Laying the foundations of lifelong learning
What does Music look like at Highweek?
Our Music Curriculum
Intent
At Highweek, we offer an integrated, practical and child-led approach to musical teaching. Through our curriculum, children will gain a firm understanding of what music is through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, analysing, and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions, and musical genres. Curiously, we explore the work of famous composers and the characteristics of different genres of music to inspire us in our compositions. As performers, we develop perseverance to be the best we can be, developing children’s self-confidence, self-discipline and co-operation with others, through solo and ensemble performances.
Implementation
Our music curriculum ensures children have opportunities to sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate each term. This is embedded in the classroom activities, as well as in the weekly singing assemblies, various performances throughout the year and through the learning of instruments. Music is taught weekly by our music specialist teacher across all age groups.
A range of engaging and inspiring resources are used to support the teaching of music and promote a love of learning, including the Charanga Musical School scheme. The interrelated dimensions of music (pulse, rhythm, pitch, tempo, dynamics, timbre, texture, structure and notation) weave through each of the units taught. This encourages the development of musical skills as the learning progresses through listening and appraising, differing musical activities and performing and evaluating. Throughout their musical journey at Highweek, the children learn instruments such as the recorder, ukulele and djembe to build upon and develop their prior musical knowledge, as well as develop their ability to read basic musical notation. Composing or performing using body percussion and vocal sounds is also a key part of our curriculum, which develops children’s understanding of musical elements without the added complexity of an instrument.
Aural and appraising skills are also developed through listening attentively to a wide range of live and recorded music. Our ‘Musician of the Month’ provides an opportunity for children to experience music drawn from different traditions and great composers and musicians from the history of music. This is shared and discussed weekly during whole school assemblies and in class.
Highweek also offers instrumental tuition to children through small group and one to one tuition with visiting peripatetic teachers. We currently offer drum, guitar, piano and vocal tuition. We also offer a range of extra-curricular musical activities such as ukulele club and singing club, which take place during lunch times and after school. These provide opportunities to further develop the skills children are working on in class.
At Highweek, we also aim to provide lots of opportunities for children to perform and showcase the musical skills they have learnt through performances in assembly, Christmas performances, musical productions within school and performances within the local community.
Impact
The impact of using a spiral curriculum including on-screen resources, practical activities and games will be seen across the school. Children have a positive attitude towards music and demonstrate a sound understanding of performing together effectively, can listen actively, express opinions on music heard and create their own music for a variety of purposes. Children will be able to understand musical concepts and repeating these concepts through a range of musical genres enables a more secure, deeper learning and a mastery of musical skills. A range of genres of music, a variety of instruments and the use of peripatetic instrument tuition develops the cultural and personal development of our pupils. Over time, children will develop both new musical skills and concepts, and revisit established musical skills and concepts. The use of games embeds the interrelated dimensions of music. Singing is at the heart of all the musical learning and playing instruments (tuned and untuned) supports the journey of understanding musical notation. Through improvising and composing, the children can practise and apply their new musical skills, and performing provides opportunities for children to give feedback and assessment. Opportunities to perform outside of school, within our local community ensure our children understand its significance and place within the wider world and that these excite and inspire children’s thirst for knowledge and participation in this subject.
