Intent

Our intention for music is shaped by our whole school vision and the national curriculum. We aim to enable all children, regardless of background, ability and additional needs to achieve, excel and meet their potential.
We strongly value music at Green Park School – it is a universal language. It is something that everyone can relate to and can be a powerful tool for emotional regulation and mental wellbeing as well as cognition and learning. We strive to allow all the children at Green Park to develop a life-long love of music and to have a passion for music throughout their life, be that listening, composing or performing. Through our curriculum, we aim to improve our children’s self-confidence, self-belief and to give them high aspirations. We hope to widen children’s understanding of music across the world by allowing them to develop an understanding of music from different continents and different time-periods. We intend to use music to develop children’s understanding of different cultures and different societies while also teaching them the core skills underlying the creation and performing of music.

Singing and use of the voice, is at the heart of our curriculum. We encourage children to sing regularly, and as children progress through the school, they will continue to build on their understanding of singing by widening their pitch range and learning songs with more complexities such as multiple parts or harmonies. We also encourage children to use instruments and as the children move through the school, their use of instruments will be more regular as they learn to read and write music notation.

As well as core music lessons, we also encourage use of music in other subjects where appropriate and encourage regular singing during assemblies and at Christmas performances. Children are all given the opportunity to learn an instrument through a specialist music teacher in Year 4, and are given the opportunity to participate in extra musical activities such as choir, small group peripatetic lessons and Rocksteady.

Green Park musicians will:

• Be able to talk about how they feel about a piece music.
• Be able to discuss their favourite music with others.
• Be engaged and interested in learning about famous musicians of the past.
• Feel confident discussing the underlying strands of music: beat, rhythm, tempo, dynamics, form, texture, melody and tempo.
• Feel confident performing in front of others.
• Show respect when listening to music or when listening to others perform.​

Implementation

Music lessons

Music lessons are taught weekly and are taught for between 30 minutes and 1 hour depending on the age-group.

In Foundation, children begin the year by learning nursery rhymes that they may already be familiar with. The children then move onto following the Jolly Music Scheme of work. This scheme involves learning short songs, which aim to engage children in developing an enjoyment of music. Children have access to percussion instruments such as drums and learn predominantly through games and singing.

In Key Stage 1, children continue to follow the Jolly Music Scheme that they would have been introduced to in Foundation. Children continue to use songs from previous years and use these to build knowledge of the key elements of music: beat, rhythm, melody, tempo and pitch. Children will learn these key musical terms and will have opportunities to compose and play instruments. Children will also learn new songs with more complex melodies and wider pitch ranges.

In lower Key Stage 2, children continue to follow the Jolly Music Scheme and have whole class instrumental teaching. During Year 3, children will re-cover songs from KS1, but deepening and embedding their understanding of beat, rhythm, tempo, dynamics, melody and pitch. Children will have a strong focus on pitch-matching to enable them to become more accurate and confident when singing aloud. Children will be introduced to stick notation, and will also become confident identifying rests within music. In Year 4, children receive whole class instrumental teaching of brass. These brass sessions will consist of Bollywood Brass, The Blues and Marching bands; this gives the children an understanding of a wide range of music from different cultures and societies, where brass instruments are important.

In Upper Key Stage 2, children continue to learn through songs, which have more complex melodies and rhythms, and wider pitch ranges. Children revisit the key principles of music, while deepening their understanding through learning new musical terminology. Children also further their understanding of musical notation as they learn to read different rhythms and melodies written down, and learn to write music in bars. Children also use their understanding of music to compose and write their own melodies and rhythms. Children have opportunities to learn about music history and learn about famous musicians through different time-periods. They are able to discuss and analyse music in terms of its key features.

Across our school, children are encouraged to participate in performance regularly; this could be as a whole class, small group, duets or solo. We encourage children to perform as it improves their self-confidence and can have huge beneficial effects on self-esteem and mental-wellbeing. Children are given regular opportunities to perform in end of term concerts, special assemblies and at music festivals.

Extra instrumental lessons

From Key Stage 1, children are given the opportunity to sign up for Rocksteady. This involves children choosing an instrument (electric guitar, bass guitar, singing, drums or keyboard) and playing and performing with a band.
From Year 4, children are given the opportunity to take up small group music lessons in either: violin, guitar, flute, clarinet, oboe, trombone or trumpet. These lessons are given by specialist qualified teachers from MK Music Hub.

Impact

Outcomes of music are evidenced through recordings of children engaging in music throughout the year. Children in Year 5/6 also use music books as they begin to use more written notation and become more confident analysing and composing their own music.

Videos show children:

• Singing as a whole class, in groups, partaking in duets or solos.
• Singing songs with actions to support understanding of musical elements such as pitch.
• Moving to a beat or moving an object to a beat.
• Using percussion or tuned instruments to play music.
• Discussing and analysing music in terms of key musical elements (rhythm, texture, dynamics, tempo and instruments used.)

Teachers use formative assessment during lessons and have high expectations. Teachers involve children in discussion around what they have done well and what they need to work on.

By the time the children leave our school they should have developed:

• The ability to pitch match, singing songs within an octave (Middle C-C)
• The ability to sing songs in rounds, with different parts and with harmonies.
• The ability to analyse and discuss music using appropriate musical terminology related to dynamics, tempo, instruments, texture and timbre.
• An understanding of different genres of music from different countries.
• An understanding of music history including a wide range of different composers and musicians.
• An ability to creatively compose by creating their own melodies and rhythms.
• An understanding of how to read and write music including secure understanding of rhythms (semibreves, minims, dotted minims, crotchets, dotted crotchets, quavers and semiquavers) and an ability to read notation.
• Confidence to perform and play in front of others.
• An ability to perform with others as well as performing a solo.​