Without music, life would be a mistake.’

Friedrich Nietzsche

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Music in FS2

Music is a key element to learning within the foundation stage and is linked throughout the curriculum, including within the outdoor area. Children's learning is supported, in all areas, through music and rhymes.

Music should be spontaneous for our children and ongoing. Children need to have the confidence to explore sounds to become confident musicians.

Children in FS2 join in with a weekly singing assemblies, perform their own Harvest Festival, Nativity play and Easter Celebration each year.

Music in KS1 and KS2

Our music curriculum follows the Charanga scheme which is an integrated, practical, exploratory

and child-led approach to musical learning.

All musical learning in this scheme is built around the Interrelated Dimensions of Music: pulse,

rhythm, pitch, tempo, dynamics, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and notation. These dimensions are at the centre of all the learning.

Each Unit of Work consists of the strands of musical learning which correspond with the national

curriculum for music and are organised by:

1. Listening and Appraising

2. Musical Activities

• Warm-up Games
• Optional Flexible Games
• Singing
• Playing instruments
• Improvisation
• Composition

3. Performing

Charanga enables 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.

Children receive teaching from the Charanga scheme each year. As we operate mixed-age classes, units taught are taken from the mix of year groups within each class, over a two-year cycle.

Due to the repetitive nature of the scheme, units can be delivered as stand-alone units due to the depth of learning and spiral progression methodology. Units of work are chosen for classes by looking at the suitability of the main unit song for the age group.

Ukulele

Children from Y1 to Y6 have the opportunity to learn the ukulele from our expert teacher, Mr Tryner. Ukulele teaching follows a skills based curriculum. Starting points for each year group are cohort specific depending on skills already acquired in previous years, as well as individual needs. Yearly, (as well as ongoing) assessments take place to readdress sessions, as and when this is needed.

Each unit of the children's learning focusses on key elements of music:

• Pulse
• Rhythm
• Pitch
• Dynamics
• Tempo
• Timbre
• Structure
• Texture
• Notation