At St Patrick’s, we believe that Music is a unique way of communicating which can inspire and motivate children. It is a vehicle for personal expression and it can play an important part in personal development. Music reflects the culture of the society in which we live, and so the teaching and learning of music can enhance children’s understanding of the world in which we live. Music plays an important part in helping children feel part of our wider community as well as part of our Church community; we include music in much of our worship. Our curriculum aims to provide opportunities for all children to hear, enjoy, sing, play, create and perform and enjoy music.
Music overview of the units
National Curriculum for Music
Music Development Plan
Music Curriculum Statement
Intent
Music Curriculum is taught at St Patrick’s through Charanga Musical School, which 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. Within Music and through the use of Charanga Musical School, over time, the children can both develop new musical skills and concepts, and re-visit established musical skills and concepts as they shift along the spiral learning curve. In order for pupils to gain conceptual understanding of their musical learning and to provide evidence of this, repetition-based approach and a more secure, deeper teaching and learning assessment system is implemented.
Implementation
As musicians, we want our children to develop:
- A musical understanding underpinned by high levels of aural perception, internalisation and knowledge of music, including high or rapidly developing levels of technical expertise.
- Very good awareness and appreciation of different musical traditions and genres.
- The ability to give precise written and verbal explanations, using musical terminology effectively, accurately and appropriately.
- A passion for and commitment to a diverse range of musical activities.
Across the year, each year group covers 6 units of work which allow the pupils to explore different genres of music. Each unit of work comprises of strands of musical learning which correspond with the national Curriculum for music.
Impact
The assessment framework used within Charanga follows a ‘Plan, Do, Check, Review’ sequence which is devised to support and equip specialist and non-specialist music teachers in their delivery of the music scheme. Through an online ‘Workspace’, teachers are able to upload digital evidence from each strand of learning. These recordings can be saved and used for assessment purposes for the teacher and pupils to see and comment upon. Making regular recordings assists with tracking pupil progression.