Orchard Park Community Primary School

Music

Intent

At Orchard Park Community Primary School, children gain a firm understanding of what music is through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, analysing, and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions, and musical genres, all through specialist teaching provision.

Our pupils develop a passion and curiosity for the subject, through active participation children a variety of musical experiences. We are committed to ensuring children understand the value and importance of music and are able to use their musical skills, knowledge, and experiences to involve themselves in music, in a variety of different contexts such as choir’s, ensembles and productions.

Orchard Park pupils are able to sing with confidence and are taught to listen and appreciate, compose, perform and notate through a sequence of lessons that encompass all of these elements. We ensure every child will have the opportunity to learn a range of instruments across KS2, to inspire them to become musicians of the future 

Implementation

The music curriculum ensures students sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. This is embedded in weekly singing assemblies, various concerts and performances, the learning of instruments, and the joining of one of our musical ensembles. The elements of music are taught in the classroom lessons so that children are able to use some of the language of music to dissect it, and understand how it is made, played, appreciated and analysed. In the classroom pupils learn how to play an instrument, from all four main instrument groups of wind, strings, percussion and keyboards. In doing so, they understand the different principle of each method of creating notes, as well as how to read basic music notation. They also learn how to compose focussing on different dimensions of music, which in turn feeds their understanding when listening, 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.

Impact

Whilst in school, children have access to a varied programme, which allows pupils to discover areas of strength, as well as areas they might like to improve upon. The integral nature of music and the learner creates an enormously rich palette from which a pupil may access fundamental abilities such as: achievement, self-confidence, interaction with and awareness of others, and self-reflection. Music will also develop an understanding of culture and history, both in relation to individuality, 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 have an understanding of how to further develop skills less known to them, should they ever develop an interest in their lives