Intent

• Music is an important part of life within the South Hams Federation.
• We encourage music through a range of activities and opportunities; including singing assemblies, music lessons, whole class ensemble, school choir, individual music tuition, group ensembles and composer of the month.
• All of the children are encouraged and given the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument, from standard classroom instruments to individual lessons with peripatetic staff.
• Develop cultural capital through learning about at a range of composers from the past and present.
• Develop an understanding and acceptance of the validity and importance of all types of music, and an unbiased respect for the role that music may wish to be expressed in any person’s life.

Implementation

• The music curriculum ensures children sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate.
• Through Charanga, teachers are able to produce inclusive lessons for all children to access the musical curriculum in a fun and engaging way.
• By using Charanga as the base of our music teaching we can ensure that the aims of the National Curriculum for music are fulfilled.
• Charanga covers and includes many musical skills including; pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, structure and music notation.
• Charanga lessons are planned in sequences to provide children with the opportunities to review, remember, deepen and apply their understanding.
• Throughout Charanga children are involved in using and developing their singing voices, body percussion, learning to handle and play classroom instruments effectively to create and express their own and others’ music.
• The elements of music are taught in 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.
• Through this range of activities children have the opportunity to explore sounds, listen actively, compose and perform.
• As music is a primarily practical subject, much of the assessment used is formative through observations in lessons and throughout topics.
• The learning challenges used, to plan and teach music, ensure that children are accessing work at age related expectations, with regular opportunities to be challenged through higher-level objectives.
• Children are assessed according to age related expectations in line with curriculum requirements. This information is recorded and monitored by the co-ordinator.

Impact

• Children understand what it is like to be a ‘musician’.
• Children make good or better progress from their starting points.
• Every child achieves as a musician.
• Children given opportunities to play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts.
• Children given opportunities to improvise and compose music for a range of purposes.
• All children experience playing a range of classroom instruments.
• Music enables children to develop an understanding of culture and history, both in relation to children individually, as well as ethnicities from across the world.