Music
At Croxby Primary School we are Musicians!
Intent
At Croxby Primary School we are MUSICIANS!
We want our children to love music. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be music producers, songwriters, composers or rockstars!
Our vision, at Croxby, is to give children access to an engaging and fun music curriculum reflecting the world they live in, but at the same time giving them access to musical styles throughout history. This curriculum supports children of all ages in discovering their identity and finding their place in the world. With each unit centred around an age-appropriate Social Question and Musical Spotlight, children are encouraged to think deeply about the world, their communities, and their relationships with others.
Children are able to listen and appraise a variety of musical styles alongside performing pieces and creating their own compositions through the use of technology. To achieve this, all children access a variety of musical games, songs and instruments, giving them practical hands-on experience.
A singing culture will be established and nurtured within the school. Children and adults in school will be encouraged to sing whenever appropriate to aid well-being and health as well as musical outcomes.
Implementation
At Croxby we have implemented Charanga’s English Model Music Curriculum Scheme which is aligned with the National Curriculum for Music and the non-statutory Model Music Curriculum.
The foundation of Croxby's music education rests on the belief that it should be enjoyable and captivating for all involved, recognising that every child possesses innate musical abilities. Throughout the academic year, each year group will concentrate on enhancing their skills in singing, playing various instruments, and expanding their knowledge of music. Students will progressively advance their musical abilities and understanding, gaining expertise in playing and evaluating a diverse array of musical genres.
The Charanga curriculum follows a spiral approach to musical learning, with children revisiting, building and extending their knowledge and skills incrementally. In this manner, their learning is consolidated and augmented, increasing musical confidence and enabling them to go further. Teachers can adapt their teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of the children they teach.
Within every unit for every year group, children will listen, sing, move, play instruments, improvise and/or compose, and perform a wide variety of songs in many styles. With a focus on teaching about the elements of music through songs, children will continue to develop their knowledge and skills related to these foundational building blocks of music.
Each weekly lesson will always involve the following activities:
1. Understanding Music
2. Listen and Respond
3. Learn to Sing the Song
4. Perform the Song
The curriculum incorporates notable musicians and compositions at various points, enriching the students' musical journey.
* Retrieval practise is planned into the curriculum through spaced learning and interleaving and as part of considered task design by the class teacher. Teaching and learning resources are provided for class teachers so they can focus their time on subject knowledge and task design.
*Explicit Vocabulary is purposefully sequenced into the CUSP curriculum to ensure Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary are explicitly taught along with the etymology and morphology, relevant idioms and colloquialisms to ensure learning sticks. We aim to provide a high challenge with low threat culture and put no ceiling on any child’s learning, instead providing the right scaffolding for each child for them to achieve.
*Misconceptions are explicitly revealed as non-examples and positioned against known and accurate content as pupils become more expert in their understanding.
Impact
The impact of this curriculum design will lead to outstanding progress over time across key stages relative to a child’s individual starting point and their progression of skills.
HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED?
- Questioning
- Pupil Study (talking about learning with the children)
- Talking to teachers
- Low stakes ‘Drop-in’ observations
- Quizzing and retrieval practise
- Live feedback
Children will therefore be expected to leave Croxby reaching at least age-related expectations for Music. This curriculum will also lead pupils to be enthusiastic musical learners.
What is my child learning?
Here is the music long-term overview
The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum supports children’s understanding of music when working within the early years area of ‘Being Imaginative and Expressive’. Through focusing on using voices, playing instruments, listening with concentration, experimenting with sounds and dancing using simple movement patterns, our 3 to 5 year olds are able to develop strong foundational skills when working musically.
We achieve this by encouraging our children to respond, evaluate and engage in discussions about what they have learnt through our singing, dancing and music sessions to then adapt in original ways, thinking about delivery and audiences. As part of our curriculum, we explore the work of artists through stories and have discussions where we evaluate how we can adapt, create, improvise and devise our own musical performances. Our foundation stage pupils are supported to represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through the choices that they make when selecting instruments to accompany their songs that have been inspired by artists they have come across in our stories.
Our experienced early years practitioners are able to skilfully question choices made to engage in musical conversations using questions such as, ‘Tell me about the melody in this song, how does it make you feel?’, ‘Where is it high/low/fast/slow?’, ‘Can you show me how to keep a steady beat to…’, ‘Listen to the music. What movement could we out to it and why?’, ‘I wonder what would happen if we played the … and the … together?’ and ‘ ‘Tell me, what did you think of that dance/performance/piece of music?’
