Music 

Intent 

Our curriculum is informed by, but not limited to the Charanga music scheme and the national curriculum for music and aims 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, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations. 

At Town Farm the intention is that pupils gain a firm understanding of what music is through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, analysing and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, cultures, and musical genres. Our objective is to ensure 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 a variety of different contexts. 

The curriculum is sequenced to ensure progression in skills and knowledge from the EYFS, following ‘Development Matters’ guidance until pupils leave us at the end of key stage 2; a repetition-based approach by over-learning the same musical concepts each year enables a more secure, deeper learning and mastery of musical skills. The curriculum is designed to build towards clear end points at the end of each unit and knowledge and skills for each year are mapped to ensure progression and continuity.  This ensures that pupils develop their musical skills systematically, building their knowledge of music from one year to the next. 

Implementation 

The music curriculum ensures students sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. These components are embedded in classroom activities, alongside weekly singing assemblies, concerts and performances. The elements of music are taught in classroom lessons so that pupils are able to use the language of music to dissect and understand how it is made, played, appreciated and analysed.  

In the classroom and through the use of ICT, pupils learn how to compose, focussing on different dimensions of music, which in turn feeds their understanding when listening to, playing, or analysing music. Composing or performing using body percussion and vocal sounds is also part of the curriculum, which develops the understanding of musical elements without the added complexity of an instrument.

The school has a number of links with external organisations, which offer specific expertise in music as part of the core offer.  This includes links with the Royal Opera House and workshops with outside agencies such as Rocksteady. Pupils are able to remotely access their classroom topic resources from home using YUMU. 

Impact 

Whilst in school, pupils have access to a varied programme which allows them to discover areas of strength, as well as those they might like to improve. It also develops such abilities such as achievement, self-confidence, self-reflection and interaction with and awareness of others. The clear end points in the music curriculum enable pupils to develop an understanding of culture and history as well as giving all pupils the opportunity to have learnt and performed five pieces of music over each academic year. This culminates in a reflect and review unit at the end of the academic year. Pupils can enjoy music as listener, creator or performer. They can dissect music and comprehend its parts. They can sing and feel a pulse. They have an understanding of how to further develop skills less known to them, should they ever develop an interest in their lives.