St Margaret Clitherow Catholic Primary School
We act with love, build our faith and grow as people
Music
SMC Music Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement
Intent
At SMC we aim to, first and foremost, help children to feel that they are musical, and to develop a life-long love of music. We focus on developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that children need in order to become confident performers, composers, and listeners. Our curriculum introduces children to music from all around the world and across generations, teaching children to respect and appreciate the music of all traditions and communities.
Children will develop the musical skills of singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising and composing music, and listening and responding to music. They will develop an understanding of the history and cultural context of the music that they listen to and learn how music can be written down. Through music, our curriculum helps children develop transferable skills such as team-working, leadership, creative thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and presentation and performance sills. These skills are vital to children’s development as learners and have a wider application in their general lives outside and beyond school.
The Music scheme of work enables pupils to meet the end of key stage attainment targets outlined in the National Curriculum and the aims of the scheme align with those in the National Curriculum.
The Music scheme of work also covers all aspects of the Model Music Curriculum which was published by the Department for Education in March 2021.
Implementation
Our Music scheme (Kapow) takes a holistic approach to music, in which the individual strands below are woven together to create engaging and enriching learning experiences:
- Performing
- Listening
- Composing
- The history of music
- The inter-related dimensions of music
Each five-lesson unit combines these strands within a cross-curricular topic designed to capture pupils’ imagination and encourage them to explore music enthusiastically. Over the course of the scheme, children will be taught how to sing fluently and expressively, and play tuned and untuned instruments accurately and with control. They will learn to recognise and name the interrelated dimensions of music – pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics – and use these expressively in their own improvisations and compositions.
The Kapow Primary scheme follows the spiral curriculum model where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon. Children progress in terms of tackling more complex tasks and doing more simple tasks better, as well as developing understanding and knowledge of the history of music, staff, and other musical notations, as well as the interrelated dimensions of music and more.
In each lesson, pupils will actively participate in musical activities drawn from a range of styles and traditions, developing their musical skills and their understanding of how music works. Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work as well as improvisation and teacher-led performances. Lessons are ‘hands-on’ and incorporate movement and dance elements, as well as making cross-curricular links with other areas of learning.
Differentiated support is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils in building a foundation of factual knowledge by encouraging recall of key facts and vocabulary.
Following the Model Music Curriculum guidance (DfE 2021), Kapow Primary includes an Instrumental scheme to meet the suggestion that children in Year 3 and 4 should be offered a whole-class instrumental teaching programme.
Music is taught in weekly, 45-minute lessons. Additional music is offered through the weekly, half-hour whole-school singing worship sessions which aligns our music provision to the faith values of our school.
Music lessons are also offered to all pupils from year 2 upwards and current uptake includes recorder, violin and piano lessons. In addition, we have a strong heritage of participation in the Berkshire Schools’ Christmas Carol Concert and the Bracknell Church of St Joseph and St Margaret Clitherow Carol Concert.
Impact
The impact of Kapow Primary’s scheme is constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each lesson includes opportunities for assessment and at the end of each unit there is often a performance element where teachers can make a summative assessment of pupils’ learning. Assessment quizzes and knowledge catchers are also used at the start/ end of a unit to measure pupil progress.
It is our aim that after the implementation of the Kapow Primary scheme of work, pupils should leave primary school equipped with a range of skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education and to be able to enjoy and appreciate music throughout their lives.
The expected impact of the music scheme of work is that children will:
- Be confident performers, composers and listeners and will be able to express themselves musically at and beyond school.
- Show an appreciate and respect for a wide range of musical styles from around the world and will understand how music is influenced by the wider cultural, social and historical contexts in which it is developed.
- Understand the ways in which music can be written down to support performing and composing activities.
- Demonstrate and articulate an enthusiasm for music and be able to identify their own personal music preferences.
- Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Music.
Long-term Plan for Music
