Music

‘The language of music is common to all generations and nations; it is understood by everybody, since it is understood with the heart.’ Gioacchino Rossini

INTENT         

What do we teach? Why do we teach it?

 We believe in providing an engaging and stimulating curriculum. Children are encouraged to listen to and explore a broad range of music, based on many traditions and forms of music. The school employs a dedicated music specialist teacher who teaches weekly lessons to all classes. Children are given a range of opportunities to create, improvise, compose and perform with a focus on music-making. As well as class-based music lessons, Key Stage Two children are encouraged to take up an instrument provided by inspirational music tutors from Hackney Music Service. Over 100 young musicians enjoy subsidised instrumental music lessons. These include recorder, woodwind, brass, guitar and ukulele. Children also participate in performances in school and borough-wide events, featuring our instrumentalists, mixed ensemble, choirs and individual performers. In recognition of this consistent level of excellence, Sir Thomas Abney Primary are winners of the Mayor of Hackney Award for Excellence in Music Education and the individual award for Excellence in Music.

At Sir Thomas Abney Primary, we believe in giving every child the widest possible range of opportunities to achieve their full potential in music. We aim to give them the skills and knowledge necessary to achieve competence and control in:

• Singing;
• Using instruments;
• Distinguishing the inter-related musical dimensions using instruments;
• Listening and responding.

The Early Years Foundation Stage and National Curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:

-hear and listen to a range of music and instruments;

-vocalise and sing songs; including call and response songs;

-move and dance whilst playing and listening to music;

-explore and play different games and create music to accompany stories.

Key Stage 1
- 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.
Key Stage 2
- play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression;
- improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music;
- listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory;
- use and understand staff and other musical notations;
- appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians;
- develop an understanding of the history of music.

In music lessons at Sir Thomas Abney, we give all children the opportunity to:

• listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, cultures, styles and traditions;
• make judgements and express personal preferences about the quality and style of music;
• sing and use their voices to create different effects;
• create and compose music, both individually and in groups / ensembles;
• use musical language to communicate their musical ideas;
• take part in performances with an awareness of audience;
• develop their social skills, particularly expressing their feelings, through music making.

IMPLEMENTATION

How do we teach and assess and how does this look in practice?

Music teaching at STA delivers the requirements of the National Curriculum through a mix of the Charanga programme, the music teacher’s own schemes of work and LSO schools' concerts. Key knowledge and skills for each year group are mapped to deliver progression throughout children’s time at the school. We believe that children can build on previous knowledge and get constant exposure to music-making – they learn by doing! The music curriculum is broken down into half-termly units with an on-going musical learning focus that helps to increase the development of pupils’ musicianship. In most lessons, an emphasis is placed on musical elements, enabling children to talk about pieces of music using the correct musical language. Lessons usually include singing, listening, playing, performing, composing and improvising. This ensures that children better understand when they are listening to, playing or analysing music. Children have access to a broad range of untuned and tuned percussion in the music room and, if learning an instrument, are encouraged to bring it to the whole class music lessons. Pupils have the opportunity to join the school choir and to participate in the annual Hackney Music Festivals at the Round Chapel. The school choir is open to all children on a weekly basis and focuses on singing in unison, developing harmony, solo performances and having fun! We also have regular performances at the school winter and summer fairs. In the last few years, we have performed at the local Woodberry Down carol concerts.

For more details, please also see: Music National Curriculum 

IMPACT

By the time our children leave our school:

Our music curriculum is planned to demonstrate progression and build on and embed current skills. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills in the different musical components and teaching of vocabulary also forms part of the units of work. We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods: pupil discussions and asking the pupils about their learning; photo and video evidence of the pupils’ practical learning; summative and formative termly assessment; revise and replan in lessons and subsequent lessons to reflect what pupils need to develop; dedicated specialist music teacher time.

The impact of our music curriculum is also measured in the uptake of our music extra-curricular clubs and uptake of additional peripatetic teaching. Regular performances at school and the school’s involvement in local musical events, including the annual music festival, ensure that children are developing as confident performers. They also provide further means to showcase the impact of the school’s high-quality music provision. We have external confirmation of the high-quality work we do: from achieving “Excellence in Music Education Practice” and individual awards from the Mayor’s Music Awards: the London Music Fund scholarship for a trumpeter; being asked to host graduate students from the Guildhall in music lessons to give practical advice in the classroom; and strong involvement with the LSO: a unique experience for just our pupils, singing with the LSO conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.