Music
Music Development Plan
The Stanton Road Music Development Plan has been written to help to put music at the heart of our school. Our music development plan captures the music curricular and co-curricular offer and our aims for the future of music provision and opportunities at Stanton Road.
“Music can change the world.”
Ludwig van Beethoven
At Stanton Road, we ensure that every child has a meaningful interaction with musical activities. Our music curriculum engages pupils, creates opportunities for participation and inspires pupils to develop a love of music and develop their own talents as musicians individually and collectively. We provide opportunities for children to sing and develop skills playing instruments. We teach them to listen and appreciate different forms of music and provide them with the vocabulary to effectively participate in discussion based on their own opinion of different pieces of music. We encourage children to use their analytical skills in music lessons when learning about how music can represent feelings and emotions, critically engaging in the work of composers.
Throughout our Music curriculum, children build on and develop skills in the inter-related dimensions of music:
● Pitch ● Duration ● Dynamics ● Tempo ● Timbre ● Texture ● Structure ● Appropriate musical notation
There are 4 strands by which our Music curriculum is organised and through which the inter-related dimensions of music are studied. These strands are:
● Performing ● Listening ● Composing ● The history of music
We select music carefully in order to expose our children to music from a variety of cultures so that they can develop an appreciation for a variety of genres and musical styles and a deeper understanding of cultures and societies. They are given opportunities to reflect on the important effect that music has on people’s emotions, allowing them to compose, interpret and critically engage with music, contributing to their ‘musical understanding’.
Our music curriculum, builds on the Early Learning Goals of Expressive Arts and Design. In EYFS children sing songs, make music and dance. They experiment with how different objects and instruments make noises and are exposed to music from different musicians and cultures so that they can begin to talk about what they like or dislike.
In Key Stage One children:
recognise/ identify style indicators and different instruments used
find and internalise the pulse using movement
confidently use basic musical language to describe the music being listened to and explain their feelings towards it with reasons
listen, with respect, to other people’s ideas and feelings towards music they have listened to
In Key Stage Two children:
listen to live and recorded music from a range of composers and place music in its historical context
listen to music and learn songs from different eras and cultures
securely and confidently recognise and identify style indicators and instruments using their sounds
use the correct musical language confidently to describe the music they are listening to and their feelings towards it with reasons.
discuss ideas and opinions as a group.
discuss dimensions of music with explanations and examples.
confidently show understanding of the workings of an ensemble/ choir and how everything fits together
confidently follow the leader/ conductor and have a chance to be the leader/ conductor stopping and starting the group
develop improvisation skills using the voice and classroom instruments
suggest, follow and lead simple performance directions
confidently and successfully maintain an independent part in a small group
use and understand musical notation
In addition to timetabled lessons, individual music tuition is delivered by peripatetic teachers and we offer a lunchtime choir. Performances take place to develop the culture of collective achievement through singing and playing instruments to an audience to showcase the children’s learning in music. Educational trips and visits further supporting the curriculum and giving the children the opportunity to experience live music.
Through the explicit teaching of the music skills, both the teachers and the children assess their learning continuously throughout the lesson. At the end of the unit, children create a completed outcome to reflect on their knowledge and understanding. Our ongoing assessment enables teachers to make informed judgements about the depth of their learning and the progress made over time.
Curriculum Champions
The Music curriculum champion will conduct regular evaluations of our Music Curriculum, which include lesson drop ins, pupil panels and book looks to measure the impact of our teaching, by assessing whether our children know more and can remember more