'I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning.' Plato
Intent
At Hugh Joicey we believe that the teaching of music offers our learners the opportunity to develop their creativity, self-expression and confidence. Alongside this, children are able to develop their understanding of a wide range of musical genres and instruments which helps them to broaden their cultural horizons. Music encourages children to understand the importance of practising and perfecting skills as well as engaging in cognitive tasks such as rehearsing, planning and evaluating which have implications for effective learning across the curriculum. We believe in encouraging children on their musical journeys as well as giving them opportunities to connect with others. We hope to foster a lifelong love of music by providing a diverse menu of musical styles which represent different periods of history and cultures.
We recognise the important role of music in children’s development. Our high-quality music education meets the National Curriculum aim of ‘engaging and inspiring pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians,’ in order to ‘increase self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement.'
Implementation
We follow the Charanga Musical School Scheme. This provides teachers with week-by-week lesson support and it is ideal for specialist and non-specialist teachers and provides lesson plans, assessment, clear progression, and engaging and exciting whiteboard resources to support every lesson. The Scheme supports all the requirements of the national curriculum.
Each Unit of Work comprises the of strands of musical learning which correspond with the national curriculum for music:
- Listening and Appraising
- Musical Activities
- Warm-up Games
- Optional Flexible Games
- Singing
- Playing instruments
- Improvisation
- Composition
- Performing
- The Activity Manual
Children are taught 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. From Reception to Upper Key Stage 2 children have the opportunity to embed a deeper learning, knowledge, understanding and skills.
Musical teaching and learning is not neat or linear. The strands of musical learning, presented within the lesson plans and the on-screen resources, are part of the learning spiral. Over time, children can both develop new musical skills and concepts, and re-visit established musical skills and concepts. Repeating a musical skill doesn’t necessarily mean their progress is slowing down or their development is moving backwards! It's just shifting within the spiral. Mastery means both a deeper understanding of musical skills and concepts and learning something new.
Impact
As a result of the musical curriculum that we offer, we hope that our musicians will be able to show:
- A rapidly widening repertoire which they use to create original, imaginative, fluent and distinctive composing and performance work.
- A musical understanding underpinned by high levels of aural perception, internalisation and knowledge of music, including high or rapidly developing levels of technical expertise.
- Very good awareness and appreciation of different musical traditions and genres.
- An excellent understanding of how musical provenance - the historical, social and cultural origins of music - contributes to the diversity of musical styles.
- The ability to give precise written and verbal explanations, using musical terminology effectively, accurately and appropriately.
- A passion for and commitment to a diverse range of musical activities.
They will leave our school with a love of and appreciation this extremely creative subject and through its study will have increased their ‘self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement’ (National Curriculum 2014)
