Music
Cavendish Music Curriculum Intent
At Horizon Academy Trust, we value Music as a vital part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. Cavendish staff use Charanga to support delivery of our Music curriculum, aimed at promoting a love of music as well as developing musical skills and talent. In line with the National Curriculum, we ensure children from EYFS to Year 6 develop their skills in listening, singing, performing, evaluating and composing. Children appreciate a wide range of genres and traditions throughout history and understand the importance of music in the wider community. We believe that by focusing on the following key priorities our children will be inspired and motivated to learn, be ready to successfully meet the challenges of the next stage of their education and be well prepared for life in modern Britain.
We believe that high-quality Music lessons will inspire children to think innovatively and develop creative procedural understanding. Children build upon their musical knowledge each year by learning the inter-related dimensions of music. They are encouraged to listen, appraise and evaluate music using this knowledge and also apply this when creating their own compositions. Children explore and use a wide range of untuned and tuned instruments over their time at Cavendish. Our Music curriculum provides children with the opportunities to develop and extend skills and express their individual interests, thoughts and ideas using a range of musical genres. Children learn the skills of singing and matching pitch, finding and showing the pulse of music, beginning to learn musical notation. Our high-quality Music curriculum engages, inspires and challenges pupils while equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own compositions. Our aim is for pupils to progress, so they are able to think critically developing a more rigorous understanding this area of the curriculum. Children are taught how music can be used to express feelings and emotions, to set scenes as well as how music can reflect and shape our history, contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.
The children’s musical journey begins in Early Years where they are encouraged to explore various percussion instruments, listen and respond to a range of music, begin to find the pulse and to perform. These solid foundations continue to develop in key stage one where children are introduced to other dimensions of music, including pitch, rhythm and tempo. Exploration and experimentation of skills are further developed in key stage two when simple musical notation is introduced, as well as composition and improvisation.
Cavendish Music Implementation
To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in Music, at Cavendish we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Music is taught through half-termly topics using the Charanga teaching and learning platform which focuses on the knowledge and skills stated in the Primary National Curriculum 2014. Leaders have identified the key knowledge and skills of each blocked unit which are mapped across the school, ensuring that knowledge builds progressively and that children develop skills systematically.
Teachers plan a series of lessons that are engaging, broad and balanced based on the Charanga scheme of work. Where possible, teachers, in conjunction with subject leaders, plan purposeful cross-curricular links.
At Cavendish Primary School we provide a variety of opportunities for learning music. The music curriculum ensures students sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. This is embedded in the classroom activities as well as the weekly singing assemblies, various concerts and performances and the learning of instruments. Parents/carers are welcomed to watch class assemblies, Christmas productions and our singing concerts. Furthermore, pupils experience opportunities to see live performances such as live theatre.
Key Stage Two children are offered the opportunity to learn a musical instrument via the Music Service, such as: woodwind, brass, cello and violin. Pupils that learn a musical instrument have the opportunity to sit examinations and partake in performances both in and out of the school setting. Children are also encouraged to join a local orchestra when their music teacher feels they are ready.
Cavendish Music Rationale for sequencing of knowledge and skills
The music curriculum at Cavendish is sequenced so that children develop skills across the main strands: listening, singing, performing, evaluating and composing.
In EYFS, within ‘Expressive Arts and Design’ the children learn to sing songs and listen to and move in time to music, as well as exploring untuned percussion instruments and using body parts to ‘keep the pulse’ or the ‘heartbeat’ of songs.
During KS1 different genres of music are introduced which are revisited later on in the music curriculum. During listening and appraising, children begin to listen for specific instruments as well as responding through movement and discussion. Each unit introduces a song to learn to sing then perform, with opportunities for adding instruments such as untuned percussion or glockenspiels. The inter-related dimensions of music are introduced. These are developed further in KS2.
Musical notation is introduced in Lower KS2 in both Year 3 and Year 4. This can be developed further with the use of recorders. Composition and improvisation are also developed during KS2. A range of genres are covered which different songs of that genre to listen to and appraise. Each unit has a focus song to learn and perform using instruments, with the opportunity to compose and improvise also.
The stimulus for all units of work within Music are based on a focus genre of music and examples from famous bands or performers. This supports the: listening, singing, performing, evaluating and composing sequence to teaching that Charanga provides.
By the time our children leave Cavendish Primary School we will have equipped them with a breadth of knowledge, skills and musical experiences to give them a secure foundation for their secondary school learning. Our Music curriculum will have instilled in them a love and enjoyment of learning about music, and an understanding of how important music can be in helping children feel part of a community.