Music Subject Lead – Mrs Kildare
Saints Peter and Paul Music Policy 2020
Music is the universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high-quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement.
In Saints Peter and Paul, we are aspiring musicians. Our curriculum promotes curiosity and a thirst for learning. It is ambitious and we want our children to have high aspirations.
We encourage our pupils to be successful and to build resilience. We want our pupils to: learn from other cultures, respect diversity, co-operate with one another and to appreciate what they have.
Implementation:
At Saints Peter and Paul, we use the Charanga Music scheme; this provides our teachers with week-by-week lessons for each year group from ages 5-11.
The scheme provides lesson plans, clear progression, ideas for assessment and engaging resources for each lesson. The scheme is based on: Listening and Appraising; Musical Activities – creating and exploring; Singing and Performing. The Charanga scheme is carefully crafted to ensure progression and repitition in terms of embedding learning, knowledge and skills.
Within Key Stage One, pupils should be taught to:
- use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
- play tuned and untuned instruments musically
- listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music
- experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.
Within Key Stage 2:
Pupils should be taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They should develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory.
Pupils should be taught to:
- play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression
- improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music
- listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
- use and understand staff and other musical notations
- appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians
- develop an understanding of the history of music
Impact:
We measure the impact of our teaching through half-termly whole class assessment. Assessment information is compiled by the class teacher and this is then shared with the Music co-ordinator. This assessment information is then analysed and submitted to the Headteacher at the end of each term. This information is submitted as part of a termly subject report which shows the strengths and weaknesses in each year group.
At the end of the school year, a detailed report is submitted to the Headteacher. This document breaks down achievements from each year group into the following groups: gender, free school meals/non free school means, special needs/non special needs. This data enables staff to identify pupils who require further support or pupils who are making exceptional progress. This information is used to provide SLT and the Governing Body with an accurate understanding of the quality of Music education with school.
Music is also part of the school monitoring cycle; this enables staff to know when more focused monitoring will be taking place. This will include: lesson observations and/or learning walks, pupil voice, staff voice and photographic evidence.