Brightwell cum Sotwell CofE Primary School

Music at Brightwell

"We are Musicians"

Curriculum Intent

At Brightwell cum Sotwell Primary School, our values are: friendship, tolerance, respect, kindness, ambition and resilience. These seven core values form the foundation of our music curriculum.

We want our children to feel a sense of community when they create music with their friends; we want them to be brave and take part in performances, and to approach challenges with determination. We want our children to set themselves high standards and to excel across the key strands of musicianship (performance, composition and listening) and to have a secure understanding of the inter-related dimensions of music by the time they reach Year 6. We want our children to see themselves represented in the music we study and to experience a diverse range of music from all around the world, born out of varied cultural experiences; we want our children to be respectful of music from other cultures and places. We want our children to be in awe of musicians and to feel inspired by the music they listen to and create. In all of this, we most importantly want our children to find a lifelong love of music.

It is our intent, that children will not only become performers, composers and listeners, but will develop a wide range of transferable skills that music learning is known to enhance – team-work, leadership, creative thinking, problem solving, decision making and presentation skills. From this, not only will our children develop as musicians, but as well-rounded individuals who have a toolkit of skills from their life beyond Brightwell cum Sotwell Primary School.

Skills

The aims of our Music curriculum are to develop pupils who:

Can sing and use their voices individually and in a group
Create and compose music on their own and with others
Use technology appropriately when composing
Have opportunities to learn a musical instrument
Understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated
Listen to, review and evaluate the work of great composers and musicians from a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions
Enjoy and have an appreciation of a range of different musical styles e.g. Classical, Jazz, Rock, Hip Hop, Pop etc.
Use and understand musical language and include musical features in their own work
Make judgements about the quality of music
Have opportunities to play a wide variety of instruments
Have different opportunities to take part in performances

Curriculum Implementation

As a school, we are dedicated to the teaching and delivery of a high-quality Music curriculum. To do this, we have decided to use units from the Charanga Scheme of Work, all of which have been informed by the Model Music Curriculum. This forms a holistic approach in which the individual strands of music (performing, listening, composing, history and the inter-related dimensions of music) are interwoven together throughout each unit of work to create an engaging and enriching musical learning experience. Reception, Year1 and Year2 are working together to deliver Nativity production. In Years 3 thought the year they are learning how to play violin and will be delivered by a music specialist. Year 5 and 6 are creating a musical production at the end of the school year. We follow a ‘spiral’ curriculum model, which means that previous skills and knowledge are constantly returned to and built upon. Lessons will incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, to paired and group work, as well as improvisation opportunities and teacher-led performances. Lessons are hands-on and practical, incorporating movement, dance and of course playing musical instruments!

To expand of children’s musical knowledge we offer the extra curriculum lessons such as violin and piano lessons run by music specialist through the year. As well as providing discrete music lessons across year groups, singing assemblies will also take place once a week to bring our children together in song as a community and our most able musicians are encouraged to perform to their peers in order to celebrate the talent we have across our school, and inspire others to take up music lessons.

Curriculum Impact

The impact of our music curriculum can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities – rehearsals and performances are frequently recorded and progress will be evident. As part of the Charanga units, assessment quizzes and knowledge catchers will be used at the end of a unit to measure children’s progress.

It is our hope that through the intent and implementation of our Music curriculum, that our children leave our school confident performers, composers and listeners, meeting the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National Curriculum. However, music also goes beyond this: we expect that the children’s active participation in music across the school will help their wellbeing, promote listening and develop concentration. It is our hope that music is loved by pupils across the school, and that this the knowledge and skills they gain with us at All Saints, will enable them to succeed at secondary school, and appreciate music throughout their lives.

You can read Brightwell's Music Development Plan 2024-25 HERE