‘We Care, We Share, We Value’

Music

What makes a good Music pupil at Holy Cross?

A passion for singing/performing and a willingness to try new things and musical techniques without the fear of making a mistake. An ability to discuss their ideas and be experimental with music making and recording.

 

Music at Holy Cross

Intent

A high quality music curriculum provides and encourages the opportunity for all children to have the skills required to be a musician in order to involve themselves in music.

It provides opportunity for children to discover an interest and talent in music, build confidence and nurture well-being and inspire a love and curiosity of music in all children that spans a range of genres, forms, traditions and cultures specifically including those that make up our school context.

It  allows children to critically engage with music, providing opportunities to compose, improvise and listen with discrimination to a range of musical forms and genres and understand that music is steeped in history and tradition, has evolved over time and is central to many people’s lives in a wider community.

In addition, it also widens children’s vocabulary both in terms of technical language but also descriptive language through their emotional responses to music.

Early Years Foundation Stage

As part of the Early Years Foundation Stage of the National Curriculum, we relate the musical aspects of the children’s work to the objectives set out in the Early Learning Goals (ELGs). 

Music contributes to a child's personal and social development. Counting songs foster a child's mathematical ability, and songs from different cultures increase a child's knowledge and understanding of the world.

 

Implementation

High quality teaching that is appropriately pitched to individuals.

Music is valued and included in daily practise such as worship times and daily classroom practise.

Children given opportunity develop a range of musical skills: compose, improvise, perform, listen, analyse and evaluate.

Enrichment opportunities such as festivals, choir and performances in and out of school.

Instrumental lessons in Year 3 as part of wider opportunities, and meeting the expectations of the National Curriculum.

Building cultural capital of all individuals through live performances and extra-curricular opportunities.

Follow a clearly sequenced and progressive program of study based on the National Curriculum objectives through the use of Charanga and St Helens Music Service.

All children use instruments (percussion/wind) as part of music lessons regularly alongside notation skills.

A music development plan is place in line with the National Plan for music.

Impact

Children discover new interests and talents.

Children confidently apply their musical knowledge to other areas of learning.

Pupils have widen vocabulary and use descriptive language in response to music.

Children have an understanding of culture and history in relation to music as well as how music for different ethnicities differs.

Prepared for the next stage of their musical learning.

Children enjoy music lessons and are confident to perform in front of others.

Demonstrate a love or appreciation of music and talk confidently about a range of musical genres and composers.

Children talk confidently about their learning in music using appropriate and technical vocabulary.

 

Music in the Early Years Foundation Stage

Children represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, art, music, dance, role-play and stories.

How do pupils learn?

Retrival Practise

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 and provided for class teachers so they can focus their time on subject knowledge and task design. 

Inclusion

Pupils with language and communication difficulties (including those with ASD) may need additional visual prompts to help them understand what is expected of them. Some pupils may require individual task boards to enable them to follow a series of steps where a task has been broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks. 

Some pupils may have a hearing impairment. Teachers should think carefully about how this impacts their ability to hear and produce sounds and consider how best to adapt the Music lessons to ensure these pupils can be successful. 

Some pupils may have a visual impairment. This may impact their ability to read and follow musical notation. Teachers should think carefully about how they can adapt these lessons, possibly including the use of technology, to ensure that these pupils can access the same high-quality curriculum experience.  

For some pupils who have specific challenges around processing, some of the lessons may require adaptation to ensure that all pupils can participate fully in the lesson. This may mean reducing the number of instructions or steps in a task, introducing the use of a reader for lessons with a reading element (including lyrics), or any other adaptations specific to the pupils in your class. 

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