Music

Music at Cloverlea

Intent

Our vision for music is that we provide every child with high quality music experiences which engage and inspire them. We provide opportunities for all children to create, play, perform and enjoy music and to appreciate a variety of music styles. We aim for every child to leave Cloverlea Primary School with a range of musical skills, knowledge and an understanding and love of music which they can carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Implementation

At Cloverlea Primary School we encourage children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which we aim to build up the confidence of all children. Singing is an integral part of our school life and our teaching focuses on developing the children's ability to sing in tune, developing their expression and ability to listen to others.

Pupils’ understanding of music will be developed through activities which bring together the requirements of musicianship, improvising, singing, performing, composing, listening and appraising. Children are taught to make music together with tuned and un-tuned instruments and to compose pieces. They are also taught to sing and play in time controlling the sound and pace.

Impact

Children will:

enjoy and appreciate a wide variety of musical styles;
explore how sounds are made, and how music is produced by a variety of instruments;
develop imagination and creativity;
build a sense of pulse and rhythm;
understand a range of musical vocabulary;
develop the interrelated skills of composition, improvisation, performance and appreciation;
enjoy a wide range of songs and sing in tune;
develop positive attitudes and to experience success and satisfaction in music.

National Curriculum

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 other 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 interrelated dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations

Key stage 1

Pupils should be taught to:

use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
play tuned and untuned 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 should be 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.

Pupils should be taught to:

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.

Music Curriculum

Our school uses the Charanga scheme as the basis for its curriculum planning. This scheme has an integrated, practical, exploratory and child led approach to musical learning.

The learning within this scheme is based on:

Musicianship
Improvisation
Listening and Responding
Singing
Instrumental Learning
Composing
Performing

While there are opportunities for children of all abilities to develop their skills and knowledge in each unit, the progression planned into the scheme of work means that the children are increasingly challenged as they move through the school. All musical learning in the scheme is based around the Interrelated Dimensions of Music; pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, texture, structure, timbre.

Music Enrichment

In order to enrich the musical experiences of all children at Cloverlea we provide opportunities for our pupils to have additional individual and group musical tuition provided by external providers - Trafford Music Services and Music Squad. Such tuition includes piano, keyboard, guitar, violin and ukulele and lessons take place weekly.

Cloverlea has a very successful Keystage 2 choir which meet on a weekly basis and perform regularly in school and at other events throughout the year.

In order to provide a variety of musical experiences we work closely with Trafford Music Services to organise both KS1 and KS2 projects and events during the course of the year. These projects have included whole class ensemble teaching where children are taught a specific musical instrument for a term in the school year and then put on a concert for parents and the school at the end of the project. We have had classes take part in singing projects where children are taught a number of songs which they then bring together with other schools in Trafford in a performance for parents. We have had classes go and experience live music in concerts.

We believe our music enrichments provides opportunities for new experiences as well as nurturing and developing a thirst for music and learning a musical instrument .