Rothley Church of England Academy

Rothley Church Of England Academy

Music

"Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth." — Psalm 96:1

Intent

At Rothley C of E Academy, we believe that music should be accessible to children of all abilities and backgrounds as it is very important for pupils’ social and emotional wellbeing. Everyone is capable of appreciating music, regardless of their individual skills, as music is intertwined into the fabric of our lives. We want to provide children with a variety of musical opportunities throughout their time with us to give all pupils the confidence to ‘have a go’, and foster a love of music.

Across the school from EYFS-Year 6, we follow the Sing Up Music Curriculum, which enables every child to have access to high-quality, practical, and engaging musical experiences. Children in Years 3 and 4 also participate in Whole Class Instrumental Tuition. Our intent is that over the course of their musical journey with us, children will develop the self-confidence, skills, knowledge, and understanding to become real musicians and develop a lifelong love of music, whilst also inspiring them to take music further should they wish to. Our curriculum approach draws on a broad range of musical traditions, using authentic songs and materials, as we believe that it is important our pupils have a good understanding of the musical and historical traditions of other cultures. This cultural capital is also enhanced by studying a different ‘Musician of the Month’ over the year across the whole school.

As well as lesson delivery, singing is fundamental to the fabric of the school. In weekly key stage singing assemblies, pupils are taught a variety of songs, covering different genres, as well as being given the opportunity to sing in performances throughout the year. Performance skills are worked on from EYFS upwards as we want all children to not only feel confident at performing in front of others, but to feel joy in doing so and create life-long memories.

As a school, we are very proud to have music at the heart of it, and we want to provide pupils who want to go above and beyond curriculum music lessons, the opportunity to nurture their love of music in a variety of ways. We provide a school choir for children wanting to sing and offer extra-curricular music lessons in: voice, piano, drumming, saxophone, clarinet, oboe, flute, bassoon, guitar, violin, viola and cello. These children are encouraged to develop confidence in their performance skills by performing in assemblies and concerts throughout the year.

Implementation

Sing Up Music is designed and written by subject specialists and all teachers have had CPD training on its delivery by a music specialist member of staff. Sing Up Music sets out the skills, knowledge and understanding to be gained by all pupils at each stage of learning, including EYFS. Together, the units represent a complete and progressive library of resources that meets the requirements of the National Curriculum for Music and the suggested approaches of the Model Music Curriculum as well as the Statutory Framework for Early Years Foundation Stage and Musical Development Matters.

Every child across the school, takes part in a music lesson every week, for the approximate following times:

Early Years- 30 minutes per lesson

Key Stage 1- 40 minutes per lesson

Key Stage 2- 40-60 minutes per lesson

-         Appreciate and analyse a variety of music from across the globe, and have an understanding of different genres, time periods and cultures

-         Explore and express ideas and feelings about music in a variety of ways

-         Explore the inter-related dimensions of music and understand how and why they are used

-         Develop composing and improvising skills using a tuned and untuned instruments as well as voice and body percussion

-         Sing in tune with an awareness of the mood of the song and hold a part

-         Learn to play the ocarina in Year 3 (reading standard notation on a stave) and the ukulele in Year 4 (continuing to read standard notation but also learning chords)

-         Gain confidence in performing to others and reflect on their performance

•         Feel safe to have a go at all parts of the lesson

Impact

The Sing Up and WCIT Curriculum is planned to demonstrate progression of both knowledge and skills from EYFS-Year 6, while ensuring that all children are challenged and become aware of musical culture and history beyond the western world. Children are able to enjoy music in many different ways and can be listeners, composers or performers. The key impact we want our curriculum to have is for children to have fun and enjoy music, developing self-confidence and creativity, and hopefully pupils will continue their love of music even when they have left us in Year 6.

The impact of the curriculum is measured in a variety of ways:

·        Progression snapshots are built into the units over the course of the year

·        Video evidence is collated to demonstrate the skills which children have learnt

·        Pupil voice (discussing pupils’ thoughts on the curriculum with them)

·        Uptake in extra-curricular music opportunities