St Anne's Catholic Primary School

The music curriculum is designed by the music teachers, curriculum co-ordinator, management team and governors to allow pupils to transfer key knowledge to their long-term memory. Music is taught by a specialist music teacher, with a focus on specific instruments in Year 3. Music is concerned with the creative, aesthetic and emotional response to rhythmic combinations of sounds. Music education has two strands; creation and evaluation. The creative involves children using a variety of instruments for composing, improving and performing. The evaluative element enables pupils to develop skills in listening to and appraising their own work and that of other musicians and composers and to understand the value and significance of music in society. By teaching both strands, it ensures breadth, balance, continuity and progression. This results in building new skills and knowledge based upon what has been taught before, allowing all pupils to work towards clearly defined end points.

We develop children’s experiences and understanding of music through encompassing memorable learning opportunities for example, school productions (Christmas productions and Year 6 leavers plays), performances in assemblies, musicians in to teach music and singing at a variety of community events. The school provides a coherently planned curriculum, sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge, skills and cultural capital through informative teaching and learning activities and enhancement experiences.

We therefore intend that all pupils will:

• Enjoy music and develop a positive attitude to the importance and place of music within the curriculum.
• Understand the way their feelings work and that it is a means of self-expression.
• Participate in a range of situations, have the opportunities to develop their work and skills individually, in a group, as a class and as a school.
• Through a variety of musical activities develop skills on a personal level and also have the opportunity to work co-operatively.
• Develop their own tastes and opinions.
• Develop a feel for patterns, concentration and language development.
• Have the opportunity to reach their full potential by acquiring and using the skills they develop throughout their school life.
• Focus, build-upon and learn key vocabulary to develop understanding of concepts and musical knowledge.
• Build in memorable experiences to promote deep learning.