INTENT

Our main aim is that children leave Middlemarch School with a wide range of happy and rich memories in Music, formed through interesting and exciting experiences, driven through vehicles that enhance a child’s awareness of their own abilities and strengths as a learner; thus ensuring that children see learning in music as an ongoing process not a one-off event.
 
Our high-quality music education will 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.
 
Children will meet the National Curriculum expectations in music, which will be taught by highly-qualified staff who will support children to develop skills which in turn will enable them to develop a deeper understanding of the subject.
 
All children will study music for at least 30 minutes per week.
 
All children be able to play an instrument and have some ability to read music – recorder or glockenspiel
Through singing songs, children learn about the structure and organisation of music
Children will develop self-confidence and teamwork skills through performance. They will have opportunities to sing as a class, in smaller groups and as a school community.

Children will have the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument.
Children will learn to read and write staff notation, increasing their understanding of rhythmic and melodic notation.
Children will listen to, review and evaluate a range of music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including contemporary music and the works of the great composers and musicians using subject specific vocabulary relating to the musical elements; instrumentation, metre, rhythm, pitch, dynamics, tempo, texture, structure and melody.  Where possible, children will use music technology to compose simple rhythms and melodies.
 

Opportunities exist for children of all ages to experience learning beyond the classroom. This will allow them to enrich their knowledge by, for example, attending performances by professional musicians and participating in school productions, concerts as well as the chance to take part in a 6000 strong choir during the Young Voices concert. Other opportunities might include visits to concerts, meeting musicians, professional musicians visiting schools to work with pupils, musicians from other schools sharing their expertise with staff and children and performing in events in the community such as singing Christmas Carols at Harmony House.
 

IMPLEMENTATION

Our music curriculum, delivered using Charanga, ensures students sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. This is embedded in the classroom activities as well as the weekly singing assemblies, various concerts and performances, and the learning of instruments. 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 students learn how to play an instrument- the glockenspiel in year 3 and the recorder in year 4. In doing so they understand the different principles 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.
 
During the Autumn term all children learn to sing the Young Voices songs as well as their songs for the Christmas Production. Then children can chose to travel to the Resort’s World Arena to participate in a choir of 6000 children during the Young Voices concert.  As a school we also put on a summer concert, Christmas concert, Chirstmas and Year 6 leavers productions and provide opportunities to perform in the community i.e. Carol singing at Harmony House.
 
The Charanga scheme of work is used from Year 3 - 6 to ensure a wide exposure to different genres of music, with lots of practical opportunities to explore and develop as musicians and singers. This is a spiral curriculum where all objectives are worked on in all year groups and units of work gradually increasing in difficulty as the children progress through the year groups.

IMPACT

Whilst in school, children have access to a varied programme, which allows students 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 student 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 students individually, 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.