South Petherton C of E Infants and Pre-School

Subject: Music

‘There is music in every child. The teacher’s job is to find it and nurture it’.  Frances Clark

School Intent

At South Petherton C of E VA Infants and Pre-School, it is out intent to provide our children with a fun and engaging music curriculum.  We want our children to develop a life-long love of music by exposing them to a diverse range of musical experiences; listening, responding and performing pieces of music from different eras, cultures and musical styles.  We want our children to develop a curiosity and understanding from a young age of the value and importance of music as well as developing a respect for different music genres.  We want our pupils to enjoy music as a subject and have fun whilst developing their musical knowledge, skills and techniques by singing, listening, playing and performing. 

Implementation

In our Pre-School and Reception Class

Music is a fundamental element of Early Learning.  Evidence and research states that ‘Music ignites all areas of child development and skills for school readiness, including intellectual, social-emotional, motor, language, and overall literacy. It helps the body and the mind work together. ... Dancing to music helps children build motor skills while allowing them to practice self-expression.’ Our Pre-School Practitioners have fun with music and dance during daily dedicate song time.  Children are able to select their favourite songs to sing, repetition and rhyme enable our children to develop their early reading skills.  In Reception, our Early Years Team have developed a long term curriculum plan which includes our Music Curricular Offer.  We cover all elements of the EYFS entitlement for Music.  In addition, we also follow the whole school Charanga scheme of Music to supplement and enhance our Music offer in Reception.  Due to the cross curricular nature of the EYFS curriculum, Music, Song and Rhyme are woven in to all aspects of the curriculum where appropriate. 

Pre-School and Reception Music and Musical Instruments

In provision and in our daily routines, we regularly listen to a range of different musical genres and instruments (classical, contemporary, cultural and traditional).  We have a range of musical instruments in our provision for children to explore,  we also plan for opportunities to use materials for making instruments (simple or sophisticated depending on age/ability), music makers (not regular instruments, e.g.: a bunch of keys, a saucepan, spoons), music making software using a computer or tablet, using bodies to make sounds (clapping, marching, tapping, stamping, clicking tongues), listening to sounds outdoors (rain, wind, birdsong, aircraft, fireworks, vehicles), developing sound effects for stories and songs, developing and inventing individual sounds and music.  We encourage children to record their ideas and compositions using audio equipment or movie makers. These can be used for themselves, for play or for an audience.

Pre-School and Reception Songs and Rhymes

We regularly listen to a range of different songs, rhymes, voices, choral music, (including classical, contemporary, cultural and traditional) through books, film, performance and experiences, exploring different ways to use voices (loud, soft, fast, slow, high, low, cross, happy, sad), action songs, round songs, clapping songs, we encourage children to sing while they play and to develop character voices for stories and role-play, encourage children to record ideas using technology.

National curriculum purpose of study: Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity.  A high-quality music education should 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.  As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon.

In Key Stage One Pupils should be taught to:

• use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
• play tuned and untuned instruments musically
• listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music
• experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the interrelated dimensions of music

Music is taught from EYFS and forms an important part of our school curriculum.  Our School curriculum is designed to encompass the following areas:  Listening and responding; exploring and creating, singing and sharing and performing, and improvising and composing. 

Children are either taught in weekly sessions or in blocked units of learning depending on the topic.  By adapting the Charanga Scheme to meet the needs and interests of the children at South Petherton C of E Infants and Pre-School we ensure that children are taught to use their voices, a mixture of tuned and un-tuned instruments as well as compose and perform musical pieces.  They learn to recall the melodic shapes, harmonic sequences and rhythmic patterns. 

In our daily Collective Worship, we listen to a range of music as we enter our Hall or Church and we learn songs together as a School Community.  We have a song of the week which we learn really well and enjoy singing together as part of our Spiritual experience. 

Impact

Children’s skills will be assessed and developed by the teacher during the lessons and through discussions at the end of each unit.  Children’s achievements will be celebrated through regular opportunities; for example, class performances, year group show cases, sharing assemblies and performances for the wider community.  Children will vocalise their enjoyment of Music.

Children at South Petherton C of E Infants will:

• Enjoy Music in ways they choose – as listeners, as performers, as singers or creators.
• Feel a sense of achievement in their creativity
• Build upon fundamental abilities such as self-confidence and self-refection
• Develop an understanding of different cultures as well as their interaction and awareness of others
• Sing, find pulse, follow rhythm and keep a melody in song