum enrichment in each subject area.
Music Downloadable Documents
The following documents are to help parents understand what we teach, when we teach it and why we teach it:
To view the National Curriculum Programme of Study for KS1 and KS2 please see here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/239037/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_Music.pdf