Intent

At Trumps Green Infant School, we believe that music provides an important outlet for creativity. We aim to provide a high quality music education to engage and inspire pupils and develop a love of music and the arts.  We encourage children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which we aim to support the development of shared performance and the ability to understand the importance of a collaborative experience. Our teaching focuses on developing the children’s ability to sing in tune and with other people, recognise a variety of musical instruments and understand how the interrelated dimensions of music form the structure and layers of a musical piece. We teach children to listen to and appraise different forms of music, learning to recognise style indicators that help us identify the genre we are listening to.

Implementation

Music is taught through the Charanga scheme provided by Surrey Arts Interactive. This provides a clear progression from EYFS through to the end of KS1 with opportunities to listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions.

Each lesson builds on the previous with a consistent structure.

• Listen and Appraise (begin to recognise the basic style indicator).
• Musical Activities (vocal warm ups, warm up games).
• Learn the song or piece.
• Perform.

In early years, children are provided with experiences which enable them to be a part of the musical ethos of the school, coming together and singing as one community during school performances and collective worship. There are also daily opportunities to sing within class lessons and exploration of musical instruments within continuous provision.

In KS1 children are taught how to use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs during collective worship and as festival and celebration performance pieces to parents and each other. There are regular opportunities to explore and play tuned and un-tuned instruments musically with the purpose of performance. KS1 children are taught how to describe music, using a wide range of musical vocabulary to accurately appraise a rich variety of genres. 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.

Impact

Children are able to enjoy music, in as many ways as they choose- either as listener, creator or performer. They can listen with a critical ear, appraise music and comprehend its parts. They can sing and feel a pulse and by the end of KS1, understand some of the interrelated dimensions of music such as pulse, pitch and rhythm. They are able to understand the structure of musical pieces, a variety of genres and instruments and the purpose of performance.