Music
If children are not introduced to music at an early age, I believe something fundamental is actually being taken from them.
Pavarotti – Music is Essential
Intent
At Lenthall Infant and Nursery School, we aim to provide our pupils with a high-quality music curriculum, to engage and inspire children whilst encouraging and allowing them to be creative. Our children have a real love for music and we are committed to incorporating this into as much of our curriculum as we feel possible. Children are offered a wide range of musical experiences and we continually try to weave music into our daily routines, lessons, and extracurricular activities as well as through musical play and performances throughout the year, music education is a key component of our curriculum. The development of listening skills to appreciate a variety of musical forms and the discernment to make assessments about the quality of music they are hearing is important and essential for our children to gain enjoyment and knowledge of their subject.
Lenthall School of Rock
Implementation
Music at Lenthall Infant and Nursery School follows the Early Years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework and the National Curriculum and guidance from the non-statutory ‘model music curriculum’ (DFE March) Music is taught within classroom settings by class teachers and is used throughout all curriculum areas to enhance and promote learning. There is a whole school singing assembly each week and music plays a huge part in our weekly celebration and proud assemblies – it is no secret that Lenthall children love to sing and dance. Children learn the basic principles of pulse, rhythm, pitch, tempo, duration, and timbre. Children are provided with the opportunity to use their voices expressively, singing, chanting, and rhyming through discreet lessons but also through a number of other subjects in all year groups. There is a wide range of percussion instruments in school, available to all. Children have the opportunity to play tuned and untuned instruments through weekly lessons in class as well as through enrichment opportunities throughout the year e.g. Rocksteady Music Workshops and themed events.
The Original Music scheme designed by the music specialist team at Charanga provides all of our EYFS children the opportunity to listen to a variety of live and recorded music and experiment with their own musical ideas. The Charanga scheme for KS1 also provides all of our children the opportunity to engage with an even broader spectrum of modern, classical, rap, pop, and country music. They will get the opportunity to compose, sing, perform and evaluate many areas of music whilst being exposed to several musical instruments that they can play.
Lenthall Music Learning Journey
Knowledge Organisers
Impact
Music at Lenthall Infant and Nursery School is assessed using the following.· Informal judgements by staff during lessons
· Immediate next steps provided via verbal feedback.
· Pupil and peer assessments.
· Formal skills and assessment checklists.
Come the end of each music unit, teachers make a summary judgement about the work each pupil has completed in relation to the success criteria. The music subject leader monitors progress and attainment on a termly basis through a triangulation of the data, evidence in books, and through children’s voice.
Our Ultimate End Goal:
What will our musicians be able to do when they leave us?
When our musicians leave us to move on to the next stage in their lives, we want them to feel confident that they have competent performing skills that will bring pleasure to others and to themselves, whether this be in a concert, or with Happy Birthday at a party or carols round the Christmas tree or on a railway station piano. We would like them to be able to express different emotions through their own compositions, that they have the compositional skills and knowledge to be able to create music for different occasions and that they have something to say musically to the world. Lastly, we would like our musicians to be able to appreciate the music of all genres, to feel that they have knowledge of a wide variety of these different genres, and to have the confidence that they can give a competent comment on the musical content of different performances, whether live or recorded, that they might experience.
When you play, never mind who listens to you.
Schumann – Have Confidence in Yourself
