Intent

Music is a practical and creative expression of ideas, thoughts and feelings. Music provides opportunities to promote children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. It contributes greatly to the general ethos of the school.

At St Clare’s, our intent is to enable children:

• To perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians

• To learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence

• To understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

 Implementation

The music curriculum ensures children sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. This is embedded in the classroom activities as well as singing assemblies, various concerts and performances and the learning of instruments.  Playing various instruments enables children to use a range of methods to create notes, as well as how to read basic music notation. They also learn how to compose, focusing on different dimensions of music, which in turn feeds their understanding when listening, playing, or analysing music. Composing or performing using body percussion and vocal sounds is also part of the curriculum, which develops the understanding of musical elements without the added complexity of an instrument.

Impact

Through Music, we endeavour to

  • develop the whole person
  • challenge, create and collaborate
  • develop creativity and imagination through a range of complex activities
  • improve the children’s ability to control materials, tools, instruments and techniques
  • increase their critical awareness of the Arts in different times and cultures
  • develop increasing confidence in the Arts
  • foster an enjoyment and appreciation of the Arts and a knowledge of artists
  • develop a range of subject-specific skills, such as understanding how music is made through a variety of interrelated dimensions and that it can be composed and written down

Key Subject Documents