Intent:

At Corpus Christi, we want to develop our pupils love of music and knowledge of what music is through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, analysing, and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions, and musical genres.

Our curriculum has been developed to ensure we fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for Music and to ensure that all pupils:

• Perform, listen to, review and evaluate music
• Be taught to sing, create and compose music
• Understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated.

We provide a stimulating, engaging and challenging curriculum; ensuring the progressive development of musical concepts, vocabulary, knowledge and skills. Furthermore, we aim to inspire in pupils a love of music, whether that be listening to music or performing,that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.

We intend to provide all pupils regardless of ethnic origin, gender, class, aptitude or disability with a broad and balanced Music curriculum.

We are committed to ensuring that our pupils understand the value and importance of music in the wider community, and are able to use their musical skills, knowledge, and experiences to involve themselves in music, in a variety of different contexts.

We want music to inspire self-confidence in our children and creativity by encouraging them to perform for others and work with others to compose original music. Pupils are encouraged to express their thoughts and feelings about a wide variety of musical styles and respectfully acknowledge differences of opinion and the gifts and talents of the composer.

We aim to show that music can be a lifelong skill that requires commitment and practice and the joy it can bring to the performer and an audience. Music can support children with their mental wellbeing and opportunities to explore this is part of the music curriculum.

In Music, we aim to support our learning and develop interests through our ‘Curriculum Drivers’. These drivers are used to underpin the direction and development of our curriculum and to ensure that Music is enriched and personalised in order to meet the needs, interests and ambitions of our pupils and families. We want our pupils to:

Communicate – acquire and use the rich vocabulary they will learn as they progress through the school and to be able to communicate musical information in a variety of ways.

Opportunity – music will give children the opportunity to perform and grow in confidence. They will research careers within the scope of Music and build their understanding of the many ways they can continue to perform and compose as amateurs or professional musicians in the future.

Responsibility – music can support a ‘healthy lifestyle’ and improve mental well-being. Children will learn how music is used in dance and fitness to improve enjoyment and engagement. They will also be aware of music used for meditation and how this can help them to feel calm and to manage their own worries and anxieties.

Perseverance –understand the importance of continuing to try and not give up. Proficiency in music is only achieved with regular practice and children will be encouraged to persevere in their own interests. They will learn from the examples of musicians and composers who have shown resilience and perseverance in their field of work.

Understanding –  gain knowledge that will be built upon in each year group and enable pupils to know more about all aspects of music.

Service – music plays an important part in the community and is a positive way to give joy to others. Corpus Christi will take part in community events and use concerts as a way to raise funds for charities. Children will also have an understanding of the importance of music in Masses and collective worship and that singing is a way to praise God.

Implementation:

At Corpus Christi, Music is taught weekly following a medium term plan. The curriculum ensures pupils sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. Classroom music is taught using the online scheme ‘Charanga’ as a foundation, but enhanced to ensure that the learning is able to support our wider curriculum thematically.

In the classroom students learn about the sounds that instruments make, from all four main instrument groups of wind, strings, percussion and keyboards. In doing so, they become familiar with the method of creating notes, as well as how to read basic music notation.

They also learn how to improvise and compose, focussing on different dimensions of music, which in turn feeds their understanding when listening, playing, or analysing music.

Early Years

Music is essential in the Early Years and can be seen daily because it allows children to investigate sound and supports their phonics/ reading development. During the early stages of a child’s development, tuning into sounds and noticing what is the same and different about them helps to determine their world. It is easy as adults to hear a sound and know what it is. For example, a car outside or the birds tweeting. For children, this can be much more difficult therefore listening to and creating music helps them to understand loud, quiet, soft, fast, slow sounds and supports them in understanding their world.

Continuous Provision: Music resources are always available for the children to access. Instruments are accessible for children during exploration times in the day and children are also encouraged to make their own instruments using our craft resources. The interactive whiteboard is always available for children to ask for music to dance or sing to.

In Early years pupils should be able to:

• play instruments with increasing control
• sing a range of songs including familiar nursery rhymes

Impact

Through the teaching of music pupils will demonstrate improvements in:

• achievement
• self-confidence
• interaction with, and awareness of others
• self-reflection

Music will also develop an understanding of culture and history, both in relation to students individually, as well as ethnicities from across the world.

Children are able to enjoy music, in as many ways as they choose- either as listener, creator or performer:

• They can dissect music and comprehend its parts
• They can sing and feel a pulse
• They enjoy the feeling of togetherness created by singing together
• They have an understanding of how to further develop skills less known to them, should they ever develop an interest in their lives.
• They are aware of how music can be an integral part of other school themes, such as mindfulness, growth mind-set and British values
• The enhanced positivity that music can promote may be seen in other subjects in the wider curriculum.

Please click on the links below to find out more about our Music planning.

Documents

Please view the additional documents in school:

• Music Knowledge and Skills Progression
• Music Vocabulary Progression
• Music Unit Markers