Music

Through our music curriculum we engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and to develop their own musical knowledge and ability to increase their self-esteem, creativity and confidence. 

Our curriculum ensures that music plays a fundamental role in the life of our school and that children gain a love for music and to grow in knowledge and appreciation of music through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, analysing and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions and musical genres. Each child is to be given the opportunity to learn or have an experience of playing a range of musical instruments no matter of their age, ability or background. In addition, all children will be able to sing as part of whole school singing or the school choir. 

Furthermore, children will have an opportunity to express themselves creativity through composition and improvisation (either instrumentally or vocally) to enable them to have a sense of pride and achievement. 

Our music curriculum, which is based on National Curriculum, aims that all pupils will have the following opportunities:

  • 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.

The curriculum content is sequenced to build learning over time- the content is planned and sequenced so that knowledge and skills build on prior learning and towards clearly defined end points; curriculum content supports subsequent learning: within lessons, lesson sequences, topics, years and phases curriculum ; planning identifies small enough component steps; and known gaps in knowledge and skills are addressed in the sequencing of lesson content.  Our curriculum is carefully designed in to 1 year cycle for Years 1 – 4 and a 2 year cycle for Years 5 and 6.

 

  • In Year 1, there are two exploring sounds units, two beat units, one pitch unit and one performance unit. During these units, they will be introduced to the interrelated dimensions of music. Specifically, pitch, dynamics, tempo, structure and notation. In Year 1 the children are concentrating on graphic notation and they start to look at note names.
  • In Year 2, there are two exploring sounds units, two beat units, one pitch unit and one performance unit. During these units, they will continue to build on their learning and application of the interrelated dimensions of music which they started in Year 1. Specifically they will learn about, pitch, duration, tempo, structure and notation. In Year 2, the children are concentrating on graphic notation and they continue to use note names.
  • In Year 3, there are six units and they focus on composition, beat, pitch, structure, exploring sounds and performance. During these units, they will continue to build on their learning and application of the interrelated dimensions of music from KS1. Specifically, they will focus on pitch, structure, texture and notation. In Year 3, the children will continue to use note names and are introduced to staff notation.
  • In Year 4, the children are learning a brass instrument. This is delivered by a specialised music teacher. The units focus on connecting sound to notation, developing ensemble skills, texture, pentatonic scales, understanding chords and performance.
  • In UKS2, there are six units and they focus on composition, beat, structure, interrelated dimensions of music and performance. During these units, they will continue to build on their learning and application of all eight parts of the interrelated dimensions of music. In Years 5 and 6, the children will continue to use graphic notation, note names and staff notation.
  • A weekly retrieval lesson has now been included in the school timetable from KS1 to UKS2. This allows the children to recall knowledge and definitions of vocabulary from previous years and Key Stages

Long Term Planning

Preschool

Autumn 1

Autumn 2

Spring 1

Spring 2

Summer 1

Summer 2

Songs and rhymes:

Musical Bear

Learn to sing the song and select music makers to create quiet sounds to accompany.

 

Stormy Sky Dance

Respond to music with body movements.

Create hand music to accompany music thinking about the loud and quiet sounds  

Songs and rhymes:

Jingles bells

When Santa got suck up the chimney (Makaton) Chubby Little Snowman

 

Shake up!

 Respond to the song using shakers to the beat.

 

Little Mousie Brown

explore high and low notes using a xylophone

 

Songs and rhymes:

Kong Hei Fatt Choi

 

Please Mr Noah

Learn and perform song exploring high and low animal noises.

 

The dragon Moves

explore the sounds of metallic instruments.

 

Explore moving to the sound of the music.

 

Songs and rhymes:

Hot Cross Buns

Spring Chicken

Five Fluffy Chickens (224)

Foxy (227)

 

Cake for Tea

Investigate the sounds that different cooking materials can make – e.g. tapping, scraping, whisking. Perform the song accompanied by cooking instrument sounds.

 

What can you play

Explore the different sounds that instruments make (include a range of instruments from other cultures.)

Songs and rhymes: 

I have a little Little Spider (p268)

Wriggly Worm (231)

 

 

Busy bees

Create own sound makers to accompany the song – busy bee sounds.

 

The Bat and the cat

children to sing repeated lines.

Songs and rhymes: 

Little Arabella Miller (269)

) An elephant goes like this and that (279)

 

Can you copy me?

Explore the tapping sounds different wrappers and packaging can make

 

Farmyard Scene

Create sounds to represent a farmyard using range of instruments.

Reception

Autumn 1

Autumn 2

Spring 1

Spring 2

Summer 1

Summer 2

A Sky Full Of Colour (Music Express)

When Snowflakes Fall (Music Express)

Busy City (Music Express)

Our Growing World (Music Express)

Who Shall I Be Today? (Music Express)

Amazing African Animals (Music Express)

Year 1 

Autumn 1

Autumn 2

Spring 1

Spring 2

Summer 1

Summer 2

Ourselves (Y1)

Exploring sounds

Unit 1

 

 

Machines Y1

Beat

Unit 5

 

 

Water Y1

Pitch

Unit 12

 

 

Our school Y1

Exploring sounds

Unit 7

 

 

Pattern Y1

Beat

Unit 8

 

 

Travel Y1

Performance

Unit 11

 

 

 

Year 2 

Autumn 1

Autumn 2

Spring 1

Spring 2

Summer 1

Summer 2

Ourselves Y2

Exploring sounds

Unit 1

 

NATIVITY PRACTICE

LEARN SONGS

Seasons

Pitch

Unit 8

Weather y2

Exploring sounds

Unit 9

 

Toys y2

Beat

Unit 2

Number

Beat

Unit 6

Year 3 

Autumn 1

Autumn 2

Spring 1

Spring 2

Summer 1

Summer 2

Time

Beat

Unit 6

Sounds

Exploring sounds

Unit 3

Human Body

Structure

Unit 9

In the past

Pitch

Unit 7

Environment

Composition

Unit 1

Food

(Performance)

Unit 12

Year 4 

Autumn 1

Autumn 2

Spring 1

Spring 2

Summer 1

Summer 2

Symbols and signs

Notation

Minimalism

Developing ensemble skills

Calypso Music

Texture

East Meets West

Pentatonic scales

In Harmony

Understanding chords and creating chord sequences

 

Compose it

Composition

Year 5/6 cycle 1

Autumn

Spring

Summer

Keeping healthy (Y5)

Beat

 

Growth (Y6)

Performance

 

Y6-LEARN THE Y6 PLAY SONGS

At the movies (Y5)

Composition

 

Year 5/6 cycle 2

Autumn

Spring

Summer

Solar system (Y5)

composition

 

World Unite (Y6)

Interrelated dimensions of music

 

 

Life cycles (Y5)

structure

Y6-LEARN THE Y6 PLAY SONGS

 

Key figures

Year

Composer

Songs

EYFS

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Horn Concerto No. 4

 

Year 1

Johann Sebastian Bach

Toccata and Fugue in D minor

Year 2

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

The Nutcracker – Waltz of the Flowers; Russian Dance

 

Year 3

Gustav Holst

 

‘Mars’ from ‘The Planets’

Year 4

Florence Price 

 

Symphony No. 1 in E Minor 

 

Year 5

Ludwig Van Beethoven

 

Symphony No. 5

Year 6

Anna Clyne

Night Ferry

 

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