'There is music in every child. The teacher's job is to find it and nurture it.'
Frances Clark (Pianist - 1905-1998)
Our Vision for Music
At St Matthew’s Primary school, our school vision is to encourage all children to flourish spiritually, morally, emotionally, physically and intellectually in all aspects of life demonstrating perseverance and resilience; this is emulated across all curriculum areas.
Intent
We intend for the children at St Matthew’s to experience music as a powerful and unique form of communication, that can change the way they feel, think and act. We see music is a spiritual subject, which enables all pupils to gain a greater sense of their own spirituality, bringing together intellect and feeling enabling self-expression, personal reflection and emotional development as well as being a fun and practical subject.
As an integral part of culture, past and present, music helps children to understand themselves and to relate to others. Learning music has the power to increase self-discipline, creativity and fulfilment.
At St Matthew’s, we aim for pupils to:
- Develop a love of music and increase their talents as singers, instrumentalists, composers and performers.
- Develop a critical engagement with music by introducing them to a broad range of musical styles and genres and teach them how to listen carefully and be able to evaluate what they have heard.
- 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.
- Develop understanding of the different dimensions of music (beat, rhythm, tempo, etc.), pupils.
- Create and compose music, both on their own and with others
- To acquire and accurately use a range of musical terms and use this effectively to describe, evaluate and discuss musical concepts applying their knowledge of language.
- To sing and use their voices to create different effects.
- Take part in performances with an awareness of audience.
Implementation
As a whole school we utilise the Sing Up Scheme where key learning is regularly repeated, building on children’s prior knowledge and allowing for consolidation as well as challenge.
Sing Up, written by music subject specialists, provides the foundation for the delivery of a creative programme of high-quality classroom music activity. Sing Up’s music curriculum is a progressive scheme written for Nursery through to Year 6. The scheme meets the requirements of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (Expressive Arts), the National Curriculum for Music and suggested approaches of the Model Music Curriculum. (Singing, Listening, Composing, Performance/Instrumental Performance).
Class teachers deliver whole class music lessons weekly for 1 hour, making use of the Sing Up Scheme to teach a range of musical concepts, techniques and vocabulary. Sing Up units last for either 3 weeks or six weeks.
Six-week units focus on:
- Combining singing and playing
- Listening and appraising
- Improvising and composing
Three-week units focus on:
- Composing and improvising
- Listening and appraising
Music within school is supported by the Music Partnership. Specialist music teachers from the music partnership support teachers across school to deliver whole class music lessons and whole class specialist music lessons where children learn to play an instrument. Over the course of a child’s time at St Matthew’s they are provided with the opportunity to learn to play the glockenspiel, the recorder, the ukulele and the guitar.
Children are also given opportunities to perform with others at festivals and celebrations of music such as our yearly attendance at Young Voices in Birmingham, The Recorder Festival in Stoke / Telford and The Telford Schools celebration of song involving many local Primary and Secondary School Choirs.
Our weekly singing assemblies and Collective Worship also ensure all pupils participate and feel a whole range of feelings and emotions through song, gaining a greater sense of their own spirituality.
Impact
Our music curriculum is planned to demonstrate progression and build on and embed musical skills and knowledge. If children are achieving the knowledge and skills in lessons, taken from the Music Partnership Progression of Knowledge and Skills grid, then they are deemed to be making good or better progress.
The impact and measure of this, is that the children at St Matthew’s enjoy expressing themselves creatively through music and develop a greater confidence to perform through sharing their love of music with others.
We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- Pupil discussions and interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
- Governor monitoring with our subject music link governor.
- Annual reporting and tracking of standards across the curriculum.
- Photo and video evidence of the pupils practical learning.
- Use of the assessment tools provided within the Sing Up scheme.
- Dedicated music leader time.
Through becoming equipped with the musical skills and knowledge they gain from accessing a variety of musical instruments and listening and appreciating different musical styles, the children at St Matthew’s will be more successful when they move on to Key Stage 3.
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| Curriculum Intent, Implementation and Impact Statements | Music Topic Overview | Progression of Knowledge and Skills |
Music in School
Year 3 and Year 3/4 Recorder Lessons
Every week Faye from the music service delivers whole class recorder lessons for our Yr3 and our Yr3/4 classes.
During the lessons the children are learning about the physical features of a recorder, learning the correct names and terminology linked to the physical instrument and are also learning how to play different notes. Over the course of two terms the children will learn how to play a range of songs using the notes they have learnt
Year 5/6 and Year 6 Guitar Lessons
Every week Brandon from the music service delivers whole class guitar lessons for our Yr5/6 and our Yr6 classes.
During the lessons the children are learning about the physical features of a guitar, learning the correct names and terminology linked to the physical instrument and are also learning how to play different chords. Over the course of two terms the children will learn how to play a range of songs using the chords they have learnt.
Celebration concert 2019
The last few years we have had an incredibly talented school band named 'Starsome' made up of Year 5 and 6 pupils who had exceptional talents for composition, vocals and performance. The band was made up of vocalist, drums, keyboard and guitar . They regularly composed their own music, some of the tracks you will hear below.
We were also fortunate to have been invited to perform one of our original songs along with Beyonce's Running at a Secondary Concert at Ercall Wood Academy , Telford, where we stunned the audience with our performance below.
St Matthew's Primary band stunning performance at Ercall Wood secondary school
The highlight of the year was entering 'Telford's Got Talent' , getting through to the final which we were so very proud of and gaining some excellent comments from the judges! We will really miss our band, however we are more than sure we will hear of them doing great things in the future. Just before they left us we awarded them with the 'Inspiring the next generation' award for everything they've achieved at St. Matthew's and for giving others the belief that anyone can achieve their dreams.
2019 Highlights
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