Music

Music at KINS

'Music is the universal language of mankind.'

Curriculum Intent

At Killamarsh Infant and Nursery School, it is our intent that we make music an enjoyable learning experience. We encourage children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which we aim to build up the confidence of all children. Our teaching focuses on developing the children’s ability to understand rhythm and follow a beat. Through singing songs, children learn about the structure and organisation of music. We teach them to listen and to appreciate different forms of music. Children develop descriptive language skills in music lessons when learning about how music can represent different feelings, emotions and narratives. We also teach technical vocabulary such as volume, pitch, beat and rhythm and encourage children to discuss music using these terms

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.

Curriculum Implementation

Our pupils will learn that music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. They will be inspired and engaged by music education. Music lesson will engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and develop their talent as musicians, and in turn 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.

The Music Express scheme of work is used from Reception to Year 2 to ensure a wide exposure to different genres of music, with lots of practical opportunities to explore and develop as musicians and singers. Opportunities are taken to perform in class, in whole assemblies and also to parents and the wider community. We will continue to follow our new and updated scheme of music express, with added units where children are taught to play the tuned instruments. We will also continue to use the 'Sing Up' programme currently running in school.

Aims:

The national curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:

- 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.

- 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.

- 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.

Key Stage 1 National Curriculum Attainment:

Pupils should be able 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 inter-related dimensions of music.

The 2014 New Curriculum saw a few changes for music. The main changes to be noted are:

Each child will have the opportunity to learn to play a tuned instrument
A greater emphasis is placed on the teaching and learning of music, including studying famous composers from historical periods.

Curriculum Impact

Music assessment is ongoing to inform teachers with their planning, lesson activities and differentiation. Summative assessment is completed at the end of each unit to inform leaders of the improvements or skills that still need to be embedded.