Music

We value music highly at Stapleford Community Primary, and all children are taught music across the School. The curriculum consists of composing and performing, listening and appraising music.  We are very well stocked with musical instruments and have a large number of children being taught lessons across the week, in addition to two school choirs.  

We use Kapow to support our music teaching. 

Intent

The intention of our music scheme is first and foremost to 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 skills. These skills are vital to children’s development as learners and have a wider application in their general lives outside and beyond school.

Implementation

Kapow Primary’s Music scheme takes a holistic approach to music, in which the individual strands below are woven together to create engaging and enriching learning experiences:
● Listening and evaluating
● Creating sound
● Notation
● Improvising and composing
● Performing

Each unit of work 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, demonstrate 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, 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 guidance 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.

Strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to be able to deliver a highly effective and robust music
curriculum. Each unit of lessons includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support ongoing CPD, aiding teachers in their own acquisition of musical skills and knowledge. Further CPD opportunities can also be found via webinars with our music subject specialists.

Other opportunities for music in the school is a two school choirs, KS1 and KS2, a band, musician of the month and numerous opportunities for performing. An example of this was our school choir performing at The Royal Albert Hall in July 2024.

Impact

The impact of our music curriculum alongside the further opportunities of music offered to our children can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities.

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 following 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 appreciation 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 various 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
musical preferences.
✓ Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Music.